Friday, the 26th of September, Student Activities put on one of the first Friday Night Live Cove events of the Fall Semester. The performance was a comedy show, headlined by Patrick Riley, a Californian comedian with almost ten years of comedy experience around the country. Patrick has opened for comedians like Bobby Lee, Willie Bárcena and Jesus Sepúlveda.
Patrick’s set felt lively despite the small crowd. His crowd work drew some embarrassed laughter from Cove visitors he’d put on the spot, and some slightly awkward attempts at matchmaking between students. “How many of you guys are on the Hinge? I sound like an old man saying it that way. This school’s too small for that; all your matches are people in this room. How do you make eye contact with anyone?”
When he wasn’t joking at students for their doomed situationships, Patrick told stories about growing up in a mixed-culture household, his misadventures raising a seven-year-old and the abysmal service at the make-believe restaurants she brings him to, as well as poking some fun at members of the crowd for their college habits and small-school awkwardness.
Patrick’s ability to draw even begrudging laughs out of the crowd was impressive, given the size of the crowd. Not many people came to the performance, a few seats and tables still sat empty. Outside of the usual people at the Cove working on their laptops, only a few dozen people stopped by to hear the show.
Aside from talking about Patrick’s set, chatter in the Cove afterwards seemed to ask why the event was so small. Some students wondered whether the small crowd size was due to lack of advertising, or if other students just had different things to do on their Friday night. Despite this, the hard work the student workers put into arranging the event paid off well.
When asked about ideas for future University Programming Council events, student worker Rylee Morris ‘28 mused about the potential Friday night events have and dreamt about the size university events could strive for. “I’d like for us to do less events but on a bigger scale,” Rylee said, “We’d be able to put on more fun, quality events.”If you’re interested in staying in the loop about future student events on campus, be sure to visit @sustuact on Instagram, or get access to Student Activities’ upcoming events calendar.