2004 College graduate Vanessa Bayer — former Bloomer and current Saturday Night Live cast member — said the only way she could become a distinguished alum was through comedy.
“It’s not like I could do it with my smarts or because I climbed the corporate ladder,” she joked.
Wednesday night, students filled Harrison Auditorium for “SPEC Does Comedy,” a night of standup and improv featuring Bayer, fellow SNL cast member Kate McKinnon and Comedy Central’s Nick Vatterott.
Vatterott opened the show with some quips about technology and social media.
“The Bible is now available on Kindle,” he said, “the way it was meant to be.”
Vatterott joked that he would love to go to a mountain with a Kindle in each hand and proclaim, “God gave me these two tablets and said ‘download these Ten Commandments, forward them to everyone in your contacts and like me on Facebook.’”
Vatterott then introduced McKinnon, who was welcomed warmly by the audience. McKinnon said it was her first time at Penn and commented on the “beautiful campus.”
“I was strolling the grounds — I felt like a medieval scholar,” she said. McKinnon had the audience roaring with laughter when she showed a Powerpoint presentation on her titles for senior theses, including “All For One and One For Shawl: Urban Neckwear and the Rise of the Elite.”
McKinnon also told the audience that in college, she was a “stud” and that her nickname was “Goes to Indian buffets by herself.”
Vatterott then reappeared to introduce Bayer, which drove the audience wild. Bayer came out on stage and shouted, “Where my Bloomers at?” as a clustered section of the audience cheered in response.
Bayer spoke occasionally of her past experience at Penn. She treated the audience to her many spot-on impressions, including her take on Miley Cyrus. She explained that only sometimes does she get recognized on the street, and people usually refer to her as “Miley” because they do not know her name.
Bayer also impersonated Monica and Rachel of the comedy sitcom “Friends.”
Admittedly horrible at telling dating and sex jokes, she also did an impression of herself telling sex jokes — an incredibly awkward attempt that had the audience laughing hysterically.
To close the show, Bayer and McKinnon pulled a freshman couple out of the audience and incorporated them into their improv skit. Pretending to be moms, Bayer and McKinnon flooded the couple with questions about how they met and their living situation.
After one of them answered that he lived in Hill College House, Bayer said that was the worst housing arrangement on campus.
This was a point of contention for College freshman and Gregory College House resident Kriya Patel. “I did not appreciate Vanessa Bayer saying that Hill is the worst place to live on campus when it is clearly Gregory. How dare she take that away from me!” she joked.
The laughter hardly stopped throughout the show.
“It was really cool to see Kate and Vanessa doing improv and standup since that was how they were first discovered,” College freshman Nate Stauffer said. “It was also a phenomenal end to a month of terrific events hosted by the SPEC subcommittees.”
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