“DePaul University lands Nick Swardson for Performance”
Louis McGill
In the afterglow of the comedy routine of the opening act, Nick Swardson comes onstage. The cheers of the crowd fill the air of the Merle Reskin Theatre. The crowd knows that they’re in for a night filled with tales of gay robots, monkeys, booze, and poop jokes, and are ready and waiting for Swardson’s particular brand of humor.
But long before he set foot on the stage, a group of dedicated people was working hard to get him there.
On Wednesday the 20th, the comedian, known for his Comedy Central special and a number of television and film appearances including “Reno 911”, “Grandma’s Boy”, and “The Benchwarmers” came to perform for an audience of DePaul University students. The event, organized by the DePaul Activity Board’s comedy committee, took a lot of time and energy to successfully put on. DAB traditionally presents one large comedy show a year, with a few smaller performances peppering the academic calendar.
The process starts from the first day of Fall quarter, according to DAB comedy coordinator Bryan McMahon. First, he says, “There's venue research and booking (that always comes first) and then you can start looking for talent.”
The talent search consists of meeting with the rest of the DAB Comedy Committee. “I take a poll from my committee; we discuss our favorite choices and start looking into different acts from there.” The budget of the committee, which is not discussed outside of DAB meetings, helps to dictate what act they are able to book. Once they know the range they have to work with, it becomes a matter of contacting agents and agencies to see what their top choices cost and if there are any scheduling conflicts.
An offer is made to the talent agency that represents the performer, and once they accept and contracts get sent out, the Comedy Committee starts planning the logistics of the event. This includes tickets, programs, marketing, and equipment such as lights and microphones. “From there”, says McMahon, “it’s just making a list of things to accomplish and making sure all the loose ends are tied up by show night.” This includes making sure the staff members are in their places, knowing when and how the talent is arriving, and having a timeline for the show prepared.
Early on in the process, Swardson was chosen by the Comedy Committee in one of their brainstorming meetings. After looking into several comedians, “Nick Swardson was a popular candidate and he had the availability and price range we were looking for, so we just went for it.”
According to McMahon, Swardson was not a very hard performer to book. “The agents I spoke withto get the ball rolling were both very helpful from the very beginning. There's definitely still a process to it and thingsdon't happen overnight, but both he and his agents seemed very open and willing to put on a show for DePaul.”
The committee’s choice was shown to be right as the comedian performed to the crowd filling almost all
1,325 seats of the 98 year-old theatre. Swardson kept the air filled with laughter. “It was a good combination of
old and new material,” says self-professed fan Caroline Selvig. “The crowd reacted really well, I think the majority
of people really enjoyed the show and thought it was really funny.” Ryan Sabin, a psychology major at DePaul,
says that Swardson “definitely came prepared with new laughs. It was a good time.”
CCP Nick Swardson
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Multimedia:
Pictures
Swardson performance from Comedy Central Presents
Sources:
Brian McMahon
bmcmaho6@students.depaul.edu
773.325.7446
Ryan Sabin
847.691.5672
Caroline Selvig
cselvig@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment