2008 Woodie Awards
Comedian entertains students while poking fun at himself
By Caleb Pardick
Rocket Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 11/11/05 Section: Entertainment
|
But somehow, stand-up (well, technically he's sitting) comic Chris Fonseca, like any great comic, has used the noticeably un-funny elements of his own life to make a successful comic career.
About 225 students entered the University Union's Multi-Purpose Room Wednesday night unsure of what exactly they were about to see. What followed was more than an hour of Fonseca's commentary, jokes and random thoughts the students seemed to eat right up.
Fonseca, 41, who was born with cerebral palsy, a nervous system disorder that leaves the affected unable to completely master basic motor skills and often causes speech to be slurred, took the stage at about 8:15 p.m. Fonseca, originally scheduled to take the stage at 8 p.m., said his party got lost on the way to SRU because of "the monsoon going on out there."
And for the next hour, Fonseca delighted the crowd with a routine that kept nothing off limits-including his own disability.
"Well, I'm Mexican and handicapped," Fonseca said. "If only I was a woman. Then I could have basically any job in the government I wanted."
If students were unsure of whether to laugh or feel a sort of sympathy for Fonseca at first, he removed all doubt immediately when his microphone tilted down slightly before he began talking.
"This microphone needs Viagra," Fonseca said.
It was a quip that seemed to loosen up the somewhat tense crowd.
Fonseca went on, holding the microphone stand in between his legs for much of the night, the vast majority of his jokes centered around cerebral palsy and aspects of his daily life he has found to be amusing.
"I know people think I'm hard to understand," Fonseca said. "I feel like my life is a bad cell phone commercial. I really hate going to Wal-Mart in my wheelchair, too, because people always think I work there."
Another notable event that took place during Fonseca's routine occurred when two female students walked in at about 8:45 p.m., causing Fonseca to ask them, "Where the hell were you?"
"We were just hanging out," one of the two girls replied.
"And you guys didn't invite me?" Fonseca asked before throwing his head back in laughter at his own comedy, something he did a handful of times throughout the night.
