Comedian and actor Hannibal Buress was welcomed by a packed house at Edwards Auditorium Nov. 3, as he brought his “Hannibal Montanabal Experience” tour to The University of Rhode Island.
The show opened with music by DJ Tony Trimm, who blasted current hip-hop tracks and remixes for the audience. Over the course of his set, Trimm played a random collection of videos timed to the music on the big projector screen on stage. These random videos included clips from 1980s cult-classic “Over the Top,” professional wrestling videos, monkeys riding on dogs like horses, Paula Deen eating butter and of course, clips from the show “Hannah Montana,” from which the tour takes its name inspiration.
Opening comedian Al Jackson was next to take the stage. The one time Rhode Island resident warmed up the crowd for Buress by opening up about his personal life. He told stories about his family, reminiscing about the time his 15 year-old nephew stole his iPad to watch porn. He talked about how his nephew didn’t warn him of what he did, and when Jackson went to use his iPad on a plane, the porn was still on the screen. He described the embarrassing moment, talking about how he tried to shield the screen from the women next to him. Jackson had the crowd in tears with his story, before continuing on to talk about his experiences as a teacher dealing with unmotivated students.
Buress took the stage to raucous applause and cheers. He began the set with jokes about how he feels he’s at the age where he is ready to have a baby, but likes the idea of buying someone else’s. After asking the audience if there was anyone in the audience pregnant, Buress had a back and forth with two audience members on the balcony who were expecting a child. The back and forth went on, until Buress ultimately offered a price for the baby before breaking in laughter himself.
“No deal probably, and I get it,” Buress said. “It’s a weird situation to sell your baby. But if they would have took off, I would have honored it. I would have bought their baby for $30,000. Not $30,000 cash at once, I would have put 20 percent down. Six-thousand dollars and I would have financed the rest of that baby.”
Buress went on to address the presidential race, mocking both candidates, and even Bernie Sanders, who Buress joked was the only person who was in the race for the paycheck. Buress poked fun fairly extensively at both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
“Trump, he should be ineligible to run for president,” Buress said. “You shouldn’t be able to run for president if you were the subject of a Comedy Central Roast five years ago.”
Buress continued on, shifting his attention towards Hillary Clinton.
“Here’s the thing though, I don’t like Hillary Clinton either,” Buress continued, “she has the same vibe as a crouton.”
Buress, best known for his stand-up comedy and his roles on shows such as “The Eric Andre Show” and “Broad City,” shows a much different sense of humor in this stand-up than in different projects. His conversational, strange and relatable sense of humor had the audience at his disposal the entire time. He ventured into darker topics such as death, and the lack of flare that you find at funerals. Buress, assisted by DJ Tony Trimm on the sample pad, showed videos Buress said he wanted at his funeral to make the experience better. The videos featured Buress waving and assuring the viewers he was dead, and doing things he “couldn’t do anymore, since he was dead.”