Comedian Jon Stewart performed a set at the Ryan Center as the flagship draw of this year’s family weekend at the University of Rhode Island on Saturday.
This weekend’s marquee event was headlined by “The Daily Show” host and Tevin Williams, a comedian who goes by the stage name “Mandal,” opened the event.
Both comedians began their sets by commenting on the state of Rhode Island, with Williams saying that this was his first time in the state.
Stewart congratulated the URI football team on its 38-17 win against Bryant University, which he referred to as “Bryan University” for the rest of his set.
As part of family weekend, many parents of URI students took this opportunity to see Stewart with their student.
Peter Siegel drove from Vermont to attend this event with his first-year son, who he was seeing for the first time since drop-off.
“We watch ‘The Daily Show’ pretty regularly,” Siegel said. “We love Jon Stewart.”
It wasn’t only families of current students that attended the show. Stewart made several passing references to the average age of the audience.
Jeffery Schwartz ‘67 and Glen Prezlp ‘67 both graduated from the university together and were fraternity brothers and rowing teammates.
“We came here from California,” Schwartz said, “It’s surreal to be back here.”
Schwartz and Prezlp are big fans of Stewart, and said that they have been following his shows ever since he started, Schwartz and Prezlp said.
“We think the same way he does,” Prezlp said. “We’re very politically minded, and I think it’s healthy with all of the stress and depression of what’s going on in our nation to be able to laugh at it.”
Jan Dibsick 76’ a URI alum also came to the Ryan Center to see Stewart on Saturday.
“Oh I loved the show,” Dibsick said. “I love Jon Stewart.”
Groups of students were sprinkled throughout the crowd. Political science and communication double major Cam Hudson ‘27 got tickets to the event immediately and convinced a group of some friends to attend the event with him.
“Me and my friends have seen Jon Stewart a lot, and we find him pretty funny, but we also find him to be a good guy too with his work with 9/11 victims and testifying in Congress,” Hudson said. “We find that noble.”
David Walter, father of a URI student, flew from California to Rhode Island with his wife to come for the family weekend. As a fan of Stewart, he was impressed with his political comedy.
“I was glad that he played both sides fairly,” Walter said. “He wasn’t just anti-Trump and pro-left. He made fun of everybody and that’s what I was hoping to get from it.”
The show was a phone-free event, with audience members being asked to place their devices in a Yondr pouch. These pouches were kept on everyone’s person during the event but were sealed until the show’s conclusion.
“It would have been easy to circumvent it if you wanted to do so; I don’t really know what they were going for with that,” Walter said.
The URI Student Entertainment Committee organized and advertised Saturday’s event. Walter was impressed with the selection of shows for family weekend.
“I would say coming from L.A., it’s less about doing things you wouldn’t take away with you and more about having shared experiences,” Walter said. “so in that regard, having something like a comedy night – I thought was a really good idea.”
For more information about upcoming entertainment events on campus, visit theryancenter.com
