Students and families attending this year’s Family Weekend festivities were able to watch a successful showing of the University of Rhode Island’s football team on Saturday afternoon.
Later that night, they were treated to another splendid performance, this time by acclaimed comedian Seth Meyers at the Ryan Center starting at 8 p.m.
Meyers, formerly the head writer of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and co-anchor of its ‘Weekend Update’ segment, currently helms the station’s late-night TV option, “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” a position he has held for nine years.
The event was organized and run by URI’s Student Entertainment Committee, and marks the second consecutive year that a comedian has headlined the Family Weekend festivities. According to Lessis Silverio, Public Relations Coordinator in SEC, this decision was made because of its wide audience appeal.
“We felt like [Meyers] would cater well to a wide age range of people,” Silverio said. “He’s a comedian that’s been known in the industry for a while and we wanted someone that we knew would do well with our audience, so we picked him for that reason.”
During the show, Meyers bounced around a couple of main topics, such as life during the COVID pandemic, differences between wedding and funeral etiquette, the time he was asked to sing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’ at Wrigley Field, and how dads are praised for bringing their children to a restaurant.
Meyers also referenced the recently-ended writer’s strike, which affected late-night TV shows across all networks for the length of its tenure.
“The strike lasted four months, and somehow there were three indictments,” Meyers joked, referring to the ongoing legal troubles of former President Donald Trump, whose actions are frequently lampooned on Meyers’ show.
While some forms of amusement are good for engaging certain audiences, comedy, in the opinion of Jaimee Deslauriers, Special Events President of SEC, is a universal form of entertainment.
“I feel like everyone could enjoy comedy even if it’s not like everyone’s forte,” Deslauriers said. “It’s more like a Q&A is better with smaller audiences because it’s more intimate with the audience and more people can ask questions that they want answered.”
This marks the second straight year where the SEC has opted for a comedian to headline their Family Weekend calendar, with former finalist of “America’s Got Talent” Tom Cotter performing a show last Fall. The comedy trend continued into this school year as well, with YouTuber Noel Miller performing a show in Edwards Auditorium to cap off the University’s “O-Week” program.
The trend of comedians is for a reason: because their acts are able to engage everyone in their audience.
“I feel like on family weekend we want to sort of adapt the show to everyone that’s there so that they all feel included,” Deslauriers said. “So comedy is a way of having everyone there to enjoy their night.”
The Ryan Center will also host entertainment for the upcoming Alumni Homecoming weekend, as rappers NLE Choppa and Sexyy Red bring their acts to Kingston on Oct. 14th, with tickets for students and the general public on sale now.