Penn and Temple face up in stand-up comedy competition

The gloves came off between Penn and Temple University last night in a college stand-up comedy competition.

A few minutes after 8 p.m., RooftopComedy - a company that records, produces and distributes live comedy performances - presented comedian David James to host their second annual college tour at Helium Comedy Club.

"Didn't you pick on them enough in high school?" James, the Philadelphia native, asked the Temple students in the audience immediately. A full house roared.

"Well, at least there's one of you guys," he responded to sparse enthusiasm from Penn audience members.

James went on to briefly poke fun at the Amish before introducing the real comedy. "Give it up for Zack Bell!" he urged.

For the next two hours, nothing was sacred.

Bell, a College freshman,, started the night off with a rant about how amusement parks these days are wrongly named.

"I'm so amused right now!" he tried to picture a park guest saying.

The second comedian, Temple student Stephen Sudia, made a single joke about the ease of buying drugs in Philadelphia, but demographic profiling didn't begin until College senior Naima Pearce. She poked fun at sorority girls, white people and anyone who used the phrase "I'm Irish today," to justify heavy drinking.

Some of the comedians stuttered, and Pearce herself was cut short by a sudden burst of "Ice, Ice Baby," from the loudspeaker, but the audience was sympathic overall. College freshman David Agyekum was a crowd favorite.

"Have you ever eaten a banana so big you thought you might be gay?" he asked in a perfect dead-pan the moment he arrived on-stage.

As Agyekum demonstrated, "dicks" were another favorite topic of the night. However, the comedians also made cracks at Lil Wayne, Puerto Ricans, disabled people, Jews, Penn students and Africans.

"In Africa, it's always thirsty Thursday!" Temple student Matt D'Avella noted to laughter from the crowd.

Temple student Greg Forster managed to offend both amputees and Mexicans. He said he knew a guy who'd had both legs removed but wanted to become a stand-up comedian. "I told him you can't do stand-up: You're Mexican," he said.

From Penn's lineup, the crowd selected Agyekum, Rabinowitz, Bell and College junior Marisa Riley, who are all members of the comedy group Simply Chaos, to move forward in the national competition. Representing Temple will be Rudy Mezzy, Nathan Jaiyeola, D'Avella and Aaron Miller.

"Yes, I am single," Miller made sure to note after the performance.

*This article was updated by Lara Seligman at 4:23 p.m. on March 25, 2009, to reflect that Greg Forster, not Josh Rabinowitz, made the comments in the third paragraph from the end.

* This article was updated by Lara Seligman at 5:59 p.m. on March 25, 2009 to reflect that David James, not David Scott, hosted the show

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