By: Brandon Gillet
What better way to ring in the new year and quell the winter blues than laughing your face off at The Observatory.
Algonquin students were filling seats on Jan. 16, while sharing laughs, drinks, and good times in front of a dark backdrop- and a single chair on stage.
Comedians Dylan Gott and John Hastings lit up the crowd with their raunchy, but student- oriented acts. Headliner Hastings, in fact, loves performing at Algonquin.
“Most colleges make us censor our acts,” said Hastings, “here is better.”
The material touched on controversial topics with an array of profanity, but like most stand-up, this approach gained the best response from the audience. From sex, drugs and drinking, to stereotypes and living Canadian, the performers held nothing back.
The highlight of the show was when Hastings worked a few talkative female students into his act.
Hastings paused near the end to address the talking students with a simple, “Hey! Shut the f*** up,” causing an uproar of laughter among the crowd.
Unfortunately, a bitter response followed from one of the talkative students, but Hastings effortlessly side-stepped an argument with some improvised material. When the students in question once again became talkative, Hastings snuck up beside them and took their poutine right from their hands.
“You will get it back once you behave,” Hastings said. The two students then attempted to rush to the stage and retrieve their snack. The hilarious moment ended with Hastings passing their poutine through the crowd.
Performer Dylan Gott put on an exceptional performance as well, discussing subjects like stereotypes and embarrassing experiences. He spoke of his girlfriend being a Twilight fan which incited booing amongst the crowd.
After the crowd quieted down, a female student let out an enthusiastic, “Woo!” at which point Gott responded with, “check out that girl, she’s like, ‘screw it, I got cats!’” The audience burst out in laughter.
Among them was culinary student Derek Prince, 21, who commented on the simpler parts of the show.
“I most enjoyed when John (Hastings) started a joke, only to hold the punch line until the end of his act,” said Prince. “I forgot which made it much funnier.”
The funny men capped it all off by signing autographs with crude drawings on first generation wrestling action figures while cracking some extra jokes for the students who stayed back.
The performers enjoyed their experience with Algonquin very much, citing it as one of their more memorable shows.
Hastings described performing at Algonquin College as, “crazy and a lot of fun.” Gott agreed, saying, “It was fun, they were a great crowd.”
Despite the single student lash back, Hastings recalled, “I’m happy that I was able to make two hot girls chase a poutine around the room.”
The performers offered some advice to up-and-coming comedians. They agree that you simply need to get out there and keep telling jokes any way that you can. Hastings added, “If you like comedy, do it, it’s not scary. And if all else fails, steal poutine.”