By Bianca Strzelczyk
Wearing a white and blue plaid button-down shirt, bright red corduroy pants and his signature black, plastic-rimmed glasses, Mo Rocca was greeted by applause when he entered the Curry Student Center Ballroom last night, courtesy of the Council for University Programs (CUP).
“I am so excited to be at Northeastern,” Rocca said with his typical, unenthused disposition.
Poland Spring water bottle in hand, Rocca began his act, which lasted over an hour, by discussing his theories about the outcome of this past election. He used Powerpoint, which he referred to as being “really hot right now,” to project pictures on the screen of former Democratic candidates.
He said he believed the election had something to do with families. Asking the audience to put aside their political views, he asked which daughters were hotter: Kerry’s or Bush’s.
“With all respect, Bush’s daughters are total porn stars,” Rocca said as he made reference to the way they spoke and presented themselves.
He continued discussing politics, joking around and making jabs at both Republicans and Democrats.
He took a pause in his commentary to ask for a volunteer from the audience to answer three questions of ’90s trivia. After answering all three correctly, with help from Rocca, the contestant received an autographed CD of “The Best of Ace of Base.”
Rocca then began a slide show presentation of his past and how he became a “fake reporter.” It all began when he was 11 years old and went to visit a prison with his family.
“People in prison are different,” he said. “I realized I wanted to be different.”
That’s where his long journey began and consisted of things such as copy editing at “Perfect 10, ” a pornographic magazine, and visiting former presidents’ grave sites.
Rocca discussed how he ambushed politicians who believed he was a real reporter and how all politicians enjoy the spotlight.
“More successful politicians are better at playing a crowd,” he said.
Showing footage of himself sticking a microphone in a politician’s face, he proved his point and pleased the in-house crowd.
“I like his dry humor,” said Stephanie Grande, a sophomore nursing major.
He then illustrated how he finds debate shows to be horrible and showed his performance on “The O’Reilly Factor,” in which he argued about Barbie dolls wearing lingerie.
Rocca finished by answering questions from the audience, which led him to show another clip about Mike Piazza of the New York Mets and Shea Stadium.
After his performance, students lined up to get the comedian’s autograph.
Anticipation for the comedian’s performance was apparent before the show, as the second floor of the Curry Student Center was bustling with students lined up over an hour before the doors opened. The crowd was larger than CUP lecture chair Ryan Stanton expected.
While he was given three topics from Rocca to choose the focus of the evening’s performance, Stanton chose “satire in an absurd world” because he said he thought it would be the most entertaining.
However, Rocca hoped for only two things from the students:
“I’d like them to come away both edified by what I’ve said — and sexually attracted to me.”
