By Brenna Eagan, News Correspondent
“How many of you guys have seen me on ‘Community’?” asked Donald Glover, who plays goofy jock Troy Barnes on the NBC comedy. “Well, this is going to be nothing like that.”
The sold-out crowd in Blackman Auditorium responded with enthusiastic applause and whistling.
Presented by Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEP), Kappa Delta, and Council for University Programs (CUP), “A Night with Donald Glover” was the first event to kick off Springfest week.
Glover used his lightning-fast speech to energetically propel him through many stories about growing up in a foster home run by his parents and hanging out with the kids there. He spent a large chunk of the set telling the audience about a trip to Home Depot, a place he dubbed “Auschwitz for children” because it’s “where childhoods go to die.”
At Home Depot, Glover said, he and his brothers would find ways to keep entertained, like pretending to relieve themselves in the display toilets. One day, one of his new foster brothers actually pooped and caused quite a stir in the home goods store.
Glover shared his recent experiences living in New York and Los Angeles and poked fun at the danger in both cities. He also talked about what it’s like to be an actor and musician.
“Being an entertainer is the only job where you can’t like your own stuff,” he said.
Glover also focused on hot-button issues like racism, rape and Charlie Sheen. He discussed who is and who isn’t allowed to use the n-word. Glover thinks Charlie Sheen is the only white person who can say it whenever he wants, because he used it to address his ex-wife Brooke Shields in a publicized recorded phone call, before he allegedly went crazy.
He also compared having AIDS to having children – surprisingly, he admitted he’d prefer getting AIDS over having a kid. The audience reacted with a collective, disapproving “ooooohhh,” along with some laughter.
Springfest will also bring Glover’s “Community” co-star and comedian Joel McHale to Matthews Arena on Friday. Glover decided to preemptively welcome his castmate to Northeastern – he stuck the microphone into his pants, then told the crowd it was their job to make sure McHale licks it.
In addition to performing stand-up, Glover also rapped as his alter-ego, Childish Gambino. He asked the audience if anyone could beat-box, and after some encouragement, freshman communication studies major Brian Barr of AEP joined Glover onstage.
“I’m still nervous,” Barr said after the event. “Donald is a great guy, the show was hilarious.”
Megan Vick, the chair of CUP’s Springfest committee, said she enjoyed the show as both a new fan of “Community” and as a Childish Gambino listener.
“I was also ecstatic that he ended up doing Childish Gambino stuff because he wasn’t planning on doing it, but I asked him to before the show, so that was really special.”
True to his word, Glover’s stand-up routine was dirtier and racier than his weekly television appearance on “Community” might have suggested, but that seemed to have no negative impact on the audience’s enjoyment of the show.
“Overall … [it was] one of the best shows I’ve seen on campus,” sophomore computer science major Charles Connell said.
