Alana Dore, deputy inside editor
Northeastern’s Blackman Auditorium sold out last week for a stand-up performance by Adam DeVine with opener Adam Ray, sponsored by the Council for University Programs (CUP).
DeVine may have been the main event, but Ray stole the show with bits that flowed fluidly from one to the next. Ray’s humor centered around things that other people could connect to and relied heavily on interaction with the audience.
Although not as well-known as DeVine, Ray might be recognized from his role as LeSoire in “The Heat,” starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, or as two-time guest Tony in “Two Broke Girls.”
Ray’s bits included topics such as Las Vegas, his “alcoholic roommate,” his “midget best friend,” long-distance dating and the reasons people get tattoos.
His most popular bit by far was an extended piece about Olive Garden commercials, in which he criticized the excitement of the actors and the lack of racial diversity. Students were doubled over during this “warm-up” performance and by the close of Ray’s segment they were primed for the comedic gravitas of DeVine’s set.
DeVine stars as Adam DeMamp in the Comedy Central original series “Workaholics,” of which he is also a co-creater, writer and executive producer.
For those unfamiliar with his role in “Workaholics,” DeVine has also been a recurring guest on “Modern Family” as Andy, the “manny” for the Pritchett family, and has played supporting roles in “Pitch Perfect” and the upcoming sequel “Pitch Perfect 2” as the antagonist, Bumper.
DeVine’s show, although lacking a back-up band or a capella group, had the high-energy quality of any great musical performance. He made use of the whole stage by running around, miming props and calling for audience participation.
Despite professing to prefer “Workaholics” to “Pitch Perfect,” DeVine devoted a good amount of his show to the musical hit.
During his set, he revealed that his audition for “Pitch Perfect” was accidental.
“I thought I was auditioning for a baseball movie,” DeVine said. “I get to the audition and I’m looking around and there’s [sic] all these super handsome dudes just like singing up against the walls like no one can see them.”
When asked to sing for his audition, DeVine went with the Big Sean classic “Dance (A$$).” Then, when asked for an alternative, DeVine’s go-to was the ever-popular “Full House” theme song “Everywhere You Look.”
DeVine also found success as Pizza Steve in Cartoon Network’s “Uncle Grandpa,” and later, in 2013, he added another comedy show to his list of achievements as writer, producer and star of Comedy Central series “Adam DeVine’s House Party.”
However, DeVine appeared to have self-doubts throughout his set. After many jokes, under the cover of the audience’s laughter, DeVine would mutter with a chuckle into his microphone, “That was stupid.”
Despite what he thinks of his own jokes, Northeastern students hooted and hollered throughout the show.
“I’m a huge ‘Workaholics’ fan,” Marcella D’Aston, third-year communications major, said. “Having him here and just making so many references to ‘Workaholics’ made me feel like I was part of that ‘Workaholics’ family that I love so much.”
DeVine’s performance was part of a Boston-area tour that culminated in a comedy show at The Wilbur Theatre on Feb. 22. He also performed at Boston College, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
“I love people from Massachusetts. You guys are like a**holes right out of the gate but then immediately you’re sweet,” the Iowa native said of his experience in Beantown.
DeVine showed his improvisational prowess during the question-and-answer segment of the night. Students were encouraged to tweet questions at DeVine with #AdamDeVineNU before and during the event. The collected tweets were then projected onto the wall behind DeVine.
Some of the nights’ gems included favorite movie of all time (“Striptease” with Demi Moore), favorite color (blue), favorite Taylor Swift song (“Shake It Off”), guacamole or salsa (guacamole) and celebrity crush (Scarlett Johansson and Sofia Vergara).
DeVine finished the night with Ray by inviting the audience to join in on one giant selfie. Happily obliging, the audience jumped at its last chance at participation, many climbing up on their chairs for a chance to be seen.
Photo by Brian Bae
