Erin Ziomek
Assumption College- On November 8 at 8 p.m., Assumption College students gathered in Hagan to eat nachos and listen to standup comedian Adam Mamawala, recently named to Funny or Die’s “Top 30 Under 30: Comedians to Watch.” Mamwala also appeared recently on MTV show Girl Code, according to the comedian’s website. Before taking the stage at Charlie’s, Mamawala humbly tweeted…
Mamawala later joked to his audience that guacamole is more famous than him.
His talent for self-deprecating humor did not stop there- the up-and-coming young comedian remarked “I don’t want to be cocky, but my career’s taking off a little bit right now,” and proceeded to share an e-mail he received from a group that described itself as a “family-time comedy show…completely clean and appropriate for all ages”. Mamawala gave special attention to a particularly awkward part of the letter which read “’We book three comedians, all of which are of different ethnicity; we have a black, and a white, and are looking for a Latino or other ethnicity, which Adam fits! Lol’!” To punctuate this humorous re-telling, Mamawala honestly remarked, “Guys, I wish I had a funny end to that story, but I talked to them last week and I’m doing that show.” The student audience showed it appreciation for Mamawala’s honest humor, frequently responding with warm chuckles and at several moments, loud laughter.
Mamwala’s subjects ranged from race relations, to Battleship, to sobbing in the middle of a Civil War museum after breaking up with his former girlfriend. Upon addressing his racial background- his father is Indian and his mother is “a small white lady from Wisconsin”- , Mamawala stated, “as far as my college applications were concerned, I was an American Indian,” which provoked a loud response from audience members. Mamawala’s willingness to address sensitive topics in a respectful but down-to- earth way made him resonate well with his student audience.
The young comedian’s signature joke (which was featured on a $15 t-shirt sold that night), revolved around a lost cat ad that Mamawala found one day. Using it to demonstrate the extremity of political correctness in society, he picked apart the flier which described a lost cat named “Felix” (quotations included), whose owners described him as a “skinny, large- boned cat” rather than just calling him “fat.” Pointing out the absurdity of this description, Mamawala wondered aloud “Who were these people trying not to offend?”, and proceeded to imagine a scenario in which the cat refused to go home because the owners insensitively called him “fat” on the flier.
While Mamawala did get a generally positive response from his audience, particularly during the “Felix” joke and a segment in which he told the unfortunate story of a young boy born in October 2001 named Shubham (pronounced “shoe bomb”), not all the audience members found that Mamawala shared their style of humor. “I liked that he didn’t talk about sex but he talked about race issues a little too much for my taste,” said junior Sharon Caulway.
THE AC301 