Ron White leaves UConn in stitches

Comedian Ron White stood in front of a nearly sold out crowd Friday night at Jorgensen Theater and had them in stitches practically the entire show.

Instead of the usual bottle of water on the sole bar stool, White had two; one with an ice bucket, the other with a bottle of scotch and a glass. His laid back style creates a performance where the audience feels like they’re merely conversing with one of the funniest men in America rather than at a show. His bits included mostly stories of his life, especially the trials and tribulations he’s gone through while on the road for his Moral Compass tour.  If anyone in the audience was concerned about his drinking while performing, he calmed the fear by saying he could perform it drunk, and had actually accomplished this one time in Las Vegas. 

White brought up a couple of moments in his career that made “[him] look a little unprofessional.”  They included an alcohol and pool related incident that left him missing a tooth, and an unfortunate fall off a gangplank in Monaco that left him with some serious injuries. The crowd however, found pleasure in his pain, and roared in laughter. 

Derek Evans, a 7th semester pre-med student said, “The story about him falling off the ramp in Monaco was my favorite.”

White had been partying with Dr. Phil and his family on their yacht, and a couple of whiskeys later he was so drunk he even surprised himself. After being ushered off the boat, White was walking down the gangplank when Dr. Phil shouted, “Big step, Ron!” Thinking that meant he had made psychological progress, White missed the 18-inch drop down to the dock, and woke up the next day with a dislocated shoulder and a myriad of other injuries.

White also commented on the way life used to be harder for kids when he was younger because they had to work for things, like stealing music. Today computers and file sharing make it relatively effortless to steal songs from artists. In White’s day though, stealing music meant getting a ride to Sears and “doing a Sponge Bob Square Pants” with a record stuck down the back of your pants. He also talked about the way he had to go to the library, “which is a building,” he commented to a laughing crowd, or rely on what his mother told him. Information is so readily available to kids today through a couple of clicks on a smart phone that they can easily call their parents out when they lie to them. 

Also popular was the comedian’s story about the contrast of beautiful people in Los Angles and unattractive people Kansas. White described the apparently stereotypical scenario where a couple “has a baby. It looks like a potato. And then that potato meets another potato, and that’s Wichita.”

When White began to close down his show he left everyone with a couple words of advice. “First, safety second,” he said, and “when people set the bar really high, you can walk right the f--k under it.”

Ron White’s Moral Compass tour is scheduled to continue through December of next year, with two more shows in Connecticut this November.