The Daily Campus

Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Nick Hart Bernie McGrenahan lectures about alcohol and drug use after his routine at the Student Union Theater Thursday.

Being a comedian means you have to be funny. Being a motivational speaker means you have to be charismatic and have something powerful to say.

In the case of Bernie McGrenahan - "a comedian with a message" - one out of two ain't bad.

McGrenahan's performance in the Student Union Theater last night was part of SUBOG's bi-weekly comedy series.

When McGrenahan found out that UConn students got comedy every two weeks, he was impressed. "I go to a lot of campuses and they get comedy like twice a year," he said. If Bernie McGrenahan fills up half of your college campus' comedy quota, I am sincerely sorry.

By one-third of the way through the show, the audience had been subjected to clumsy puns and scathingly topical gems about P. Diddy (Did you know he changed his name? Doesn't it sound stupid? Right?), obese victims suing McDonalds (What is up with those guys? Duh?) and Paris Hilton ("Sweatin' like Paris Hilton doing a crossword puzzle" - zing!). And did you know Britney Spears is kinda weird these days? Man, that's crazy.

Even McGrenahan's apparently boundless repertoire of UConn knowledge failed to endear the crowd. Building rapport requires a bit more than learning the name of the mascot and a couple of dorms, and McGrenahan fell back a few too many times on "UConn, man. Great school. Love you guys." There was even a complete misfire where he riffed on Storrs' quiet-town churchgoing habits. Really?

About three-quarters of the way through his act, McGrenahan changed tunes. He'd been tossing gags about drug and alcohol use into his act throughout the show ("You know what they call a roast beef in England? A joint"), but the audience wasn't prepared for the sudden shift in focus: McGrenahan used to have an alcohol problem, and he was going to talk about it.

Odd as this seems, it was effective. While the audience was uncomfortably silent during McGrenahan's tale of alcoholism tearing his family apart, they applauded with gusto when he finished. There were some shocking plot twists and heartwarming moments, and it's a safe bet that he stuck his simple message more cleanly to the audience than any stuffed-shirt speaker with pictures of car crashes could.

"I think that if [McGrenahan] were marketed as an alcohol- and drug-only speaker, we couldn't get the same audience that we got tonight," said Jaclyn Morrissey, an 8th-semester history and sociology major.

"I think they market it as more of a comedy thing, and [McGrenahan] presents himself as a comedian," said Caroline Oks, a 6th-semester political science and anthropology major. Both students are Alcohol and Other Drug Services Peer Educators. AOD hosted the event in conjunction with SUBOG.

So it's possible to forgive McGrenahan his comedic embarrassments. And he did get some serious laughs in a few places. Morrissey, for one, thought he was "hilarious." And it's tough to fault the message.

So be cool, kids, and listen to Bernie.

"You guys ever drink Nyquil? That stuff gets you wasted!"

The guy knows what he's talking about.



Contact John Bailey at John.C.Bailey@UConn.edu.

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