Megan Mooney

About 20 students were sitting in the lobby of the Occhiato University Center at 8 p.m. on Sept. 22, waiting for the doors of the Colorado Ballroom to open.

Some chatted on their cell phones while others spoke to the group of friends they were sitting with, all waiting patiently.

Twenty minutes later, the doors opened and the students began filing in to the room filled with rows of chairs facing a stage with a stool, two bottles of water and a microphone under the ballroom’s chandelier. There was a gray couch sitting in the front row of the chairs with tape across it.
Giggling voices filled the air as more students entered the room, and event organizers went to get more chairs.

Students quieted as Chris Ory, student programmer, took the stage and asked if anyone in the crowd was wearing any comic-book-related items. Two students, wearing Superman T-shirts, were asked to join Ory on the stage. Ory then had the two students play rock-paper-scissors for the “front-row seat on the couch.”

Finally, after the winner of the rock-paper-scissors contest was seated on the couch with his friends, it was the moment the audience was waiting for.

Ory introduced the brunette comedian, Megan Mooney, 30. Mooney took the stage decked out in dark-framed glasses, a black Adidas jacket over a dark shirt, pants and dark-colored tennis shoes with bright orange designs. She began her act.

The room filled with rolling laughter as Mooney delivered a comic routine filled with smart-alecky adult humor. The audience chuckled as Mooney told of her personal life experiences and uncomfortable situations she had experienced.

Mooney was born in Houston, Texas and was the third child out of seven. Mooney’s family moved to Cleveland when she was less than one year old.

Soon after Mooney graduated cum laude, from John Carroll University in Cleveland, she moved to Austin, Texas, where she started doing routines at an Austin comedy club.

Mooney has performed at the HBO U.S. Comedy Festival, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, was one of the five finalists in the Seattle International Comedy Competition and in 1998 won the Funniest Person in Austin contest, according to Cap City Comedy and Mooney’s website.

The Student Activities Board decided to have Mooney come to campus after receiving requests from students who had caught her act at the National Association for Campus Activities convention, Duane Brown, director of student activities said.

SAB has sponsored several male comedians so they thought a female comedian would add diversity, Brown said.

SAB has been working since the spring of 2004 to get Mooney to perform on campus, because she is becoming popular on the college circuit, Brown said.

When asked how much it cost to bring Mooney to campus, Brown replied that he could not give out this information because of SAB’s contract with Mooney.

Mooney’s next stop is Roanoke College in Salem, Va., on Oct. 2. Mooney has 42 appearances across the nation booked between Sept. 23, and April 25, 2005.
Story last updated 10/4/2004 3:54:52 PM © Today, Colorado State University-Pueblo

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- Colorado State University-Pueblo Today

Comedian Megan Mooney entered University of La Verne’s Founders Auditorium March 30, and did not leave until after making the audience practically roll in the aisles with laughter.

Mooney, featured on the HBO Comedy Arts Festival and Comedy Central Presents, added many aspects from La Verne into her act.

During the performance she frequently commented on the unusual look of the ULV tents, as well as alumna Roxanne Klein’s Sandy Candy, featured on the cover of the Summer 2005 La Verne magazine.

“I know the jokes that will work in every city, but I like to kind of talk about where we are,” Mooney said. “The students kind of get into it when you poke fun a little at their campus as long as it’s not mean… It’s nice to add your own little touch.”

Students really delved into the show.

“I really like how she incorporated ULV into her jokes,” junior business marketing major Lauren Zagurski said in an e-mail. “It was something that hit home for all of us and was something we could relate to, whether we agreed or not.”

Mooney took many opportunities to interact with the audience.

After cracking a joke about how the students in the balcony were probably drinking during the roughly 45 minute performance, the students informed her that ULV is a dry campus.

“It’s a dry campus? Well do you have backpacks?” Mooney jokingly asked the audience. “I just found a loophole.”

Mooney performed comfortably for the audience of roughly 100 people. She said that since she was not being filmed, she could perform without as much pressure.

She described what it is like performing for a half-hour television special.
“(I) waited eight years to get to that point and you have one opportunity to shoot the special, so it’s kind of intense.”

That tension was possibly very similar to what opening comedian, ULV student Yesel “Yak” Manrique felt during his act.

“I was really nervous,” Manrique said. “Every time feels like the first time.”

Before the show began, Manrique mentioned the butterflies in his stomach, and how that affected him.

“I like the butterflies,” Manrique said. “They give me the energy on stage.”
The butterflies appeared to have been working at full force that evening, because the audience really seemed to appreciate his act and so did Mooney.

“I think it takes a lot of courage to get up there and I think his jokes are funny,” Mooney said. “He’s totally headed in the right direction.”
Manrique’s act was followed by a surprise second act.

Eddie Gossling, long time comic and Mooney’s husband of three years, performed a short bit in which he joked about topics that are relevant to college age students, such as the obsessive use of Google and text messaging.

Gossling explained why his act is so relevant to the college atmosphere.
“Honestly, being a comic is a lot like being a college student, except I don’t have classes during the day,” he said. “So I can sit around and Google and go on MySpace all day long…(then) I go out to the clubs and do my shows about what I did all day.”

Overall, the show had a theme that was very pertinent to the college atmosphere. Whether it was Mooney cracking jokes about the school or Gossling’s use of current fads in college culture, the show kept its audience entertained throughout.


























- Campus Times