Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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David Spade makes college a joke

author David Spade added his humor to Homecoming Week as he performed stand-up comedy to a boisterous crowd at the Smith Center Thursday night.

GW students packed half the Smith Center – filling the seats with a view of the stage.

The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member and current star of the NBC sitcom “Just Shoot Me,” attempted to connect with his audience through reflections of his awkward college years.

“Here’s my impression of me on a date in college, `C’mon, chug it!’ ” he joked.

“You try to keep up with what’s funny to you and your friends at that moment, and try to incorporate it into your act,” he said after the show.

Spade said he often tries “tester-jokes” to see the audience’s reactions. But Spade said he steers clear of jokes about President Clinton, which recently have inundated the comedy scene after the president was accused of an having affair with a former White House intern.

“I don’t like to slam the president. I think it’s a little disrespectful,” Spade said. “I understand why everyone does it, I just don’t really do that type of humor.”

The comedy of Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Dennis Miller and Eddie Murphy contributed to his style, Spade said, and he said the high point of his career so far is just “that it’s continually going in the right direction.”

So far, his career has given him a taste of various outlets of entertainment, including the stage, television and movies.

“Anything with a live audience is fun for me,” he said. “Stand-up is fun . it’s the 23 hours getting to the show that you’re paid for.”

Spade got his break on SNL, on which he played memorable characters like the receptionist, a GAP girl and the host of “Hollywood Minute.”

“SNL was hard in ways, but valuable in the big sense,” Spade said. “Everything else was easier after that,” he said.

Spade said working on a sitcom is easy compared to making movies, which is tough because no one is allowed to laugh on the set, so it is hard to gage what’s funny.

But with laughs aside, Spade commented on last month’s death of his colleague and friend Chris Farley, with whom he starred on SNL and in movies like Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

“It is just really horrible. I wish it didn’t happen.”

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