After a long summer, ASNIC kicked off the school year with a show that left NIC students with sore sides and blown minds. Nationally praised mentalist Sean Bott and 2013 comedian of the year Adam Grabowski performed at the Schuler Performing Arts Center August 28th and showed how truly puzzling and comedic their talents are.
The two have been long time friends and the mixture of both their styles made for an entertaining show.
“We met and became friends because we both do college shows,” said Grabowski, “this is the first time we have performed together though.”
Opening for Bott, Grabowski created a mixture of sarcastic and observational comedy that had the audience almost in tears. Using different mediums such as a video making fun of smart phone emoticons and many graphs that poked fun at middle school awkwardness and who the best Mario Cart character is.
Bott took advantage of the crowd that Grabowski had warmed up for him.
“The audience was great,” said Bott, ”Adam (Grabowski) is fantastic and hilarious and people are a lot more willing to play when you have someone to get them on your side.”
Both of the performers interacted with the crowd numerous times throughout the show. Grabowski would poke fun at crowd members. He also did improve jokes after he received answers from the various audience members.
Bott on the other hand relied a lot more on audience participation, not only for the sake of his act; Bott also wanted audience members to go home with a story to tell.
“I like to give people something physical or footage that they can keep just to remind them of the moments they shared,” said Bott.
Between his sarcastic and raunchy humor, Bott was able to create the illusion that he can read people’s minds and predict the outcomes of certain events. At one point during the show, random audience members were asked to name out specific places and activities during an ad-lib portion of the show. It turned out the Bott had placed a note in his wallet weeks prior to the performance and the content of the letter matched the responses audience members had just made.
The audience was shocked by Botts talents that he has apparently been working on for years.
“I started off by breaking into my brother’s room while he was living abroad and found a couple of books on hypnosis and was just fascinated by it,” said Bott, “I’ve been playing around with these things since I was since 12.”
Graboski’s start happened when he was unsure about his future after college.
“I didn’t know what to go to grad school for,” said Grabowski, “I finished the semester early and I was like ‘what am I going to go to grad school for? How about comedy?’ It worked great.”
The two performers left an impression on those who attended. Whether it was a great joke that had them crying with laughter or even an illusion such as bending coins that had the audience in awe, everyone left with something unforgettable.
