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Comedy Central’s 2012 Best Club Comic Hannibal Buress rocked a packed Glenn Memorial Auditorium with his stand-up comedy act last night as part of this year’s Dooley’s Week lineup.

Buress poked fun at a range of subjects from fraternity hazing to Jesus to the cost of an Emory education to technology.

Prior to Buress’ act, local Atlanta comedian Chris Jones warmed up the crowd with a few jokes.

“Is this Emory University or Emory College? It’s Emory University? That’s fine. I don’t know the difference,” Jones said. “I never went to college.”

Following Jones’ act, Buress began the show by hyping up the crowd and running around Glenn Memorial Auditorium, standing on the church benches, high-fiving students and pushing his face into photographers’ cameras.

“This show is exhausting,” Buress said. “I’m not built for this s–t.”

Buress, who has made appearances on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” among others, is a former staff writer for both “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock.”

He is currently the co-host of Comedy Central’s “Eric Andre Show” and appears as a regular expert of FX’s “Totally Based with W. Kamau Bell.”

Buress began his act by complaining about the venue.

“I know that y’all have regular buildings,” Buress complained. “Why you put this s–t in a church?”

Buress made jokes about fraternity hazing and historically African-American university band hazing.

“Wanna’ play Rick Ross at half-time?,” Buress joked. “Then I gotta beat the s–t out of you.”

Buress also commented on dependence on technology.

“There have been times I’ve been out, and my phone battery is at nine percent, and I was like, ‘Time to go home,'” Buress joked.

Many students said they enjoyed the act and thought Hannibal was entertaining.

“I thought he really worked the crowd and was funny,” College freshman Mark Leone said. “A lot of people were laughing.”

Students on the Student Programming Council were glad about Buress’ performance and explained that they believe his act was hilarious.

“It went so much better than I expected,” Student Programming Council (SPC) Speakers Chair and College senior Corey Teich said. “I was a little nervous because he’s an amazing comedian, but he’s not in movies or on TV or anything, but it was packed.”

Some students who were previous fans of Buress’ thought his act last night was fresh and an improvement from his previous acts.

“I’ve listened to a lot of his stuff before, and a lot of the stuff he has said tonight was new stuff that I’ve never really heard before,” College freshman Michael Belles said. “I thought some stuff was better than a lot of his old [material].”

Teich agreed with Belles that Buress’ new material really brought a new side of the comedian into the fold.

“I thought he killed it,” Teich said. “I’ve watched a lot of his standup, and all the jokes he has had were brand new. He was definitely a little edgy, but I like that in a comedian. He was happy to be there, and we could tell.”

– By Dustin Slade

Photo by James Crissman

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The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.

The Wheel is financially and editorially independent from the University. All of its content is generated by the Wheel’s more than 100 student staff members and contributing writers, and its printing costs are covered by profits from self-generated advertising sales.