By SAMANTHA HIGGINS & ASHLEY WEMMELL
STAFF WRITERS
[email protected]
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When the Spring Weekend lineup was announced, students were abuzz with the news that Dave Coulier, commonly known as Joey Gladstone from Full House, would be the headlining comedian. The Charger Gymnasium was filled to capacity on Friday, May 1 to hear his jokes.

“He was a gem. He was literally like Uncle Joey,” said Jordan Skloff, SCOPE weekend programming committee head.

Junior Brian Read, winner of SCOPE’s Last Comic Standing, opened for Coulier with an original standup set. Read joked about college life, commenting on everything from finals, Netflix and partying. Coulier followed less than five minutes after Read, much to the crowd’s pleasure.

“People really enjoyed Brian’s standup,” said Skloff.

The majority of students who attended the show grew up watching Coulier play the loveable Joey Gladstone on Full House, where he trademarked his phrase “cut it out.” He recognizes this is where majority of people know him from and cut right to the chase when he got on stage, saying it was best to “address the 900 pound gorilla in the room” that was his time on Full House.

He shared stories with the audience about encounters with previous fans that included one fan who completely butchered the “cut it out” phrase; he spoke of his friendship with Bob Saget and how if you see him live, you are definitely not going to see the character of kind hearted Danny Tanner that most are familiar with from the show. He even told audience of John Stamos’ fear of farts and then requested that each audience member fart on him if they ever get the opportunity.

Following the Full House portion of the show, which already had the entire Charger Gymnasium roaring with laughter, he talked about his time in show business and how “it’s the only business that brags about people with no experience.”

He also incorporated numerous voice impersonations—Mathew McConaughey, Bill Clinton, Shaggy and Scooby Doo, Kermit the Frog, Sponge Bob and Patrick, the Cowardly Lion, Shaq, who he referred to as “listening to a talking subwoofer,” and Robin Williams.

He says that he is a “professional copycat” and that the best part of being able to do so many voices is when telemarketers call.

He shared family stories about his son growing up and compared video games now, like Xbox games his son plays, to the video he grew up playing, like Mario Brothers. He talked about his father and his role models growing up, how he developed his sense of humor and his personal experience getting a colonoscopy.

He also shared with the audience stories about his schooling, how he attended an all-boys Catholic school, and stories about his different Catholic school experiences. He didn’t attend college because he “couldn’t find a parking spot,” and, instead, he moved to L.A. at 19 to follow his dreams and be a comedian. That was when he got the opportunity to work with Jim Henson and do voices for the Muppet Babies TV show.

He also talked about the crazy weather that has been occurring everywhere, from hurricanes to droughts and including this past winter, which was intense. He had the audience almost falling off their chairs after explaining all the natural catastrophes that have occurred recently then stating “I think the planet wants us to leave.” But he countered it with a theory that if we name storms scarier names, people might actually evacuate when their told to.

He started to end the show by taking out his harmonica and “playing the blues” then using the harmonica to pull together some thoughts he had that he said didn’t fit into other parts of his show, he called them “Harmona Thoughts.” They were shorter jokes that were hysterical and had everyone laughing.
“He was much more down to earth than you would expect for a celebrity of his caliber,” Amy Reidy, SCOPE vice president of programming.

Throughout the show, he interacted with the audience every chance he got. From calling out the last person who laughed, or the person with a delayed reaction to a joke, he was very involved with the crowd. At the beginning of the show, someone screamed at him and he asked them to repeat it since they “had a whole sentence prepared for him.” He even pointed out everyone with their cellphones out when he got on stage, and asked if they were all recording him and stating “I’m right here, you don’t need to make me smaller on your phone screen.” He even asked one audience member if she texted her friend asking her to go to the bathroom with her when they both got up to leave in the middle of the show. He wished everyone good luck as he walked off the stage.

“I think the turnout was great. The turnout was larger than last year. We increased the capacity of the gym for this year’s comedian anticipating the large crowd,” said Reidy. “We’re overall extremely glad that the students came out to this event.”