Stephen Lynch still on par for Friday comedy performance

Despite recent cancellations, music comedian Stephen Lynch is still set to visit Central Michigan University.

The show is at 8 p.m. Friday in Finch Fieldhouse.

Lynch’s publicist, Nicole Catrini of Sarah Hall Productions, said Lynch had to cancel two recent shows due to family emergencies, but the show at Central Michigan University was not affected.

Scheduled shows for last Thursday and Friday in Pheonix, Ariz. and Reno, Nev. were rescheduled for Jan. 8 and 9, respectively.

Crysta Heckman, comedy chairwoman for Program Board, said she is hopeful for Friday’s show and has received a lot of enthusiastic feedback for Lynch’s performance.

“I know when he was here last time, he was a big hit and he was really popular,” said the Pinconning junior. “When I did my survey of the student body of comedians they wanted to see last fall, he was in the top three.”

A popular fallback

Program Board President and Muskegon junior David Breed said everybody involved with the show on Program Board is a Lynch fan, and the group contacted him immediately when comedian Zach Galifianakis canceled this summer.

“After Zach canceled, Stephen Lynch was the first person we turned to, to see if he wanted to do the show,” Breed said. “I’ve been listening to him back since my freshman year of high school. My favorite song would probably be ‘Lullaby.’”

Heckman said even though tickets are $10 for students and $20 for general public, the prices are considerably cheaper than are typical for a Stephen Lynch show.

“The average ticket price for him is $50 to $60 for his normal show,” Heckman said. “Even though we are charging, we’re charging a fifth of the price most people would charge for a show like this.”

Students excited

Sophomore Ali Brady, who shares Lynch’s hometown of Saginaw, said she only recently heard Lynch’s comedy and was surprised by what she heard when the unassuming-looking Lynch began to sing.

“He just sat down with an acoustic guitar and started saying dirty things,” Brady said.

As an interesting twist to the event, Lynch, who graduated from Western Michigan University in 1993, will be performing the day before CMU’s football team takes on WMU in Kalamazoo.

Shepherd sophomore Luke Dille said he would expect Lynch to make a joke about it, and possibly some heckling from the audience back at him.

“I think Stephen Lynch is the kind of guy that would make a joke about it,” Dille said.

Breed said when the show was booked, Program Board was not aware of the coincidence.

“Initially, I don’t think anybody realized that it was going to be the day before,” Breed said. “I had never heard that he had went there. It was more the irony of it. We weren’t too worried about it.”