Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black improvised and played off each other and the audience to get riotous laughs from the crowd Wednesday night.

However, they absolutely, positively did not lecture about show business.

“I don’t know why they billed it as a lecture,” said Black before the presentation. “There will be no educational content whatsoever. If they asked how much learning will be going on, I would have said zero. Zero learning.”

Instead of talking about the process of creating their Comedy Central show “Michael and Michael Have Issues,” they riffed on each other with jokes about feces, race, Purdue Chicken and cats for more than an hour.

And that seemed perfectly fine with the audience, as they laughed and clapped and cheered with the comedians.

“It was hilarious, and I could almost not stop laughing,” said Alma resident Christine Smith. “I’ve been a fan of them since (Comedy Central show) ‘Stella.’”

Included in the performance were video clips from Black and Showalter’s appearance on a morning news show at a Detroit Fox affiliate several weeks ago. In the clips, they teased the anchorwoman, made apple crisp, and presented the weather forecast.

Black said if they had just talked about the show, the event would not have been as entertaining.

“There’s nothing to say,” Black said. “It’s just not interesting.”

Program Board lecture chairwoman Nikki Burnstein said although the event was sold to them as a lecture, she and Program Board were happy with the event.

“I thought it went really well,” the Farmington Hills junior said. “It ended up being more comedy, which wasn’t what was expected, but it still went well. I didn’t expect it to be educational, but … I was still happy with it.”

Program Board faculty adviser and Coordinator of Student Activities Damon Brown said the event cost a total of $20,000.

Burnstein said the turnout for the event was good, and that the lower-level of Plachta Auditorium was nearly full.

“The bottom (of Plachta) holds 700 (people),” she said. “ I don’t think it was at 700, but it was close.”

Showalter, who was sick the day of the performance, said he thought it went well, and enjoyed it nonetheless.

“(Sickness) kept me behind the podium, more than anything,” Showalter said. “But in a sense, it made me a little goofier than I normally would have been.”

“Yeah, you’re so goofy,” Black chimed in teasingly.

Black said his one hope with the performance was to simply make people laugh.

“Whatever your present circumstances, no matter how much trouble you’re in with the law, simply receiving the gift of laughter will make them all go away,” Black said. “Even problems with the law. Especially problems with the law.”

E-mail the author: Brad Canze