Amy Larson
Staff Writer
Graham Shea/Asst Photo Editor
“I killed tonight,” Dan Levy said as he left the stage.
A native of Stamford, Conn., Levy not only nearly filled Elkins Auditorium last Saturday night (a seriously rare occurrence on the Pepperdine campus), but also made his listeners laugh the entire time with his stand-up routine.
Comedic success is probably nothing new to Levy, who is in the middle of a college-campus tour and has entertained audiences across the country.
“I’ve been performing for five years and touring consistently for two,” he said.
This 23-year-old comic may be young, but he has a résumé that would make any performer green with envy, including performing at various comedy clubs in New York City, forming his own sketch comedy troupe, developing a show on Nickelodeon and hosting his own program on MTV.
Though it seems Levy has had remarkable success, he said there have been challenging times, too. For instance, “Your Face or Mine?” the show he hosted on MTV, was cancelled after 20 episodes.
“It’s a process, and MTV was part of that process,” Levy said. “I’m always trying to perform more shows, better shows and more TV shows.”
Levy got his wish; he is currently working with MTV to develop a new program, and his tour is booked nearly every night.
But touring nationally is not all fun and games, even for a professional comedian. Levy said traveling is one of his biggest pet peeves about working in the entertainment industry.
“Flying,” Levy said. “It’s annoying, and it’s a struggle to wake up and catch planes.”
Saturday night, Levy took a break from his airport hopping and network meetings and spent some time at Pepperdine mixing sharp one-liners, edgy jokes and clever audience interaction into his own flavor of comedy.
Though this liberal comic may not have been an expected visitor to Malibu’s ultra-conservative campus, J.D. Dilborne, a member of the SGA, said it was something that students would enjoy. After waiting on Levy this summer during his late-night shift at a restaurant, the comic invited Dilborne to a show at a nearby comedy club the next night.
“He was hysterical,” Dilborne said. “I thought we should consider him for a weekend event at Pepperdine.”
Dilborne’s efforts panned out. Nearly 200 Pepperdine students attended the performance to hear Levy tackle tricky topics like war, the Bible and alcohol, as well as less-tangled matters such as his one-legged ex-girlfriend and his obsession with Instant Message. Though the show was nearly an hour long, few jokes evoked less than an uproarious response. Levy maintained the audience’s high excitement level by keeping his own energy level soaring.
Running around the stage, using wild facial expressions and even knocking over furniture was all part of the act. Levy kept audience members on their toes by randomly calling out to them from the stage.
“What did you do for New Year’s Eve?” Levy asked a front-row audience member. The sporadic conversations with the audience continued throughout the routine.
In turn, Levy learned quite a bit about Pepperdine, including what is required for a sports medicine major, certain students’ e-mail addresses, and that the university offers a surfing class (which Levy seemed very interested in).
After the performance, Levy handed out stickers, thanked students for coming and shared how glad he was to be at Pepperdine.
It seemed the feeling was mutual — it was difficult to find anyone who had anything bad to say about the comic or his act.
“I think his facial expressions were hilarious,” said freshman Lauren Eberhardt.
Eberhardt, who had never seen Levy perform before, said she was pleasantly surprised. Other students agreed.
“He was good for Pepperdine,” said junior Garrett Jones.
Perhaps college students enjoy Levy so much because he wasn’t a student so long ago himself. While he was still a sophomore at Emerson College, Levy competed for the title of “Funniest College Comedian in America” at the Aspen U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. When he won that title, his comedy career took off, but Levy decided to finish his degree before moving to Los Angeles to pursue comedy.
After graduating in 2004, he signed a deal that allowed him to write and create a comedic reality show called “The Dan Levy Show.”
Levy said college students aren’t the only ones who respond to his routines in such a positive way, and that crowds seem to give these kind of reactions steadily.
“Audiences are pretty consistent, whether at a comedy club or on a college campus,” he said.
Whether the compliments and applause are typical for Levy or not, he said he tries to tell each audience member how thrilled he is that they came out and enjoyed the show.
This energetic comic may not be nationally recognized yet, but that is likely to change soon.
Winning Assumption College’s Golden Cab Award for Funniest Comedian of 2003 and recently performing on “The Late Late Show” with Craig Kilborn are only a few of Levy’s recent accomplishments. His work with well-known entertainers like Dave Attell, Andy Dick, and Jon Stewart, and writer and producer Bill Kelley, indicate that Pepperdine students aren’t the only ones who think Levy is funny.
Fortunately for Levy, what crowds are looking for in comedy seems to be his specialty. With so many doors open to him, where does Levy believe the future will take him?
“Ten years from now,” he said, “I’ll be at Pepperdine taking surfing classes.”
01-13-2005
