Breuer Cracks Up Sanders

Former Saturday Night Live star Jim Breuer cracked jokes before hundreds of students last night in Sanders Theatre in the first stand-up comedy show performed there in a decade.

Breuer, who played “Goat Boy” on “Saturday Night Live,” drew laughter—and the occasional groan—with a sometimes crude performance before a crowd of just under 700 students from Harvard and other Boston-area schools.

His hour-and-a-half comedy act ranged from benign jokes about his relationships with his daughter and father to more racy humor about child pornography, homosexuals and American Indians.

“Breuer definitely pushes the envelope, but I think students had a really good time,” Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05 wrote in an e-mail after the show.

The council spent $15,000 on the show, which was run by the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC). HCC Director Justin H. Haan ’05, who is also a Crimson editor, said that the show cost a total of $28,000—$25,000 of which went to Breuer’s fee. He said that the HCC was likely to lose between $2,000 and $3,000 on the show, but did not have final ticket sale figures last night.

Haan said that he had expected to lose money on the show, and thought it had been a success.

“It was a riot,” he said. “Our expectations were even surpassed.”

Breuer, who was on “Saturday Night Live” from 1995 to 1998 and starred as a music store clerk in Half Baked in 1998, said after the show that the Sanders atmosphere was “very intimate.”

“It was like hanging out in my basement with a bunch of friends,” he said.

Although his delivery was laced with charged words like “faggot,” Breuer said he wasn’t worried about offending his audience.

“If someone else wants to be offended by that, that’s their problem, that’s not mine, because I don’t have malicious intent,” he said. “There’s a big difference between a word and the intent behind a word. And the dictionary says it’s a bundle of sticks.”

Breuer drew continuous laughter and applause throughout his act, which went about 15 minutes longer than scheduled.

“He was really funny,” said Tufts freshman Ian M. McClellan. “I saw him on another show on TV. This is a lot more polished.”

David A. Wallach ’07, the lead singer of Harvard band Chester French, which opened the show for Breuer along with New York comedian Pete Correale, also said Breuer was a success.

“I thought he took it to the next level. I thought we were able to get some energy going, and that he ran with it,” Wallach said.

In addition to Breuer, the HCC will be hosting a concert in November with Bob Dylan at Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis Center.

Haan said holding two major events in one semester marked a step up from past years for the HCC. Guster and Busta Rhymes played on campus last year, but the year before saw no concerts, he said.