Mamawala Brings the Laughs

By KATE PIERCE
News Editor

St. Joseph’s Hall was filled with laughter during a performance last Wednesday by comedian Adam Mamawala.

Around 65 students sat in the auditorium to be entertained by the New York City based comedian and find some relief from the stress of classes and assignments. The event was put on by the Student Events Board for just that purpose.

Rebecca Zaleski, chair of the SEB’s comedian committee, said that the group started planning for Mamawala’s appearance in August. The committee’s goal is to provide fun and free experiences for Saint Rose students.

“We put on very unique events each semester,” said Zaleski. “They are great opportunities to hang out with friends.”

Lauren Wemett and Micheline Pasinella said that they had a great time watching the show together.

“I wasn’t expecting much because I had never heard of him,” said Wemett. “But I thought he was very funny and as good as the people I watch on Netflix. I laughed more tonight than I did when I saw Larry the Cable guy at the Times Union Center.”

“I’ve never seen a stand up comedian before,” said Pasinella. “But I thought he was really funny.”

One of Mamawala’s lines that received a lot of laughter was, “When I was 12 my grandpa died, and it was a real shock because he had never done that before.”

His show included other jokes like “Battleship jokes are a hit or miss,” along with segments about a poster for a missing cat, getting his fingers stuck in a Chinese finger trap as a child, difficult break ups, and perceptions other people may have about him because of his race.

The 29 year old comedian lives in South Brooklyn and performs at around 15 to 20 college shows a year, but one year the number was about 80. Last year, he said he was on stage over 400 times for shows around the country, and out of the country as far as the University of Alberta in Canada.

Mamawala was born near Chicago, and moved to New Jersey around the time he turned 10. Humor was a large part of his upbringing, and at a young age one of his sources of comedy was watching Monty Python.

The comedian got his start in comedy in 2006 while he was a freshman studying Communications at the College of New Jersey.

A friend recommended that Mamawala pursue comedy. He remembers the friend saying “You sound like you’re doing stand up right now” among a group of their friends.

“It was something I did as a whim,” he said. “Now I’ve been doing it for a living for the past five years.”

Mamawala’s advice to other students who think they would like to pursue comedy is to write down your ideas when they come and put themselves out there.

“Comedy isn’t like music or dance where you can potentially get better on your own - you can only get better at it by doing it in front of other people,” said Mamawala. “The biggest thing is just getting on stage.”