BY ANNIE MAY
Staff Reporter
It was after his freshman year of college where comedian, Derrick Knopsnyder, realized he could use humor in order to make friends.
“If it works for this, maybe I can make strangers laugh” said Knopsnyder who visited Sacred Heart University Sept. 18 to perform one of his many college comedy shows.
As a Pittsburgh native, Knopsnyder tours colleges on the east coast, but has also had the opportunity to perform on the west coast, with audiences of 600 or more people.
Though only 15 students gathered in the University Commons auditorium, everyone was laughing.
“It’s a sold-out show, they just put out too many chairs” said Knopsnyder
He connected with the crowd by asking direct questions to the students.
“My favorite joke was when he thought my friend and I were in a relationship. This was so funny. I’m so glad I came to the show.” said freshman Andrew Cizmarik.
Knopsnyder related to Sacred Heart students by making references to 63’s dining hall, the miserable cold winter weather of New England, and even relationships in college.
“I enjoyed all of it, he was very relatable, especially about the cold weather up here. I wasn’t actually going to go, but I’m glad I did.” said freshman Morgan Gott.
With Sacred Heart being comprised of 60% female and 40% male, Knopsnyder made frequent jokes about how hard he believes it is to understand females.
“I finally realized what women want. The only thing women really want is dresses with pockets.” said Knopsnyder.
He has had the opportunity to work with Dave Coulier, who is known for his role as Uncle Joey on “Full House,” and has been featured on Comedy Central. He said that he does enjoy smaller shows because he is able to interact one-on-one with the audience.
He sat on the stage after the show and talked to students. He asked about where they were from, their majors, their involvement on campus and what their career goals were.
When talking about his upcoming plans pertaining to his comedy career, Knopsnyder revealed that he is eager to help current college students who are struggling with college debt.
“I’m gonna start a student loan forgiveness tour which is essentially coming to a school, doing a comedy show, and then at the end of the show I’m gonna give away a $500 scholarship,” said Knopsnyder. “For someone that’s tuition, or books or something, so it’s just my way of combating the outrageous student loans.”
The Student Events Team gave out Fidget Spinners at the door, but that was not the only thing that audience members received that night. Knopsnyder also gave away a Starbuck’s gift card and signed free posters for any student who was interested at the end of the show.
“You can literally make someone else’s day a little bit better just by smiling at them. For me, this is my smile, I get to make you guys laugh for an hour and make you forget about that test or assignment, even just for a little while.” said Knopsnyder.
