Hal Sparks comes to town: a small creepy town

Fall feature performer Hal Sparks traveled to Rindge to share his comedy with Franklin Pierce on Friday, October 24.

The Pierce Activities Council planned the performance for the entire school held in the field house. Sparks, being from small town himself, had no trouble poking fun at the campus' location. "Rindge is beautiful. It has that kind of 'Camp Crystal Lake' latent serial killer vibe," said Sparks opening up his entertaining performance.

Hal Sparks said he knew he was funny at a young age. "I think when I was 8 years old I made my grandmother laugh. She probably supported me in comedy the most, I talk about it a bit in my stand-up," said Sparks. He described how he listened to old comedy records when he was young, and really studied how to be funny. "Being a comedian is kind of like being a farmer, you work at it from dawn 'til dusk everyday just trying to be funny." He recalled his childhood class clown title, and how he always wanted to go into comedy. "I never had a fall back job. Having a fall back job is the worst possible option. That gives you a soft landing. You don't want a soft landing; you want a pit of nails under you to some degree. If I don't win I'm screwed ya know? I mean that's a motivator."

Before the show even began, the funny guy had the media staff falling out of their seats, and the same performance continued throughout the show. Freshman Michael Brown said, "I thought he was hilarious. He was actually a lot funnier than what I had anticipated. I didn't think I would get that much of a laugh out of him, but I did." Hal Sparks poked a little fun at how hard Brown was laughing during the show, making him laugh even harder.

Overall, there seemed to be a positive response on campus to the performance. Freshman Meaghan Stuart said, "Some of the parts were a little odd, but it was good." Freshman Heather Brown could not resist laughing. Brown said, "I actually wasn't expecting it to be that funny. I've seen him on 'I love the 80s' and stuff like that, and I knew he was funny, but I thought a lot of it was scripted. When he came here I was like, this dude is hilarious."

Sparks commented on what it must feel like to be a T-Rex, and how the nickname of a tart came about. He created his own theme song and talked about the essentials of college life.

As a whole he delivered an amazing performance acclaimed by students on campus.