Arts and Entertainment
Hardwick laughs it up on the Bicentennial weekend
By Taylor Coe '13, Arts & Entertainment Editor
September 22, 2011
Amidst the hurricane of dry academic lectures and historical walking tours occurring this weekend, CAB has thrown a curveball into the long-winded Bicentennial schedule in the person of Chris Hardwick, who will headline CAB Comedy’s second show of the year on Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn.
Best known as the host of the popular “The Nerdist” podcast, Hardwick has created what amounts to essentially a comedic empire over the past 20 years.
As scattershot as his long list of ventures and credits is, Hardwick has proven himself a true maverick. Despite his intense involvement with new media—Time magazine called his Twitter feed one of 140 Twitter users who “are shaping the conversation”—Hardwick not only maintains not only a serious television presence, with regular appearances on late-night shows “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “Chelsea Lately,” but even contributes to Wired magazine.
While Hardwick’s stand-up does not possess the same frantic originality and blatant (albeit entertaining) “nerdiness” of his podcasts, he still has a commanding stage presence. A highlight of his stand-up routine is his fantastic “redneck” imitation, which comes in handy when he’s talking about the hokey bric-a-brac for sale inside Cracker Barrel restaurants. The whole Southern angle, in fact, comes from Hardwick’s upbringing in Nashville, TN, which he has on occasion referred to as “growing up as a hick.”
But it’s not simply that Hardwick has lived a humorous life; he finds humor where others would find stress and annoyance. In an article for Wired on, of all things, the merits of self-help books, Hardwick reports his encounter with a dead squirrel in his yard.
After looking up the procedures for disposing of a dead squirrel, Hardwick stumbles across the Wikipedia entry for squirrels, noting that the deceased creature in his yard is a pine squirrel. Hardwick’s reaction, of course, is that of the prototypical lemonade-maker; he writes down “pine squirrel” for use in a joke that he has not yet thought of.
But more impressive than his zest for life and his broad range of projects is the fact that he doesn’t stretch himself thin. Hardwick maintains the same affable presence in all his various guises, including the voice of a talking cow on the Nickelodeon show Back to the Barnyard and half of the musical comedy duo Hard ’n Phirm. More than any role, however, we cannot overlook Hardwick’s role on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd as none other than Alexander Hamilton.
So clearly, Hardwick will only demonstrate one facet of his many talents on Saturday night. Stuck into the chaotic schedule of Bicentennial weekend, Hardwick’s show will surely butt up against other worthy events, but one will be hard-pressed to find any lecturer quite so funny as Hardwick. Additionally, on Saturday afternoon, Yodapez, the College’s premiere sketch comedy group, will host their own Bicentennial show. Treat their show—at 4:30 p.m., also in the Events Barn—if you will, as an appetizer.