Connor Wood, Vice’s “Accidental Girls’ Girl Comedian,” gave a phenomenal show Monday night at the Rathskeller. Wood previously visited Miami Improv in October, returning to share his jokes with Canes.
“It went really great,” Sal Puma, the Rathskeller Advisory Board chair, said. “We had a long line and we didn’t have to cut anyone off either. People loved him, and we had a giant crowd. Couldn’t be any better.”
The line was filled with people buzzing with excitement, waiting over an hour to get into the Rat. At 8 p.m., the show got on its way as Maggie Winters, a comedian and internet personality on tour with Wood, opened for him with a 15-minute set.
“Maggie was amazing,” Puma said. “I didn’t know her until we hired her because she came with Wood, but I definitely do follow her socials now. She’s really funny and she was very conversational, not awkward at all.”
Her set began with a lot of crowd work, and made people laugh with her jokes about ducks, clubbing in Miami and Alix Earle. She also asked about the crowd’s majors of study and gave her own thoughts about college.
With five minutes left in her set, she voiced her complaints about Disney’s Paris theme park.
“The French don’t deserve a theme park,” Winters said. “Their best ride: smoking a cigarette with Olaf.”
She worked the crowd well, making them laugh seemingly every five seconds.
With the end of her set at 8:15, she welcomed Connor Wood to the stage to the cheers of the crowd.
“He was just as nervous as I was,” Puma said. “But it was great. He did an amazing job, and people loved it.”
Jolly as ever, wearing his signature green hat with a W on it, but missing one important thing: His joke journal. Fortunately, he felt safe in the Rathskeller once he confirmed that it was a campus bar.
After loosening up the crowd a little, he began his crowd work, asking about people’s majors, goals and future plans. He also gave some advice about using LinkedIn: Lie.
“Nobody checks what you say,” Wood said. “Lie on your applications, but just delete your old tweets.”
He also talked about what people he looks like: A lesbian, a terracotta pot and American soccer star Megan Rapinoe. During a joke about smoking weed, he was interrupted by someone saying “good evening” over the speaker.
“God?” Wood said. “Sorry, I must be high right now too.”
Wood had a fun time interacting with several law students in the crowd, getting comments from them a few times and having a fun time messing with them about how boring law school is.
He ended his set recreating his middle school dance, where he asked a girl to grind on him along to the song “No Hands” by Waka Flocka Flame.
“He was perfect,” Puma said. “He did amazing crowd work and everything worked out.”
After his set, Wood took some time to have a Q&A session, where we has was asked about his red flags (narcissism), his experience at the Grammy Awards (hanging out with the cast of Love Island) and about other topics he’s discussed on his podcast, Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast.
Both Winters’ and Wood’s sets were top tier. Winters definitely deserves herself a longer set, while Wood continues to prove that he can excel as a headline comedian.
Rating: 10/10