Maine Student Entertainment announced the first real entertainment of the year this month the loveable actor gone raunchy comedian Bob Saget. Believe me when I say that I would have put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence if I was actually legitimately excited. Bob Saget, really Maine? What in the world is Student Entertainment thinking? Sure we all love Bob Saget because most of the student body grew up watching ‘Full House’, I’d even say I learned a majority of my morale family values from Danny Tanner himself... There are a few problems I have with Student Entertainment thinking Bob Saget is a good choice for our entertainment and they stem a bit from my competitive nature. The first problem I have with this is Bob Saget is old. Vice President of Student Entertainment Mehdizadegan said, “Saget will appeal to an older audience”. Read that twice and let it sink in for a moment. Now that’s just so blatant I’m not even going to rip into it right now. Let me take this another direction. Even if Bob Saget’s jokes are raunchy and over the top (which I like) and driven by sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll (and who doesn’t love those three things?), there is the idea that most people who go to see his show likely have parents about the same age as Bob Saget (53). I don’t want to hear jokes about sex, drugs, and rock n roll from my mom or dad, I want to hear it from a peer. Right now you may be thinking ‘Hey, he’s funny so get over it and stop thinking about your parents telling you sex jokes’; now you’re right if you’re thinking this but it’s only because you may not realize what we could have had.
Just a side note: As a competitive college student and having grown up in New Hampshire just 15 minutes from the campus of UNH I’ve taken more criticism and had more one-liner jokes about the state of Maine thrown at me over the past two years by friends, family and all other acquaintances than you could imagine. I’ve answered more ‘So why did you choose Maine?’ questions than you could imagine. I’ve always defended my decision and I still do to this day and will continue to because I love the situation I’m in and I love this campus and this school, however, Student Entertainment really screwed the pooch here and they have me really upset because they let UNH severely outperform them, especially so far this school year. Last year UNH had, Lupe Fiasco and Jimmy Fallon as their notable entertainment while Maine had OAR, Dropkick Murphy’s, and Demetri Martin. With all due respect you could probably call that first year a draw. Lupe Fiasco whether you like the type of music or not is a big act, a very big act, while Jimmy Fallon is a corky comedian, nothing great but not a complete failure. OAR and Dropkick Murphy’s were both solid grade B high energy acts, nothing big like Akon but they held their own while Demetri Martin was an excellent pick-up a young comedian arguably at the top of his game and undoubtedly 100x better than Jimmy Fallon. Now you fast forward to this year and you see Maine brought in Dierks Bentley, known almost exclusively to Mainers, and then the Decemberists (who?) while UNH’s SCOPE bring in Akon for their first act, a great pick-up as Akon is another big act like Lupe Fiasco, like the music or not. Maine counters this with Bob Saget, yeah, Maine just answered an Akon performance with Bob Saget. Just a week or so after Maine announces Bob Saget as our first comedian (note that UNH definitely won the battle of the music groups round, with one man (Akon) beating a band (Decemberists) and single artist (Dierks Bentley)) UNH’s SCOPE answers the call and absolutely, un-relentlessly, ridiculously owns the crap out of us by announcing their first comic act of the year, Bo Burnham. The moment this was announced I received ten texts from different UNH students rubbing it in my face. Ouch. I don’t want to hear about all the reasons with money, our location, our appeal, our audience why we can’t get big acts to come to Maine. I am not in college to be told why I can’t be entertained. I want big shows to be here. We are a college campus comparable in size to UNH and our students deserve better. How can we sit here and continue to see UNH’s SCOPE bring in bigger names and not start to wonder why our Student Entertainment can’t seem to compete?
If there is any and I mean any sense of Black Bear Pride in any part of the Maine Student Entertainment then we should expect to see at least one huge name announced for this year. If nothing else I said made sense, appealed to, or convinces any of you, please just consider the following. Prices for the shows for students (at both schools) range from about $18-$22. Essentially we are looking at what a student is getting for their $20.
If you look at it like this you’ll see why Maine is getting romped on and why I’m upset:
What UNH students can get for $100: Jimmy Fallon, Lupe Fiasco, Guster, Akon, Bo Burnham.
What Maine Students can get for $120: OAR, Dropkick Murphy’s, Demetri Martin, The Decemberists, Dierks Bentley, Bob Saget.
(just an interesting side note that I’m not going into detail about because I’m tired, but in 2007-2008 UNH SCOPE brought in Demetri Martin, Dropkick Murphy’s, Snoop Dogg, Ghostface Killah, and G-Love and Special Sauce) – You can see how that makes us, Maine, posers and is just an insanely awesome line-up of entertainment…
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
This 1984 UNH Rap is the Greatest thing ever.
10 years ago
