Comedian Louis Ramey Plays Oneonta

As warmer weather begins to melt the snow and ice off of Oneonta's landscape, comedian Louis Ramey heated SUNY Oneonta from the inside out, performing at CUAC's Laugh In on February 9.

Ramey, an Atlanta, GA. native, has appeared on the show "Last Comic Standing," where he finished in fifth place, and performed on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." He has performed at Oneonta before, and was enthusiastic to return.

"I remember the last time I drove in I saw snow everywhere. I thought, man this has got to be the worst place on earth... to shoot a 'Girls Gone Wild' video.""

The audience responded loudly to the jabs Ramey took at the college town.

"I plugged the address into my GPS and it said 'No.' Eventually it took me left, right, right, left, and all I kept seeing were people's backyards" Ramey said with a frustrated look on his face. "Then it takes me down a drive way, and wow! There's a college in someone's backyard."

He also shared his thoughts on Wal-Mart. "Lord knows I love a Super Wal-Mart. My favorite thing to do is go there at three in the morning, go inside buy shotgun shells and one home pregnancy test. That's all I need," Ramey said deadpan. "Then I just wait on the questions."

The comedian described members of his family, in particular his grandfather.

"He's 95. He lives in Cincinnati, likes to drive classic cars. Each year on Thanksgiving he drives to Atlanta and we try to steal the keys," said Ramey. "But he also collects guns."

He also mentioned how before the show he received a call from his mother. Ramey found out his grandfather had Alzheimer's and it might be hereditary. Clearly not the funniest bit of news, Ramey creatively spun it into a hilarious joke, repeating it three different times and making the audience burst into laughter.

Ramey exhibited great skill at extending jokes by using pauses. One punch line would come right after another, the crowd laughing louder each time. He also toyed with the audience, poking fun at someone's Star Wars shirt ("You're never getting laid man!") and a group of kids in the front row.

"You can always tell the potheads. We have the Olympic hackeysack team over here," said Ramey while the audience clutched their sides.

Towards the middle of the set, Ramey turned to politics, education, the environment and Obama. "This was the oddest presidential election ever for me," Ramey said in a serious tone. "Afterwards my neighbor said to me congratulations on Obama, and I could not figure out if he was being racist or not. So I said back to him 'Congratulations on OJ'."

One of Ramey's funniest bits of the night was when he joked about his education history. After picking on a few students in the audience, Ramey said he shouldn't mock them considering he graduated high school and got a football scholarship to DeVry University. Only half the audience laughed, but joined in moments later when Ramey let them know it's a online school with no football team.

Ramey spoke about how his career has enabled him to travel and see places he never would have seen. "I went to central Canada and I have one word to describe that place, diverse," Ramey said with a straight face. "Yeah that's sarcasm. Everyone is white and there's snow. I was pumping gas and I heard someone say 'I think that's Tiki Barber'."

After the audience was done laughing, Ramey delivered another joke, "Either that or Hootie," to which the crowd gave thunderous round of applause.

Ramey ended the night with a hilarious impression of deep throated singer Barry White as a five year old, and then proceeded to make his best joke of the night. As the audience was laughing he commented about one of the rows of students in the crowd. "It looks like the reunion of 'Saved By the Bell' over here."

He left the stage with the audience on their feet and then jumped back out from behind the curtain for a second go around.

"The show was great, I couldn't stop laughing. He just might be the best comedian to come to Oneonta all semester," said Josh Lefkowitz, present at the show. "I thought some of his best material was when he was making fun of Oneonta."