Comic takes shots at college life

Steve Hofstetter ridiculed the Hilton sisters for being “the best hookers ever,” attacked the… Steve Hofstetter ridiculed the Hilton sisters for being “the best hookers ever,” attacked the futility of prejudice and racism, and devoted a large segment of his stand-up act to lampooning The Pitt News.

Hofstetter — the head writer for collegehumor.com and a man with 93,000 Facebook friends — visited Pitt’s campus Sunday night.

Tackling The Pitt News, Hofstetter referred to the “Panther Ponderings” section as “What do the dumb kids think?” and joked about the police blotter reporting the heinous crime of burnt popcorn activating a fire alarm. He also pointed out what he deemed an excessive number of classified ads, and wondered why Friday’s leading campus story took place in Buenos Aires.

“I make fun of school papers a decent amount. It personalizes the show,” the 25-year-old comedian said after the show, as he sold copies of his book, “Student Body Shots,” and his comedy CD, Tastes Like Bliss.

“It shows I took time to go through [the paper],” he said, adding that it means “this is a different show than when you see me anywhere else.”

Hofstetter and his opening act, Steve Boyer, further personalized the show by poking fun at the rather ornate William Pitt Union Ballroom, which Boyer referred to as “the set of ‘Beauty and the Beast.'” Hofstetter repeatedly joked that he felt he was attending a bar mitzvah.

As “the thinking man’s comic,” Hofstetter reportedly travels to more than 100 colleges each year. To perform at Pitt, he contacted the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, which hosted the event. Phi Sig President Jake McGlynn introduced the event, which featured an opening speech by Special Olympics athlete Cece Wagner. Proceeds from the event went to the Special Olympics.

“We play a lot of shows that fraternities bring us in for,” Boyer said while signing 8.5-by-11-inch prints. “Sometimes they choose to put us into charity shows.”

In Boyer’s opening act, he ridiculed himself as a having been a “big geek in high school, whose ‘Dungeons and Dragons’ characters had asthma.” He described such college learning experiences as “how to bong a beer while convincing two drunk girls to make out,” and performed a remarkable Michael J. Fox impression that portrayed the actor as Frodo in “Lord of the Rings.”

“Wow, we could have done this show in my car,” Boyer remarked at the start of his act, laughing at the small crowd that became a running theme in the main attraction’s performance. Both comedians offered humorous anecdotes about voting and dating, and Hofstetter tackled contemporary issues like gas prices, the death of the pope and the Federal Communications Commission.

Hofstetter, who is the host of “4 Quotas” on Sirius Satellite Radio, also took on the subject of President George W. Bush, saying that “he means well,” but “that’s like setting someone up with a girl and saying she’s got a really good personality.”

In the comic tradition of self-deprecating humor, Hofstetter also joked about his Jewish heritage and the common misconception that he is Irish, thanks to his red hair and light skin.