Comedians Chris D’Elia, Michael Lenoci make Family Weekend funny

Remember, you are not the Denzel Washington of your life movie.

Chris D’Elia cracked up a sold-out crowd in Goldstein Auditorium with jokes like that as part of University Union’s Family Weekend comedy show Saturday night. Stand-up comedian Michael Lenoci opened for D’Elia.

Lenoci, who explained his bio as “32. Single. That’s my life,” spent his 30 minutes focused on jokes about relationships. His understanding of relationships: “You’re pretending until you can trick them into falling for you.”

Photo: Halle Cook

Some of Lenoci’s jokes, though, had some audience members groaning at their explicit content — which D’Elia, at the beginning of his set, was quick to call the audience out on.

“You were groaning at Mike’s jokes,” D’Elia said. “I’m way worse than Mike.”

True to the point of having an opener, Lenoci warmed up the audience for a more explicit set to follow, but one that was well-received.

D’Elia, who admitted he had absolutely no idea where he was (check out his Instagram video about getting lost in Syracuse with Lenoci), started his set with his own rendition of George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words” —selecting slightly different words, but having the same effect. It was only made more entertaining when D’Elia laughed hysterically at the interpreter signing the list.

The classic D’Elia annoying girl voice, stupid dude voice and adorable little kid voice from his Netflix comedy special Incorrigible made their appearances during his one-hour set. Though, as D’Elia said between life advice masquerading as jokes, “This isn’t a comedy show. It’s a f------TED Talk.”

D’Elia, who sometimes (intentionally or unintentionally) sticks his middle finger out when he holds his microphone, brought his best storytelling to the stage. Each anecdote that branched out into other jokes always made its way back around to the beginning. He never lost his way, even when the audience pulled him back into reality.

After insisting that anyone over 9 years old is too old to have a birthday party, D’Elia outed an audience member for recording the set on her phone. D’Elia, bringing his joke back around, reminded her life is not her movie, and quickly reassured the audience he was enjoying himself. Even though he still had no idea where he was.

The embarassed audience member wasn’t the only person D’Elia called out during his “TED Talk.” He called out the “fitspo” community (“Who are you inspiring?”), parents (for being parents) and anyone who thinks love is fun (“Love is shitty and that’s not negative.”)

The audience who began as families groaning at Lenoci’s sex jokes, turned into the other side of D’Elia’s conversation, laughing themselves into coughing fits while he finished his stories in between his own laughter.