By Rachel Gow

Erin Kiernan, FCRH `19 wore thong underpants backwards for three years, a story she told a packed Fordham Prep theater on Sunday night to roars of laughter and applause. Kiernan won the campus stand-up competition, granting her a spot in the star-studded comedy line up.

She, as well as Andy Vega, FCRH `21, opened up for Alex Moffat and Mikey Day, two “Saturday Night Live” comedians best known for their bits as Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., respectively. ,

Vega kicked off the comedy event with a short stand-up routine. He poked fun at himself, especially his efforts to hide his sexuality in high school, comparing the act to playing a video game.

“Sometimes I liked to play on difficult,” he joked, “I did theatre and went to prom with a group of friends.”
Andy’s confident stage presence and relatable content made him instantly likeable among the audience.

He was followed by Kiernan, who told a number of anecdotes along with her thong story —apparently her grandmother thought pickles had a thousand calories and subsequently stopped eating them. Kiernan joked the same way she would with a group of friends.

This ease and nonchalant nature added a special quality to her performance and made it my personal favorite of the night.
The student performers were then followed by the professionals who had much longer routines. Day performed first, beginning with some well received Fordham humor.

One bit hit especially close to home as Day parodied the differences between The Ram and the paper, Fordham’s two main student publications. He then parlayed into sure to please parents-being-bad-at-technology humor.

However, because of his unique means of parental manipulation (he told his dad he had been signed up for an automated hat service that would send hat emojis each day), it strayed from the typical clichés and landed better than expected.
Day finished with some anecdotes about embarrassing adolescent attempts at talking to girls, asking a Fordham student to play his seventh-grade love interest.

Moffat followed, beginning his routine with his German alter ego. While the accent was a hit, some of the jokes failed to land, something Moffat acknowledged after.

“I love performing to a room of 600 angry and confused students,” he said. “To those nine that enjoyed it, thank you.”
He then started a series of short comedy bits, making fun of Fordham’s Ram Van service, messing up lines from famous movies, interacting with audience members and playing “Piano Man” by Billy Joel on the piano.

Moffat’s humor tended towards the more crude side and he continually teased that Fordham may not pay him. Moffat’s ability to adapt his jokes in response to the audience exemplified his professionalism; it was evident he had performed many times and was comfortable on stage.

Both “SNL” comedians poked subtle fun at Fordham and its students for religious affiliation, wondering how inappropriate they were allowed to be or how godly a service called the Ram Van could be.

This was similar to comments made by Bryce Vine during the Spring Weekend concert as he pointed out students drinking in the crowd. For all performers, the jokes landed well.