A (funny) Man of His own accord

Actor and comedian Nick Cannon came to USC on Tuesday night to perform a comedy show for a packed crowd in Bovard Auditorium.

Cannon, who now hosts NBC’s hit show America’s Got Talent, pleased the crowd with an hour of solid material focusing on topics including college life, growing up poor and being married to pop sensation Mariah Carey. Cannon had students holding their sides in laughter as he poked fun at himself and his career during the set.

Before Cannon went on stage, a pastor came on as the opening act — no man of the cloth, but Pastor Case, a comedian decked out in a full pastor’s robes.

Case did well as an opening act and hype man, but his material itself was hit or miss. He had control of the crowd for a second with a bit about his ex-girlfriend from hell but lost it the next by continuously trying to get the audience to chant and repeat things he said.

At the end of Case’s short set, he purposefully dropped the mic to the floor, an act reserved for top comedians after killing a huge crowd, certainly not for a 10-minute opening act. However, the comedian did his job and warmed up the crowd for the man they all came to see.

“I always wanted to go to USC,” Cannon said. “I just had one problem: learning.”

After greeting the students of the “University of South Central,” as the comedian put it, Cannon explained that he wanted to go backstage and come out with a different introduction.

After walking offstage, he came back on to an introduction that poked fun of his lackluster rap albums and subpar acting career. As the crowd roared with laughter, the theme was set for the performance and the show began to roll.

One of Cannon’s best parts of his comedic arsenal is that he knows how to please the crowd. Right off the bat he knew how to get the crowd excited and incorporated different audience members in his act, poking fun at each one.

The impromptu assistants were all good sports, however and it made for a great show atmosphere.

Though Cannon opened up with some sophomoric material on college sex life, his act quickly picked up and it was clear that he was much more than just a television host — he was a full-fledged comic.

Later in the set, Cannon turned his focus to his relationship with Carey. He joked that when people ask him how he managed to marry Carey, all he says is “I don’t know.”

He continued to say how his life is really just a successful game of Mash, a childhood game where people fantasize about their dream spouses and dream careers. Cannon of course said Carey was always No. 1 on his Mash list, a joke the crowd gladly ate up.

“I love being married, but let me tell you, the one bad thing about being married to Mariah Carey is that now people think they can come up to me and say anything they want about my wife,” Cannon said. “They’re like, ‘You don’t know what to do with all that woman.  If that were me, I’d have her hitting all the high notes.’ And I’m like, ‘Dad come on.”

Cannon did not shy away from the subject of being Carey’s “made man,” but rather openly joked about it, telling the crowd the couple is so wealthy they are “recession-free.”

Cannon continued to say that people still do not believe he is married to Carey, comparing the news to someone trying to tell him Halle Berry just married Soulja Boy.

“I wouldn’t believe me either,” he said.

Since arriving on scene at Nickelodeon’s teen sketch comedy show All That, Cannon’s strong point has always been impressions, and he presented an array of them to a very accepting crowd.

He did a quick Dave Chappelle and a classic Adam Sandler, but what had the audience in stitches was his impression of Denzel Washington, telling a story of meeting Washington at a nightclub where the legendary actor gave unusual marriage advice: hit on other women.

The comedian finished strong by talking about his upbringings and dysfunctional family — a cornerstone of almost any famous comedian’s act — explaining that despite all of his wealth he tries to stay “poor at heart.”

Cannon praised his mother, who raised him by herself, but still managed to find humor in the fact they could not afford a lot growing up, such as name brand cereals. Canon joked that instead of Tony the Tiger and Snap, Crackle, and Pop, he grew up with “Tyrone the Tiger” and “Smack, Crackhead and Pot.”

Cannon reminded the audience Tuesday night at Bovard why he became famous in the first place: He is funny. Cannon got a hold of the crowd and never let go during the set, and the result was hundreds of satisfied students. Though Cannon might be content with hosting a show and living the dream with his pop bride, it must be good to know he has a fallback career in comedy.