Students gather, taking their seats after putting their name in the raffle. As the show began, the lights dim in the Jackson Conference Center, audience members hushed to a whisper.
Out comes Tyler Korso running on stage, ready to greet the EvCC audience with comedy, magical acts, and family friendly antics.
“If you don’t like comedy, relax: there’s gonna be magic. If you don’t like magic, relax: there’s gonna be comedy. If you don’t like either, relax: there’s the door,” Korso said. “There’s a lot of options here for ya. I wanna make sure you guys have a good time and a good show.”
The Jokes and Jinxes event, which took place Jan. 29 from 2-3 P.M, was organized by TAB coordinator Katherine “Katie” Le, who opened the act by welcoming everyone to help themselves to free amenities before introducing the stand-up comedian/magician to the audience.
“During the fall quarter, we go to a conference in Chicago and then get to view these acts of performers. I was really amazed by the performance and we thought of bringing him back here to show our school as well,” Le said. “There were a lot of magicians and comedians, but he stood out to us because he did both comedy and magic and the way he does it wasn’t offensive or anything.”
To warm up the audience, Korso began by performing a disappearing red ball and pen icebreaker while encouraging them to count to three. When the audience didn’t count the first time, he brought out a few laughs with his deadpan question to them. “One, two…why aren’t you counting?” With the tension broken, the audience began to count along.
Korso, throughout his show, utilized lots of ordinary items to create his illusions. A handful of items, each fitting in a small bag were his go-to. His acts were simple and watered down to their base essence, allowing him to supplement his routine with comedy.
“At the end of the day, I realized I didn’t want people thinking I could walk through walls, you know. I wanted them to have a good time and comedy was a really great way of doing that. I’m pretty much joking with the audience until the very last two seconds and then suddenly the essence of the magic hits and it never felt like there wasn’t magic in that moment,” Korso said.
The next skits opened up with a longer comedy section, such as hitting right on the bullseye about how schools are known for one of two things: “something racist or something haunted.” In our case happens to be the Parks Student Union library haunting of 87. This led into the audience’s thoughts on sports with several members raising their hands when asked if they liked football. More specifically, the Buffalo Bills. Luckily, it didn’t seem like there were any “Bills Mafia” members as Korso and others called them in the crowd that day as Korso began to tell the audience his “Bills Mafia” story.
“The show is happening in real time, which is why I love comedy; I can change the comedy to fit the audience. If they don’t get football at all, we don’t have to do the Buffalo Bills joke, but if some people are on board with it, then we’re gonna talk about it,” Korso.
For non-sports fans, the sheer thought of horrid coincidences combining together — where you just so happen to catch a flight where everyone in an entire plane is heading to Kansas City. The home of their team’s mortal enemy and your home.
And in this case, you just so happen to sit next to the family of Josh Allen, who happens to be the Bills’ quarterback in an exit row of all things. Where the people on the plane are more than willing to throw you out for so much as being suspected of being a Kansas City native was a delight for the imagination. Because “Go Bills!”, am I right?
The climax of the show came when participants were invited on stage to help as assistants in the final acts. Two students came up to help tie Korso’s wrists in an escape act like event, coaxing the crowd with many smiles from the two participants. “Folks, do we want it tighter?” Korso said. “Tighter” the audience chanted. Despite the double-knotted rope, Korso was able to escape his bindings in a matter of seconds.
“Audience participation does get the crowd a lot more interested in your show. It means that the show is never the same. What someone decides to yell out at me when I’m doing the rope trick versus what someone says about the bottle trick tomorrow, it’s never the same,” Korso.
The last participant was called up to the stage and asked to pick a card. Once they did, Korso gave them a pen and asked them to write their name on the card. At first, after shuffling the deck and handing it to his assistant, everyone watched as Korso was going to throw a knife at the right card. “Three, two — why is nobody stopping this? None of you is going to be like: Hey, maybe don’t?” said Korso. Of course, it was an act.
While questioning our sanities, he gave the participant a screwdriver while he took the deck instead. The participant held up the screwdriver with the audience clapping in unison, Korso took the deck, shuffled it inside a paper bag, stabbing the bag and the deck of cards onto the tip of the screwdriver. As he ripped away the bag, it revealed the participant’s fabled marked card: The “3 of Hearts” with their name written across the whole card, earning a round of applause from the audience members.
As the show closed and the winner of the $50 VISA raffle was chosen, students left with fun memories and little moments to talk about with their friends. A couple students were gathered together, laughing and discussing amongst themselves.
“The value that I know that campuses get out of it is having events like these to bond over. When you guys are in school and you’re sometimes leaving the town where you’ve lived in your whole life and you’ve got to make new friends, one of the best ways to do that sometimes is just activities together. So having an activity that you sat through an hour and bonded together and laughed together and whatnot, it offers that chance so I’m really happy that schools do that entertainment every like week or two” said Korso.
Whether it’s about blowing off stress or spending time with our classmates or loved ones, a little whimsy in our days offers a way for us to enjoy our time here at EvCC. Taking our time to come together and have a good time with our fellow attendees allows us to bond and create memories within our community. Sometimes all we need is a good moment like that. Life we can live in the moment is one worth joking and writing home about.
“One of the biggest things I’ve heard and been taught is: live your life,” said Korso.
“If you want to be able to do comedy and talk about life, you have to live. So you have to be out there. Be at bad shows, be at good shows, be at stuff that you can talk about.”
