‘Dip set, in the building!’ They may have been in the building, but they were absolutely not in the house.

The National Pan-Hellenic Council sponsored a Greek Unity Fest comedy show and concert last Friday, featuring performances by Dominique, Arnez J. and Juelz Santana.

The comedians opened up the night with jokes about different ethnicities and issues in the world. The majority of the time they poked fun at the stereotypes attached to white people, but also made everyone in the audience feel welcome by joking about all ethnicities. The two comedians did the rounds and made fun of starving Ethiopians, the new age of slavery involving Asians and their computers, black people and their tendencies to ignore bill collectors and white people’s obsession with black culture.

Syracuse University students either came to be rescued from an evening of boredom or to enjoy the comedy. Theresa Gray, a freshman, biology/pre-medicine major, said, ‘I pretty much came for the comedy … Juelz can do his little thing, but I just want to see what all the hype is about him.’

Some locals, though, preferred Santana.

‘I’m out here to do what I do and represent Harlem’s finest, baby,’ said Michael Thornton, an East Syracuse resident.

Security for the show was also put on the spot and made fun of. Everyone’s favorite target was the large man who, according to Dominique, will stomp one of his feet and tell the fleeing perpetrators not to return again.

Arnez J.’s funniest jokes involved comparisons about how different ethnic groups respond to certain problems.

According to Arnez, white women talk about their cheating boyfriends to their girlfriends while crying, Latino women hassle their men while jingling his car keys in his face and black women will walk away questioning the situation and turn around to start a huge confrontation.

The Diplomat’s DJ finally came out once the comedy had finished and started the long-awaited performance by Santana. Santana started the performance with his latest single ‘Oh Yes’ and later performed hits like ‘There It Go,’ ‘This Is What I Do’ and ‘Oh Boy.’

The majority of the concert involved the fill-in effect, which involves the artist performing a portion of songs while the crowd fills in the parts and the performer is quiet. This made the whole thing seem choppy and awkward. The concert was not all that it could be, although the crowd had quite a bit of energy. However, a lot of people were disappointed at the length of the performance.

‘He only performed for about 40 minutes,’ said Alex Rodriguez, a sophomore biology/pre-medicine major. ‘It could have been longer, but it was still a good performance.’

Published on April 23, 2006 at 12:00 pm