Hunter O. Lyle—Sports Editor & Max Vadakin—Contributor
For the third time at the John Lyman Center, comedian Tom Segura captivated the audience, leaving them hysterically laughing throughout the entire show.
For his “Take It Down Tour,” during which Segura also performed in San Francisco, California, Houston, Texas, and Washington D.C., the comedian’s team contacted the Lyman Center to see about the possibility of booking a show.
“It’s interesting, [Segura] reached out to us and offered us the spot,” said Lawrence Tomascak, director of the Lyman Center. “We had him twice, this is the third time he’s been here. We had him when he was really just starting out, when he was earlier in his career in terms of notoriety. The second time he was here a lot more people knew who he was and now, a lot of people know who he is now.”
Segura first performed at Lyman in November 2015, and then again in April 2017 for his “No Teeth, No Entry” tour, in which the theatre of 1,500 seats was nearly sold out.
This time around, the Lyman Center was completely sold out, and Segura’s growing popularity warranted a second show.
“We went on sale in October and it was pretty much sold out before Christmas,” said Tomascak. “And then, [Segura’s team] was like, ‘You gotta add another show, you gotta add another show, you’re crazy if you don’t add another show.’ So, we added another show and it’s pretty much sold out.”
After the show was opened by J. Elvis Weinstein, who wrote for the show “Freaks and Geeks” and “Mystery Science Theatre 3000,” Segura took the stage, and from that moment, he had the crowd. As he walked out, the audience became ecstatic, with cheers, chants, and a large portion giving a standing ovation.
Allison Vanderlyn, a freshman early childhood education major, bought the tickets as a Christmas present for her boyfriend, who is a huge fan of Segura.
“I think it was really good,” said Vanderlyn. “He had a lot of original jokes that I’ve never really heard before from anyone.”
Vanderlyn, who had never seen a live comedy show before, said based off this performance, she would definitely see another comedian at Lyman.
Throughout the hour and a half show, Segura talked about topics such as family, Louisiana, poverty in America, society, and Louisiana some more.
Besides the students on campus, people from all over Connecticut and throughout the tri-state area came to see the show, like Josh Johannesen who drove over an hour and a half to see Segura.
“Well I’ve seen Tom Segura, I’ve definitely seen all his Netflix specials, I listen to his podcast sometimes, he’s just like a super funny guy, and I wanted to have that actual experience of seeing him in person,” said Johannesen. “It was great. It was way better than seeing any special.”
Johannesen also said that seeing Segura perform for a sold out show enhanced the experience.
“It was definitely better than if it was a not-so-packed house, just because there are some people that just have contagious laughter and that definitely helps,” said Johannesen. “You feed off the crowd, and also the comedian feeds off the crowd.”
By the end of the show, audience members had tears rolling down their faces, hunched over from the pain of laughter. The standing ovation from the crowd seemed to show that Segura is always welcomed at Southern.
