A Southern belle brought humor and charm to Colorado State University-Pueblo.Comedienne, Jen Kober, entertained students in the Occhiato University Center ballroom on Wednesday, March 18.
Kober made fun of audience members and joked about her weight, video games and her home state of Louisiana. She acted out a lot of the jokes, and even had a funny tagline, “delicious”.
The show, which was opened by Gustavo, the winner of Last Wolf Standing, received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Kober, who is originally from Lake Charles, La., has been performing comedy for over 10 years. Kober said she got her start at 16 when she and a friend went to an open-mic night.
“I wasn’t old enough to get it, so I lied about my age.” Kober said.
“I just told street jokes and it was awesome because for the first time, people were laughing at my jokes. They thought that I was funny.”
She was classically trained at The Theatre School of DePaul University in Chicago. Kober said even though she wasn’t there for very long, she got to learn about all the work that goes into performing a live show.
Kober also studied at Improv Olympic and The Second City. There, she was taught by Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch.
“Second City was incredible. They taught us how to become a writer and how to perform better sketch and improv comedy,” Kober said.
She has also written several one-woman shows.
Kober’s show “sUbcIty” was the winner of The Directors’ Choice Award at the Kennedy Center Theatre Festival. Kober, who plays seven different people, said the show is about people who were living in her building in Chicago.
“The best part about winning the award was the fact that it was directors’ choice.” Kober said.
“Directors who also have plays in the show got to vote and they voted for mine. It was great to be noticed by my peers. It was cool that they thought I did a good job.”.
She was the runner-up in the MySpace Stand Up or Sit Down comedy Challenge in 2006, which aired on TBS and HBO.
“The challenge was an awesome experience. I got to go to Las Vegas for the Challenge, which was a part of the Las Vegas Comedy Festival,” Kober said.
“I was with a lot of other comedians, like Dave Chapelle and Ellen DeGeneres. It was awesome that Ellen laughed at me.”
She has also toured successfully with her improvised one woman shows, “Junk in My Trunk” and “My Big Fat Comedy Show” and appeared on Showtime’s “White Boyz in the Hood”, Lifetime’s improvised sitcom “Love Spring International” and Comics Unleashed. She was also the host of “Up For Laughs” on TBS.
In 2008, Kober appeared in Jaime Kennedy’s new comedy documentary “Heckler” and was a featured comedian on Oxygen’s “25iest Celebrity Bad Girls Gone Good”.
She has also headlined at over 180 colleges across the country.
This year, Kober is already appearing in Comedy All Stars in April, and her “Delicious” tour will be playing at colleges and comedy clubs all year.
“I like touring because it’s more intimate,” Kober said. “I get to really see a person’s reactions and really joke with the crowd. “