"Great Danes! No yeah, it's a dog, but like . . . the BIGGEST dog!"

Said Bo Burnham on Thursday, as he made fun of our school mascot, the great Dane.

I gotta say, he's not wrong.

But yes, a little background: Bo Burnham, only a few years back, was a teenager much like myself. Then he taught himself how to play instruments, wrote hilarious, witty and offensive material, and then to the scattered winds of Youtube they flew. And he was a hit.

Thursday, he came to our university to perform as a benefit for the Relay For Life, a cancer research benefit, to which he ironically said, "You guys got ME for a cancer benefit?"

Also, that same Thursday, myself and some members of the Sketchy Characters, the comedy group I am part of, go the chance to open for Bo.

It was fan-frickin'-tastic. We got there early, and got a chance to say hey to Bo, nice guy, tall sonofagun. But nice enough, if a bit quiet. We warmed up, got ready, as more and more workers kept coming back telling us things like, "Filling up quick in there," and, "Yeah, we just opened the back section."

By the time I was in the wings, about to take the stage, the main guy goes, "Hey, there's almost 700 people here tonight . . . have fun!"

Eep.

But I took the stage, and began to MC, bringing small laughs and then getting us all started on improv. We did a few games of improv and my guys brought their A+ game that night. I was so goddamn proud of them all. Still am, actually. They did amazing. The crowd was responsive, laughed with us, I even got off a couple of good laughs. Then after improv, my pal Dustin came on a did some stand up and he brought down the house, the crowd loved him. We had our share of hecklers, but we dealt with them.

But Bo dealt with them even worse.

After out set, before he went on, he asked my friend Lauren, (who is so in love with him, she was positively glowing with joy that night), if there were hecklers out there at us. She told him yeah, but it was no big deal.

Bo took a sip of his water and said, and I quote, "Yeah . . . I'm going to teach those fucking bastards a lesson." And did he ever. He, a relatively famous and well-known comedian, stood up for us, a band of sketchy characters who as my friend Dustin said to Bo later, "Dude, we would perform for you for a slice of pizza and water."

So, I don't know if he'll ever read this, but thanks Bo. It was real classy of you to help us, sincerely.

And then Bo put on an amazing show, full of songs, haikus, small skits, more songs, misdirection, one hit zingers, audience participation, and more ripping on the guy who heckled us.

It was a great freaking show, and thanks again Bo.

Meet and greet after the show was awesome and I was perfectly content. We got to open for a great comedian, who actually talked to us a bit and stood up for us against arrogant asshats. Not only that, but we put on a great show, the Sketchys, for an audience who may not have known us.

Great show, great friends, great night.

More updates on personal life to come soon.