Crowd warms to Palascak, comedian’s real life delights

A small, enthusiastic crowd watched over an hour of Michael Palascak’s performance Wednesday, April 11 in the Student Center Ballroom.
Palascak covered a wide range of topics in his performance, including college dating and his misadventures traveling around the United States to perform stand-up.
Palascak made several jokes about Arkansas, including some topical jokes about former University of Arkansas head football coach Bobby Petrino.
“It’s fun to finally be in the state I learned to pronounce last,” Palascak said.
The small audience of about 30 people laughed constantly during Palascak’s routine.
Palascak largely focused on his experiences in college and high school.
While never outright vulgar, he was also not completely family friendly.
Palascak’s routine was aimed at the college students he constantly performs for.
His choice to wear a UCA Bears T-shirt also made him seem more like a college student than a stand-up comedian in his late 20s.
Unlike many popular comedians, Palascak’s routine was based more in reality.
If he wasn’t making a topical joke, he was making funny observations about seemingly normal occurrences in his life.
His delivery, more than his topics, made the audience laugh at his jokes.
Most of Palascak’s jokes felt as if they really happened, unlike many standup comedians who make up the majority of their stories.
Part of his routine focused on his experiences staying at hotels when he travels around.
He talked about a clerk who said she did not have the power to check him out late.
Palascak said he did not realize it was a power and talked about the hotel staff’s attitude in dealing with customers, which Palascak said was rude.
Palscak joked about a less than affluent athletic performance in school.
He said a bad record marred his high school football career, with his team losing a game 86-0.
“I wanted to set records, but not that way,” Palascak said.
Palascak said while his brother played college football, his career in football was not as promising.
Palascak’s low-key style put the audience at ease during the performance. His stand-up felt laid back, which helped him to connect with the audience.
His jokes about his own life were observations about things that could happen to anyone in college or who grew up in a small town.
The part of Palascak’s routine that received the most laughter was about him using a waterslide at a gym.
The crowd loved Palascak’s story about asking a lifeguard to come and watch him go down the slide more than once to comply with gym rules.
Senior Christina Riddle enjoyed Palascak’s show.
“It was just really fun,” Riddle said. “He had a wide variety of topics.”
According to his website, Palascak “moved to Chicago after college to pursue a career in comedy and is living with his parents.”
Palascak has appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson” and “Live at Gotham” on Comedy Central.
Palascak also filmed a 30- minute special for Comedy Central that will air later this year.