'Scream' star performs at Buskirk-Chumley

With jokes covering everything from herpes to plastic surgery, comedian Jamie Kennedy filled two performances with stand-up comedy at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater on Tuesday.

Perhaps best-known for his role in the “Scream” films, he is currently on the CBS show “Ghost Whisperer” with Jennifer Love Hewitt.

“It’s a good way to get our name out to the community,” said senior Josh Dodds, one of the emcees for the night and a disc jockey for B97, the radio station that presented the show. “It’s something fun, entertaining, away from the normal.”

Bill Dawes warmed up the crowd for Kennedy, interacting one-on-one with audience members and discussing the joys and sorrows of dating.

“There’s an online dating site just for people with herpes. It’s called MySpace,” Dawes said, segueing into a story about a woman he’d met through the networking site who’d had extensive plastic surgery. “She’d declared jihad on her face. Everything was Botoxed and stapled and peeled.”

Senior Justin Montrie said he enjoyed the opener’s comedy, especially a joke about
uncomfortable sleeping positions with a partner.

“Billy’s spooning part was really spot-on,” he said.

Kennedy began his performance with topics such as a girl at Starbucks who put whipped cream on his green tea and a recent 14-hour flight to Japan.

“There’s nothing scarier than turbulence in another language,” he said, adding how lost he was once he got there. “There’s no letters; it’s all symbols. ‘Do you know where upside-down ‘G’ is? It intersects with Tic-Tac-Toe board.’”

In the holiday spirit, Kennedy identified Halloween as the one day of the year when girls are allowed to walk around scantily clad and it’s acceptable.

“I saw a girl who was green. I was like, ‘What are you?’ ‘I’m a slutty frog,’” he said, imitating the girl. “This is America; we breed sluts. If you don’t believe me, watch the Disney Channel.”

To support his claim, Kennedy pointed to former Disney child stars Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, as well as fictional characters with stripper-like names: Kim Possible, Raven and Hannah Montana.

Kennedy also mentioned encountering a woman breast feeding at a Starbucks at 7 a.m.

“I didn’t know whether to say something or ask her for cream,” he said, adding that the woman had a modesty blanket covering the baby’s head. “It’s not like you don’t know what’s going on. It’s not like the baby is doing construction.”

Diverging from the basic stand-up format, Kennedy treated his audience to a short screening of his film “Heckler,” about annoying people who harass performers. The documentary shows footage of actual heckling incidents and interviews with dozens of well-known comedians such as Lewis Black, Dave Attell, David Alan Grier and Louie Anderson, as well as professional athletes and coaches such as Oklahoma Sooners fullback J.D. Runnels and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka of the National Football League.