Von proves he’s more than MTV, VH1

Headliner Theo Von returned to the Funny Bone Bloomington Comedy Club this weekend and kept his audiences laughing with jokes on racism, family and women.

With the comedic back-up of emcee Brad Wilhelm, guest comedian and junior Josh Cocks and feature performer Brian M. Frange, Von continued to entertain the crowd Thursday through Saturday.

Wilhelm, a regular host at the club, likes to joke that his role is to bring the sex back to comedy.

“They said, ‘let’s get Brad – he looks just like Rosie O’Donnell,’” he said.

He also regaled the crowd with his “Bad Joke of the Week.” This week’s joke was Halloween-themed, about a woman being chased by a coffin. She finds her solution in her medicine cabinet.

“He grabs a bottle of Robitussin and the ‘coffin’ stops,” Wilhelm said to mixed groans and laughter from the audience.

Cocks, a frequent Funny Bone performer, started off his guest spot by riffing on energy shot commercials that show people drinking the product then doing something extreme, such as skydiving.

“Is there really anything that requires less energy than falling?” he said. “Who’s getting drowsy in a freefall toward Earth?”

Frange took the stage next, telling the crowd that he was bad at picking up women, so one of his friends told him to use humor.

“So I walked up to this girl and I said, ‘Hey, there’s free cake in my van. You should go check it out – alone,’” Frange said.

He also recounted a party he was at where he was drinking underage. When the police showed up, he chose to hide in the closet, assuming they would never think to look there.

“And I got arrested because I thought, ‘hmm, what would Bugs Bunny do?’” Frange said.

When it was Von’s turn to show off his comedic style, he kicked off by commenting on IU’s basketball program.

“How do you guys invent a game and then completely forget how to play it?” he said.
Von, a Louisiana native, said that New Yorkers tend to be unfriendly.

“I said hello to a guy, and he said ‘no,’” Von said, before moving on to the legal system. “I was in court the other day, and a black guy pleaded ‘my bad.’”

He also showed off his Southern pride and recalled his childhood.

“I’m from the South – you may have heard of us? Second place in the Civil War. Runner-up. Not bad for our first try,” he said. “I used to tell my blind cousin there were dragons outside, and then we’d burn his eyebrows off.”

Using biology, Von then justified the logic that women should at least know how to cook.

“If God didn’t want you to cook, why’d he naturally put milk and eggs in your body?” he said.

Von added that he hates purse dogs.

“If a Frisbee will kill it, it’s not a dog,” he said.