Emceed by Jordan Mather-Licht, the audience warmed up to the night of comedy with drinks and opening acts.
Mather-Licht opened the show by criticizing the pains of students being back on campus while admitting he is a student himself.
The comedian laughed as soon as he hit the stage and said the audience welcomed him as if he “just putted a nice round on the green.”
Laughs broke silence in the club with older comedic concepts such as airlines and humor on newer concepts about the possibility that selfies are creepy.
Barry Watts, winner of free tickets to this weekend’s show, was impressed by Jackson’s work.
“When I won the tickets and I looked up Jackson before the show, I thought, ‘Are they sure these are the right tickets to be giving out for free?’” Watts said.
Jackson shared life stories that had the audience relating to his experiences.
One story was about his cousins, Devin and Kevin, who had never heard of Alaska — they were 15 years old when they heard of the state for the first time.
“So many times you get these comedians doing nothing but shows, trying to get better,” Jackson said. “What they don’t understand is that’s how you get material for shows, by living life and just experiencing things.”
Jackson observed the audience and personalized the show to what was going on in the room.
In the middle of a sentence, without missing a beat, Jackson said, “Slow down on that popcorn, player. You’re eating it like this is Double-Dare 2000. There’s no flag at the bottom, I promise.”
Smiles lingered between jokes as Jackson seemed to keep the audience anticipating each punchline.
“The whole show was really cool, he had me laughing hysterically almost the entire time,” IU student Aaron Berg said after the show.
Toward the end of his show, Jackson shared a story about his worst show ever.
It turns out, by a series of unfortunate events, Jackson accidentally gave a 60-minute speech about note-taking and organization.
He told the story in such a way that left several of the audience members saying, “Can you even imagine?”
Jackson stood by the door as people exited the Comedy Attic, listening to feedback as well as giving out hugs and handshakes.
“I was here a couple weeks ago, and you put that show to shame,” IU student Jessie Arthur said.
Jackson said he enjoyed his time in Bloomington, as always. He said Bloomington is in his top five favorite places to perform.
“These are my people,” ?he said.
Jackson will continue entertaining Hoosiers for the next couple days in Indianapolis before he heads to Los Angeles at the end of the week.
