Playing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” on the keyboard and instructing the audience to “stomp your feet mother f-----s” was how Craig Robinson started his performance Thursday.
Robinson, donning the simple ensemble of jeans and a T-shirt, entered the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium to raucous cheers and some fans already standing for the famous comedian.
He played the keyboard throughout his performance, playing tunes such as Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” The Beatles’ “Yesterday,” “Summer Nights” from Grease, and the Wedding March while explaining why marriage is unfair to men.
“Take your panties off,” a phrase from the 2013 summer comedy This Is The End, which he stuck into every song and most jokes, was his reoccurring joke of the night.
Many were concerned the comedian wouldn’t make it to his show. As The Post previously reported, Robinson plead guilty to drug possession in the Bahamas Wednesday, where he was detained at the airport for possession of half a gram of marijuana and 18 ecstasy pills while trying to return to the United States.
“I was running from the police the other day. Apparently it’s illegal to travel with drugs. I was like ‘What you want me to do, give ’em away?’” Robinson said.
But that’s all the comedian said about the subject due to the legal issues surrounding the incident.
Austin Knisley, a sophomore studying marketing, had not been a fan of Robinson’s prior to the show but attended because he heard he was funny. Knisley said the show was awesome because “he got the crowd involved.”
Robinson invited questions from the audience during the last leg of the show. Many inquiries were related to the hit show The Office, which Robinson acted in for seven seasons.
“I was lucky, blessed to get that,” Robinson said about his time on The Office. “It gave me great opportunities to come to places like this.”
The final attendance for Thursday’s show stood at 1,192, according to event management.
“(Robinson) is pretty down to earth,” said Christopher Dean, a senior studying chemistry and the head electrician for MemAud. “He was cool to work with. We bring in a lot of good acts here.”
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