It was a house full of laughs Saturday night March 7 as comedian Arvin Mitchell took the stage at the Markee Pioneer Student Center. Campus Programming and Relations organized the event as part of the Stand-Up Saturday series. Mitchell has been a comedian since 2003, and performed throughout the United States as well as internationally, according to his bio at ArvinMitchell.com. According to the website, he originally comes from St. Louis and aspires to be “amongst the greatest stand-up comedians of our time.” Shortly after 8 p.m., Mitchell started the show by thanking the CPR organizers, and commenting on how “weird” the organization’s abbreviation is.

He congratulated the three students who had won the right to sit on a couch directly in front of the stage—CPR’s “best seat in the house.” The show emphasized audience interaction. For instance, Mitchell asked members of the fraternity Delta Sigma Phi what they do to make a difference, called out a snap-chatting student during the performance and commented on various audience noises.

“That is a violent cough,” Mitchell said to an audience member. “You’re going to need some CPR.” Mitchell’s imitations and facial expressions kept the crowd laughing, as he at one point demonstrated how he had to hold his face when borrowing the ID of an “ugly friend.”

“He was hilarious,” Emilie Roper, senior forensic investigation major said. “I liked his facial expressions. Like, there is no way possible to just turn your face like that.” Roper was sitting near the front of the audience and was one of Mitchell’s joke targets due to her laugh. “I appreciate that laugh,” Mitchell said. “It’s jolly.”

Mitchell pulled material from his personal life, joking about his family, his lactose intolerance, and his experiences on public transportation in California, the state where he now lives. He made jokes about President Barack Obama, Bill Cosby, his aunt having a heart attack and a variety of other topics. “I really liked his impersonations of Barack Obama’s voice,” Joshua Roper, sophomore mechanical engineering major, said. “Those were pretty much spot on.” The show ended around 9 p.m. as audience members left the student center, and a few stopped to pose for pictures with Mitchell. “I had fun,” Mitchell said after the show. “Every show is different because every audience is different.”