Her face is plastered around campus, taped to bathroom stalls and on stacks of flyers strewn around dormitories. Comedian Loni Love is coming.
Love has been named by Variety as "one of the top 10 comics to watch" and regularly appears as a round table panelist on E!'s "Chelsea Lately." She can also be seen on VH1's "I Love the 70s/80s/90s." Love is currently on a country-wide tour with her "Love Train" stand-up routine and has guest starred on shows including "Girlfriends" and "Whitney."
Love will perform from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the University of Richmond's Camp Concert Hall on Friday, March 30. Chloe Zung, chairwoman of comedy for CAB, said Love's humor appealed to students, and her appearances on "Chelsea Lately," as well as other shows, had inspired CAB to bring her to campus. Love said she was looking forward to performing on campus because she preferred college audiences to the nightclub scene.
"I do enjoy performing in front of students because, first of all," she said, "they are usually sober, and they are open-minded. And they're fresh and young."
Love did not grow up dreaming of being a comedian, she said. She did not begin her career until she attended Prairie View A&M University in Texas, where she studied electrical engineering, she said.
"I started to get into comedy when I was in college," she said. "I needed the money. That's why I can relate to college kids--because I know what it's like to be broke."
Love said she had entered a contest for the best story at a local bar. She had made up a story and performed it, trying to win the $50 prize, she said. That is where she got her start.
After graduating, Love said she had not thought she would become a professional comic, and she had moved to Los Angeles to work as an engineer. Love still found herself telling jokes and stories, and after a visit to the Comedy Store in Hollywood, she returned to comedy, she said.
"I saw that there were, like, all these male comics, but there weren't a lot of female comics," she said. "And so, I decided to get back into doing stand up. So for about five years I did stand up, you know, at night, and I did engineering during the day and worked on my act, until finally, there was a comedy festival."
This comedy festival was sponsored by HBO, and after being a part of it, Love landed her first comedy deal, she said.
"We had a layoff at my job," Love said. "I went to my boss, and I said, 'Save somebody else's job and lay me off, and I'll just try to do comedy full time.' And I haven't looked back."
Her material is silly and fun and is inspired by topical events and the entertainment world, she said.
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"What I try to do is take whatever's happening, and I talk about it and make light of it, and it's really worked," she said. "That's the reason why, when you see me on shows like 'Chelsea,' ... it connects with people. You know people want to laugh at some of the crazy things that are happening."
Love is also active on Twitter, @LoniLove, but her tweets are not just her jokes. Instead, she often tweets about breaking news and political topics. She worked as a CNN correspondent during the 2008 presidential campaign, according to her biography. She cited Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher as comedians who marry comedy with politics well, something that she thinks is a powerful combination.
"The thing is, we need a female voice to do it because right now,, there are a lot of female issues that are happening that ... you could make fun of," she said. "A lot of people--they don't understand a lot of things that's happening, and sometimes it's better done with humor."
Love said there was not a comedian or performer whose career she wished to emulate, but rather wanted to be her own force in the comedy scene. She wants to please her fans, rather than take over the world, she said.
"I think that all people, all aspects of people, no matter what color, shape, gender, sexual orientation, they need to be represented," she said. "And you know, there's a problem we have in this country right now ... you don't see different people on TV--you don't see different people giving their opinion.
"It's kind of molded into just one person, one type of person, so that's why I continue to ... fight, because I have fans, and they're all beautiful, and they're all different. And ... those are the people who support me, and I want to support them."
Love is currently working on a book and developing a television show, as well as working to improve her tour and shows, she said.
Zung said tickets would be $5 for students and $15 for the general public. CAB members will begin selling tickets on Monday, March 26, in Tyler Haynes Commons and at the Modlin box office.
Contact staff writer Maria Rajtik at maria.rajtik@richmond.edu
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