Southeast Missouri State University’s Student Activities Council hosted comedian Brent Pella on Thursday, April 6 in the University Center. as a part of its comedy series. The event, hosted in the UC Program Longue, was free to all students with a Southeast ID.

Born in California and currently living in Los Angeles, Pella’s love for comedy began in high school and continued into college, where he studied film/media. During his years at University California Santa Barbara, he created and produced small sketch comedy music videos with friends. This led to many of his videos being featured on online comedy sites “Funny or Die” and “College Humor.” While he described his first attempt at stand-up as being terribly wrong, Pella thanked his competitive personality for not letting that stop him. Now at the age of 27, he has toured both internationally and nationally and has been a guest on MTV’s show “Greatest Party Stories Ever.”

Directly interacting with the audience, Pella fed off of the audience’s energy by asking quick-witted questions leading into tremulous laughter. In his act, he told stories about relationships, politics, meeting celebrities and his family.His improv skills included varied scenes, from him asking his 15-year-old sister for relationship advice to his mother attending custody court.

“It was very intimate, for instance. He talked and engaged with the audience a lot. Crowd participation can be very fun,” Teaira Terry, comedy coordinator for SAC said. Terry is in charge of booking all guest comedians and advertisements for the comedy events around campus.

Pella is on his comedy tour “Spring Brent”and will visit the University of Central Missouri and Gray’s Harbor College next. He continues to write his own comedy videos and perform stand-up at venues in Los Angeles.

SAC will host another free comedian event before the end of the semester. The late night breakfast will feature two comedians on May 8.