The Campus Activities Board felt it made out good on its latest deal, bringing in comedian Howie Mandel for the annual Winterfest Weekend on Jan. 29, 2011.
“We wanted to continue to bring quality entertainment programming to UR students and with 30 years of experience, Howie definitely fits that description,” Publicity Chair for CAB Caitlin Grady said.
Mandel, who has risen to fame as the host of NBC’s television game show “Deal or No Deal,” was originally a stand-up comedian before reaching his current success on primetime television.
Past years’ comedians have included Stephen Lynch, B.J. Novak, Dimitri Martin, Michael Ian Black and Pablo Francisco.
Unlike other UR traditions, Winterfest weekend is a relatively new effort, and Mandel is one of the most high-profile and expensive comedians CAB has ever brought in for the festival. Compared with other artists brought in for the Weekend, Mandel comes with a long entertainment career already behind him.
Aside from his recent work, Mandel’s experience in the entertainment industry includes working on Emmy-nominated television shows, films and stage work. Mandel also created the ’90s Fox cartoon “Bobby’s World,” where he provided the voice for both Bobby and his father on the show.
Mandel is also no stranger to Rochester, as he performed at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2007 as part of the university’s Brick City Homecoming Weekend.
Unlike his show, students won’t have to risk breaking the bank to see him perform. Tickets for the show are on sale now and are $8 for UR undergraduates. While this is a $1 increase over past comedians, Howie’s profile and stature required the ticket raise.
“We were supposed to raise comedian ticket prices from $7 to $9 this year, but we decided not to for John Oliver,” Grady said. “This is because we really wanted to give students the absolute best deal we could and students already pay a hefty student activities fee to support this programming. … However, that raise was only by $1 — which is half of what we were supposed to raise it by a while ago, and is way less than what everybody else in the field recommended we raise our ticket prices to.”
Tickets for the general public, graduate students and staff members go on sale Jan. 15, 2011, at
Courtesy of Campus Activities Board
$15 for UR undergraduate students and staff, and $25 for the general public. Tickets are available at both the Common Market and online at www.urochestertickets.com.
