After weeks of delays resulting from receiving its budgets late, University Union has announced many of the spring’s performances and results of bids for speaker Jon Stewart and several music acts.

UU SPEAKERS

After toying with University Union for three weeks, Jon Stewart has officially rejected UU’s bid to bring him to the Carrier Dome on April 29.

Stewart’s agents and UU Speakers could not agree on terms for the booking, specifically, audience size, said UU Speakers co-chairs Chad Bender and Elliot Roberts. The agents spoke with UU’s advisor, Carie Grogan, the assistant director of the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning, on March 14.

Stewart prefers to speak only to smaller crowds, Bender said, but UU had already booked the Carrier Dome for 10,000 people.

‘It would have put us in a tough position financially,’ Roberts said, noting that a smaller audience would make it more difficult to recoup the cost of renting the Dome.

UU is currently working on booking two or three moderate-sized events, mostly likely to be held in Hendricks Chapel or Goldstein Auditorium. UU is confident that it will be able to secure speakers for the spring, Bender said.

UU does not usually release the names of the potential speakers until contracts have been signed, in case the speaker rejects the bid, Bender said. The Stewart bid was made public because UU needed to request additional funding from the Student Association, he said.

Stewart spoke to two 5,000-person audiences at Cornell University earlier this month. Cornell had booked the engagement in November, Bender said, which was possible because it runs on a yearly budget as opposed to SU’s semester budget.

‘(Stewart’s speech) would’ve been a great success if it had happened,’ Roberts said ‘but when you’re on a semesterly budget, you have to scramble.’

UU COMEDY

Comedian Dane Cook will appear in two shows in Goldstein Auditorium April 19 as part of his Tourgasm tour.

UU will announce the exact price of the tickets and times for the shows soon. Cook is not charging a talent fee for any of the tour’s performances but there will be a ticket price to cover the rental cost of Goldstein Auditorium.

Tourgasm is a thank-you to Cook’s loyal college fans, said UU Comedy chair Jake Goldman.

‘His biggest fans are in colleges and he wanted to give back to college campuses,’ Goldman said.

Tourgasm includes 20 shows in 20 days on 19 campuses across the country. SU is the only campus to have two performances, according to the tour’s Web site.

UU did not initially apply for a performance, but was contacted by Cook’s agency wondering why it had not.

‘(Cook’s agents) said he loves Syracuse and has a huge following here and he wants to come back,’ Goldman said. ‘It’s one of the few shows he chose.’

The show will also feature comedians Robert Kelly, Jay Davis and Garry Gulman, the runner-up from the last season of NBC’s ‘Last Comic Standing.’

‘They’ve all been friends forever,’ Goldman said. ‘They grew up on the comedy scene together.’

The performances will be recorded for a DVD that UU will sell, Goldman said.

UU Comedy will also bring two up-and-coming comedians to SU this Friday. David Bosh and Zack Galasintkas will perform in Goldstein Auditorium at 8 p.m. Tickets are $3 for students and $6 for the public.

Both Bosh and Galasintkas have their own half-hour specials on Comedy Central. Galasintkas, who plays the piano during his performance, is also a frequent host and character on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.

UU CONCERTS

After delays due to budget cuts, Bandersnatch, a branch of UU Concerts that brings new or independent music acts to campus, announced its schedule for Music Week, April 4-6.

Music Week, which is co-hosted by WERW, will be held in the Schine Underground and feature seven acts in three days. Tickets go on sale Thursday in the Schine box office at $3 per night for students.

Surprise Me Mr. Davis, an indie rock group, will headline the first night. Nathan Moore will also perform Monday.

Reggae rapper Mahtis Yahu will headline Tuesday. Hip-hop bands Thing 1 and Fat Camp will open.

Sam Kininger, frontman from Soulive, will perform the last night, as well as co-headliner Pocket Dwellers, a jazz/hip hop group.

Bandersnatch will also bring Ted Leo and the Pharmacists for its big concert April 23. Tickets will be $5 for students. The sale date will be released soon.

Bandersnatch would usually have spread its programming out over a few months, rather than eight artists in three weeks, said UU Concerts co-chair Adam Gorode.

‘We had to move around money and it put us back even further,’ said Gorode, referring to the 50 percent budget cut Bandersnatch faced this semester.

UU Concerts will announce the artist for its last big concert of the year this weekend, Gorode said. It is also currently working on getting artists for the May 1 Block Party.

‘We’re sending out bids left and right,’ Gordoe said. ‘Some artists have been unavailable because of how late it is.’

Published on March 21, 2005 at 12:00 pm