Eric Owusu
Off the Wall Featured Performer, Fall 2010/Spring 2011
Host - Off the Wall: Return to Siberia (Fall 2010 Showcase)
Off the Wall Hall of Famer Hampton Yount performing at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.
Hampton headlined Off the Wall’s Open Mic Challenge II on Feb. 24, 2010 as well as Off the Wall’s Stand-Up Comedy Rally on April 7, 2009. He featured at OTW four other times and we’re looking forward to having him back soon - his debut album, Unbearable, is phenomenal!
Jonathan Steven Purvish “Vish” Bhatt Michaels
Featured Performer: Spring 2008-Spring 2010. Creative Consultant - Fall 2010 - Present.
Essential Statistics:
Birthday: 04/30 The Jurassic
Hometown: Owings Mills, Md.
Height: 6″
Vish Bhatt is a hunk.
Plucked from the SEE Comedy Competition in late February 2008, Vish Bhatt was one of Off the Wall’s most-consistent performers, operating behind an impenetrable barrier of calm determination that landed him a spot in DC’s inaugural Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival, where he performed alongside Nick Thune, Laura Silverman and Reggie Watts.
Outside of that, he is the cutest racist shy alcoholic nerdy Indian transformer you will ever meet.
Don’t call him “Purv” unless you are female, lying in bed with him and topless.
He is known to practice his fake British accent on innocent bystanders and strangers at parties.
Likes: Food, acting, comedy, climbing Mt. Everest, plagiarizing essays, insulting people of various backgrounds.
Dislikes: chores, movement, words, racism, people who assume he is Native American.
Influences
Frequently Used Phrases
“Thank you, you’re very sexy as well.”
“That’s what Hitler said.”
Justin Delano Lightning Cousson
President/Ringleader: Spring 2008-Spring 2010. Creative Consultant - Spring 2011.
Essential Statistics:
Birthday: May 25, 1988 (Various sources indicate his birthdate as May 19th, 1989, April 23rd, 1987, and October 26th, 1901. His actual birthdate is unknown as common folklore suggest that his birth certificate was stolen by a rogue pelican).
Hometown: Lanham, Md.
Height: 5′10.” Also disputed, as Cousson has been known to add inches to his height with each renewal of his driver’s license.
Wingspan: 70 inches.
ERA: 2.97
Shoes: Asics Onitsuka Tigers
Col. Justin Lightning Cousson, II (born Lew Alcindor on March 14, 1928) is likely on his yacht, eating sherbet and changing his clothes.
Stand-up comedian, part-time bassist, first-rate haberdasher and a cartoonist of indeterminable ethnicity and questionable ambition, Cousson founded Off the Wall, UMD’s stand-up comedy group in Spring 2008.
He has appeared at Magooby’s Joke House and the Baltimore Comedy Factory in Baltimore, as well as New York’s Gotham, EastVille and Comedy Corner Clubs, and was featured at 2009’s Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival.
His favorite word is “follies.”
He’s not a party person. But he hangs out and does lunch.
He drives a beige 1997 Toyota Corolla that never gets pulled over on account of being a beige 1997 Toyota Corolla.
He is currently based in Los Angeles, where he performed at the famous Comedy Store and recently worked for Current TV’s Infomania. He collects dust and black-and-white B-movie and is really not good at holding babies.
Just a heads-up.
Influences
Michael Louis “Apple” Applebaum
Featured Performer: Spring 2008-Spring 2010; Vice President: Spring 2009-Spring 2010.
Essential Statistics:
Birthday: April 5, 1987
Hometown: Bmore
Political Views: Crazy Libertarian
Religious Views: Crazier Atheist
Defining Characteristic: Craziest when armed with a slinky.
I woke up about a year ago with a vague recollection of myself. No fucking clue. I’ve modeled my life off of the influences of my heroes: Captain America, Jesse Jane, and Penn Jillette. I plan on running away and buying an island in a couple of years once I figure out how to harness that damn wind energy thing.
I hope to one day come across that therapist again, I’m totally gonna rip off her left armpit. I’m rambling. I find that wearing hats has done tremendous things for my emotional development. I’ve started reading Moby Dick, I’ll finish it in about a year if I don’t get sidetracked by losing money in poker. It’s a great hobby. I’m supporting myself on it. I get my food at Costco because it’s cheaper even though that place is a nightmare where I think it’s illegal to speak English.
Influences
- Lenny Bruce
- Ricky Gervais
- Richard Pryor
- George Carlin
- Bill Hicks
Frequently Used Phrases
“I swear I’m not following you.”
Jake Naly
Featured act at Off the Wall - April 28, 2010
Jake Naly is one of the Maryland scene’s best and hardest-working young comedians - his stoner-friendly, one-liner heavy act has drawn countless comparisons to Mitch Hedberg, but Jake’s got a hat all his own and has opened for Rob Cantrell.
Seaton Smith
1x featured act, co-headlined Off the Wall on April 6, 2010 w/Aparna Nancherla.
Smith is currently based in New York and recently taped his first DVD, “A Moment in Black Hipstery.” He has been featured at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival and on the Opie and Anthony Traveling Virus tour.
Kevin Klenkel, as shot by Dakota Fine, Promo for Off the Wall’s Big Deal Comedy Show. March 2010.
Hampton Yount
2x headliner, 4x featured act. Headlined Off the Wall’s Open Mic Challenge II on February 24, 2010, and Off the Wall’s Stand-Up Comedy Rally on April 7, 2009.
The most-requested guest in Off the Wall history, Yount is also the writer of the webcomic Rob & Elliot. He is currently based out of Los Angeles and has been seen at the Bentzen Ball Comedy Festival, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, and the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, along with appearing on G4 and contributing writing for Chelsea Lately. His debut CD, Unbearable, was recorded at the Comedy Spot in Virginia in early 2010.
