Whoopi on Campus

I was walking down locust walk the other day, and I noticed a few students standing by the corner of 34th street and locust selling tickets to see Whoopi Goldberg. My initial thought was that they probably had a movie showing somewhere, so I didn’t give it much thought. The next day I was having lunch with a friend of mine, and she asked me to join her to see a little thing that Whoopi is hosting on campus! I was a little surprised because I am not use to the idea that real celebrities (in academia or Hollywood) make such visit’s to campus. There are many advantages that I have felt being at this wonderful Ivy League school, but going to Irvine Auditorium and watching her speak and answer questions was something else.
The night started at 8. Everyone had gotten there a little early to find the best seats in the house, but at the end of the day for me, there were no bad seats, the stage is right there in front of you. Everyone walking in was extremely excited. There were undergraduates, graduate, and faculty members. It was my first time walking into Irvine auditorium and I was just so impressed by the architecture and the layout, my friend who’s a Harry Potter fan told me it reminded her of the movie.
The whole event started with a 45 minute stand up routine that was absolutely hilarious. Whoopi essentially gave us her take about politics, economics, and America as she sees it. After the initial stage it was time for a question and answer session. I was not sure how that was going to be conducted, as I am use to going to events in Boston were students post questions online prior to an event and a few get selected to ask when the guest is taking questions. But of course everything is done differently at Penn than anywhere else. There were several microphones spread out through the auditorium. Students walked up and lined behind the mikes when the Q & A session started. There were no sensors on what to ask. You could go up there and simply speak your mind, and hear what our wonderful guest had to say. The surprising thing for me was her ability to make a humorous comment about almost every question asked on the spot. Some questions were geared towards politics and social issues while others were about her career in Hollywood. It was an experience that I will remember for years to come (and brag about to my friends back home!).
This weekend, Jessica (one of my favorite GA’s!) managed to find me tickets for Robert Redford’s movie preview/ Q & A session that I unfortunately was not able to make. I hear it was great, especially that the movie previewed is out released nationwide for another month! For now, I wish you all a good week and hope that you keep reading our blogs to know about Penn, and life in Philadelphia. This is me signing off, see you all next week! (PS please feel free to leave comments on certain things on the blog or email me if you have any questions).