Before he went to Africa to try and wash away the stinging aftertaste of becoming a famous man in America, Dave Chappelle enjoyed quite a successful little run with his hit Comedy Central series, Chappelle’s Show. While the sketch show featured a number of obscenely hilarious moments, it unfortunately hid an evil underside which created some of the most annoying, hyper-embraced comedic taglines of all time. If you haven’t wanted to punch someone in the face for enthusiastically whooping “I’m Rick James bitch!” or imitating the King of Crunk’s infamous “Hhhwwwwhhhaaat?” then I’m sorry to break it to you, but you should probably take your own life. Last Friday night, at the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts (CFA), a heartily disappointed crowd learned that comedian Charlie Murphy is yet another addition to the list of gross injustices spawned by Chapelle’s Show.

Forty-six-year-old Charlie Murphy has undoubtedly had a difficult time living under the immense shadow of his younger brother Eddie for the majority of his life. As a small time Hollywood player, Murphy could never seem to make that break out move, though his resume listed film appearances in Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, Ice Cube’s The Player’s Club, and a writing credit for the unsuccessful Eddie Murphy flick, Vampire in Brooklyn. But thanks to his appearances as an actor/writer on Chappelle’s Show, the New York native dubbed “Darkness” has finally begun to emerge as a star in his own right.

With his sudden stardom, Murphy has been able to land some larger acting rolls and also earned enough street cred to take his own brand of stand up on the road. The CFA Theater was filled to capacity, and the crowd was ready to laugh thanks to the energetic 45-minute opening set delivered by comedian Smokey Manoloto, but Charlie Murphy failed to deliver.

Murphy opened with a beat series of jokes about airport security which came across like a test run for some new material. His airline-related rant took too long and the punch lines were delivered at a snail’s pace as Murphy verbally over-grappled to set up his lame-duck jokes. Murphy complained about getting frisked in the “random check” line week after week: “While they’re doing this shit, I see an Arab walk by with platform shoes on.” It was the beginning of the show, so the optimistic crowd threw out quite a few laughs for the flat punch line, but when it became obvious that the rest of the set wasn’t going to get much better, Murphy quickly lost his audience and crowd members began to trickle out of the theater throughout the rest of his act.

Darkness went on to divulge his political views, take cracks at Michael Jackson, and tell an obscene story about his gay dog Sarge, who he claimed to have put to sleep after witnessing one of his sexual encounters with a primped up poodle. While Murphy tried to adopt the raunchy style and controversial material that his brother had masterfully honed during his hey-day, nothing seemed to be working for this story-telling star. Murphy completely lacked the genius comic timing of Eddie Murphy and looked like a rotting corpse compared to his brother’s animated on stage antics. Even in taking him out of the context of his brother’s prolific career, Murphy came across at best as a local comedy club regular, fathoms away from a refined artist who should be getting paid exuberant amounts of money to travel the country and pawn off his average sense of humor.

Murphy did show some signs of life when he dealt with material addressing the overnight stardom Chappelle’s Show had suddenly earned him. Murphy’s delivery came quickly and smoothly during this bit, as he relaxed and spoke like himself, rather than trying to be a stand up comedian. Murphy managed to muster a full roar from the audience as he told a story about one of his buddies telling him that he was sick of hearing people impersonate Rick James and yell out “Charlie Murphy” wherever their entourage went. He responded honestly “Hell no, I’m not sick of hearing it. You gotta remember, I was Eddie Murphy’s brother for 16 years… My own son even called me Eddie Murphy’s brother once.”

The good news is that Murphy was noticeably upstaged by his opening act. Up and coming Harlem-based comedian Smokey Manoloto rocked the capacity audience with a hilarious and well-polished 45-minute set focusing on the differences between blacks, whites, and Latinos. Winner of the Bud Light “Comedian of the Year” Competition in 2000, Manoloto delivered a high-energy performance encompassing all the comedic traits that Charlie Murphy seemed to lack. His set was fast-paced, full of punch lines, and visually entertaining. He joked “You can do shit around white people that you can’t do around black people…like drop money. They’ll be chasing you down the street to give you your money back.” Smokey’s fluid set focused on what the audience really seemed to be interested in: sex, drugs, and everyday idiosyncrasies.

For some, Charlie Murphy’s failure to impress onstage was expected. Sophomore Communication major Kurt Jones commented “I came into this wondering how this guy was going to pull off an hour of stand-up. He’s definitely a one-hit wonder.” The good news is UB is already planning to recoup from their short-sighted booking mistake with a tight line-up of celebrity siblings. Rumor has it they’ve already lined up Frank Stallone for a headlining musical act, and they somehow managed to snag the ever-elusive Herschel Seinfeld to bring his comedic styling to the CFA main stage next fall.