The Yale College Council has put in a bid for a fall comedic performance by “Saturday Night Live” comedian Jimmy Fallon, incoming YCC President Andrew Allison ’04 said.
Allison said the show will take place Friday, Sept. 13, the last day of the fall shopping period. The performance will be in Woolsey Hall and open to all Yale affiliates for a price of approximately $10 to $15, he said.
“I asked for Woolsey Hall for that Friday, the 13th, and I think, barring some unforeseen circumstances, we’ll go ahead with that date,” Allison said. “We’re still waiting to hear back [from Fallon]. All that’s happened has been our bid placement, and if he’s available, then they send us a contract and we go over it with Yale’s lawyers and the [Yale College] Dean’s Office.”
“Woolsey’s capacity is 2,700, so we will not be able to accommodate every undergraduate, but tickets will be available to any Yale affiliate, anyone with a Yale ID,” Allison said. “We’ll start selling tickets at the beginning of Camp Yale.”
Allison said the YCC did not conduct surveys like the ones for this year’s Spring Fling because of the need to move quickly.
“In our YCC meetings, in which our membership kind of reflects a pretty broad range of the Yale population, people seem really enthusiastic about this,” Allison said. “We’re looking to do many surveys for Spring Fling, but for this we thought because of the timing it would be best if we moved quickly on it. We judged that he was a popular enough person.”
Allison estimated that Fallon would cost around $30,000 and said the YCC will seek funding from multiple sources at Yale and sponsorship in New Haven and nationwide to offset the cost.
“We’ll be working over the summer to fund the event, hopefully to bring the ticket price down,” Allison said.
Allison said Yale’s booking agent suggested other, more expensive comedians, such as Tom Green, but he felt it was important to keep the ticket price down.
Allison noted that the Roots concert in the fall of 1999, held in Woolsey with a $15 admission price, was quite successful.
“People I’ve spoken to who were here for the Roots concert point to it as possibly the best concert the YCC has thrown,” Allison said. “I don’t necessarily think the limited capacity of Woolsey or the ticket price should be problematic towards the overall success of the event.”
Outgoing YCC President Vidhya Prabhakaran ’03 said he thought Fallon would draw a large crowd.
“Woolsey’s particularly well suited for speakers, so a comedian works really well in there,” Prabhakaran said. “I think [Fallon is] hysterical. I think he’s going to be a great show, and he’s got enough name recognition to get a big audience.”