Jimmy Fallon’s Sept. 13 comedy show in Woolsey Hall is already about halfway sold out, Yale College Council officers said.
“The people that I’ve talked to are very excited about the Fallon event and the YCC is equally encouraged by the ticket sales,” YCC Treasurer Andrew Klaber ’04 said. “We’re about halfway sold out and we really haven’t made the big push yet. We still have about a week and a half before the event occurs.”
Fallon is a regular on Saturday Night Live, hosted the 2002 MTV Music Awards and was named one of People’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World last spring. He also released his first comedy album last week.
Fallon signed a contract for the show in early August. It will take place at 9 p.m. on the last Friday of the fall shopping period. The YCC is charging $15 admission to cover the cost of the show, YCC President Andrew Allison ’04 said. Woolsey’s seating capacity is approximately 2700.
The YCC will receive no money from Yale or outside sponsorship for the Fallon concert, but Allison said ticket sales should enable the YCC to cover all costs.
“If we sell all the tickets, we’ll pretty much break even,” Allison said. “We’re just hoping to provide this event for everyone and make it successful.”
He estimates that the total cost of the event will be around $40,000.
“I’m not quite sure [how much] Fallon’s contract is,” Allison said. “Out of the total cost with security and production including paying Jimmy will be about somewhere approaching $40,000 including sound and lighting and everything else.”
When the Roots performed at Yale in 1999, tickets were $15, and the show was widely successful, Allison said.
He said he is especially pleased with ticket sales, given that they have only been on sale at the freshman move-in on Old Campus last Friday and at the Freshman Bazaar on Sunday.
“We’ll be selling them nightly in Commons from 5 to 7 p.m.,” Allison said, “and we hope to have representatives selling them in dining halls but there’s no defined schedule for that yet.”
Last October, the Counting Crows performed on Old Campus as part of the final Tercentennial weekend. The event was paid for entirely by the University, but was planned in conjunction with the YCC.
Allison said he anticipates there will be no opening act, but the YCC would like to collaborate with other organizations to plan activities for the rest of the night.
“A lot of fraternities have coordinated parties for after the Fallon event,” Klaber said, “and more specifically the senior class has organized a Hot Tomato’s dinner for before the Jimmy Fallon event so people are really thinking of making a night out of it.”
Hiromi Yoshida ’06 said she heard about the concert from some friends before she got to campus. Though she said she is excited about the show, she has not yet purchased a ticket.
Lucas Walker ’06 already bought his ticket and said he is looking forward to it.
“I like him, I mean I’m not a big fan, but I like him,” Walker said.
Allison said he and his fellow YCC officers have been working on this event all summer with Fall Concert Chair Meredith Levine ’04. Allison was elected YCC President just before the end of the spring semester, but had been working on the concert beforehand, as a YCC representative from Timothy Dwight College.