Students learned how to bake a scone, how to write a love song and how to kill a hooker on Sunday night when the Ohio Union Activities Board hosted the Australian musical comedy group, The Axis of Awesome, in the Ohio Union Performance Hall.
The Axis of Awesome, comprised of lead singer Jordan Raskopoulos, Benny Davis on keyboard and Lee Naimo on guitar, uses original witty lyrics and song parodies in their comedic performances.
Their performance featured a variety of songs, including a tribute to Kentucky Fried Chicken, one about sexual harassment and a song acknowledging the resemblance between Raskopoulos and Jack Black.
The group also spent part of the evening answering letters, one of which asked, “Will you ever go to Michigan?” One of the loudest cheers from the audience came with the simple answer of, “No.”
Fontine Baptiste, a third-year in marketing and the comedy chair for OUAB, said the group’s sense of humor appeals to a wide variety of people.
“The cool thing about The Axis of Awesome is that these guys are just three friends. They don’t take themselves too seriously and their humor is something that can be understood by everyone,” Baptiste said.
She said OUAB tries to bring up-and-coming acts like The Axis of Awesome to OSU to offer students the unique opportunity of seeing lesser-known comedy acts in person before they get more widely recognized.
Some students came to the event without knowing much about the group beforehand and appreciated seeing a lesser known act.
“I was pleasantly surprised at how awesome it was,” said Julia Kramer, a first-year in mechanical engineering. “I’m really glad that OUAB brought them here. I feel like they have a lot of cool events, but this one was just completely different.”
The Axis of Awesome is well-known for its YouTube video “Four Chords,” which, according to the Axis of Awesome website, is one of the highest-rated comedy videos on YouTube, receiving more than 14 million views. It has already released two albums, and its performance at OSU was part of its current United States tour.
Raskopoulos described the band’s style to the audience.
“The Axis of Awesome are three human men who play humorous songs,” he said.
The original video on YouTube featured 36 pop songs, which all shared the same four-chord progression, but the performance on Sunday had been updated from the original to include more recent songs such as “Paparazzi” by Lady Gaga and “I Just Had Sex” by The Lonely Island.
“We are fortunate and blessed to get to travel around the world and sing silly songs,” Raskopoulos said to the audience.
The Axis of Awesome was available after the event for photos and autographs for an audience that nearly filled all of the 336 seats in the hall.
