Jesse Joyce always knew he wanted to go into comedy.

“I always wanted to do it, because my uncle was a comic when I was a little kid and I just thought it was just like the coolest job ever,” Joyce said.

Joyce performed to a full house Friday night in 7th Street Underground, the room buzzing with the audience’s excitement.

In 2001, Joyce moved from Pittsburgh to New York City where he began to expand his stand-up career and make a name for himself as a comic.

Since then Joyce has performed in clubs all over the world and has appeared at many colleges throughout the country.

“There’s good schools, and there’s dumb schools. It just depends on where you go,” he said. “This one was great. I loved it. It was set up right, the vibe was good and everybody was excited about it.”

The response to Joyce’s performance was positive.

Sophomore history major Lauren Lepchenske was in attendance and found herself impressed by Joyce’s show.

“You could tell he had been in theater. He moved around a lot and involved the crowd,” Lepchenske said.

Joyce showed his appreciation for all in attendance, because he knew it was a Friday night and everyone could have found something else to do.

Joyce sarcastically discussed the many options students at Eastern have for an eventful Friday night such as crop circles, drinking in a field or hanging out at the local meth lab.

Joyce’s humor thrived upon many of his real-life personal experiences, as well as his appearance.

Joyce joked about his “squirrelly eyes,” which served as a launching point for many of his jokes.

“People think I’m on drugs all the time,” he said. “You could eat cereal out of my contacts.”

Joyce delivered his jokes in a manner that caused the audience to laugh in agreement.

“Hospitals don’t have 13th floors or a room with the number 13,” Joyce said. “Do we really want our hospitals to be superstitious?”

Matt Caponera, comedy coordinator for University Board, organizes all the comedians that come to perform at Eastern.

“I was very happy with the outcome of Jesse’s performance,” he said. “Like Jesse said, it’s nine o’clock on a Friday night.”

Caponera first saw Joyce perform ,at a National Association for Campus Activities convention, where delegates from more than 400 schools search for comedians and other performers.

“We get to sample some comedians and musicians,” he said. “We see how they would fit at Eastern.”

Kristin Menas can be reached at 581-7942 or at kmmenas@eiu.edu.