Kangaroos, curly hair and away messages were just a few of the random assortment of subjects touched upon by the comedians who performed Friday night at the Shapiro Campus Center. Hosted by Student Events as a part of "Winter Week," the night of comedy provided a warm place for students to laugh about the insanely cold weather along with other things.The show commenced with Brandeis' own Dan Hirshon '04. Warming up the audience with a few mundane jokes about the cold, his act began awkwardly but became more relaxed and enjoyable after he moved through a few anecdotes about being confused for people twice his size due to his curly hair. He received some of the biggest laughs with a crude joke about a hooker comparing his hair to her pubic area.

While Hirshon was skilled at making smooth transitions between topics, his deadpan comedy lacked energy for the most part. It felt as if Hirshon was talking at the audience more than to the audience. Also, he spoke a little too fast at certain parts, not allowing adequate time for punch lines to sink in before he moved onto the next topic. Despite this lack of animation, his routine was most effective towards the end, as he added more emotion, voice inflection and movement into his clever jokes about reading highly educational books based on action movies such as Terminator 3.

Next was amateur comedian Greg Johnson, a recent graduate of Boston College. He was much more animated than Hirshon, loudly expressing his disbelief that car companies will not rent you a Ford Focus before you are 25 years old, but they somehow find it rational to offer you a massive R.V. instead. He was also more engaging for the audience doing such things as attempting to flirt with the female members. One of his most appreciated jokes involved relatable, self-deprecating humor. While at a party, he was accused of being un-cool for smoking. He countered this accusation with the comment, "It's not smoking that makes me un-cool. It's staying at home on Saturday nights to update my AOL profile."

This, along with quips about constantly changing away messages to "shower" and "library," had the many AIM addicts in the audience laughing not only at Johnson, but also at the realization of their own dorky compulsions. Finishing his routine with an embarrassingly funny story about getting an erection while watching television with his Grandma, Johnson left the audience warmed up for the headlining act.

Before the final act though, Hirshon once again took the stage, most likely to kill time, and offered up a few more jokes. Several were fairly lame, such as his comment about being out of shape, with the punchline being his resemblance to a pentagon. However, his final joke involving Jewish geography in regards to common names at Brandeis-Rachel, Sarah, Rebecca and Daniel among other biblical names-had the entire audience in hysterics.

Following Hirshon was Comedy Central's acclaimed comedian Tony Woods. He started out his act with a funny, but morbid joke about how wishing people a "Happy New Year" is bullshit because it is impossible to predict the horrible events that might befall them in the following months. Unfortunately, Woods' act was not at its full potential due to him being sick. But in spite of the occasional coughing and slightly quiet and hoarse voice, he still managed to be animated and audible.

After several jokes about being evicted, smoking weed in Holland while wearing wooden shoes and peeing outside in the cold - a joke that went over the heads of the majority of the female audience members - he spent most of his set talking about his discovery of a kangaroo which turned out to be a handicapped old man. After a few more jokes, some funny and some borderline offensive, he finished off the show with cracks about breasts and the wonderful lifestyle they lead.

Although the show started slow, Woods finished off strong, to the delight of the packed audience. Not only was the event a haven from well below-freezing temperatures outside, but it was also a much-needed dose of laughter to counter winter depression.