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St. Cloud State University
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Ben Stein wins over students
By Joe Palmersheim
Published:
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Media Credit: Jason Risberg
Actor and game show host Ben Stein entertained SCSU students Monday night in Halenbeck gymnasium. The event was sponsored by the University Program Board.
Humorist Ben Stein enthralled a crowd of 850 at Halenbeck Hall Monday night. Stein, a political humorist best known for his game show on Comedy Central, spoke for almost an hour and covered every topic imaginable: parents, children, college and how to ruin your life. The latter comes from the title of Stein's latest book, and the excerpts he read had the audience in hysterics.
At a press conference that was held shortly before the show, Stein ruminated on his feelings about St. Cloud. This being his first time here, he was "hoping for a cancellation of all the planes so I would have to stay here for a few more days, but unfortunately, no." The people of St. Cloud have made their impression on Ben Stein as well, for he spoke very highly of how nicely he was treated. "Everywhere I go, people are trying to buy me drinks. I don't want to be rude and tell them that I don't drink much, so I pretend to sip."
Stein's game show "Win Ben Stein's Money" is on its seventh and final season. The show garnered over 25 Emmy nominations during its run, which means "that of all the Emmy's Comedy Central has ever been nominated for, we are responsible for 90 percent of them," Stein said.
Stein opened his speech with a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald: "...no one who had not actually lived there could appreciate how wonderful life is between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. This is really the essence of great living for the whole world."
Before he began his speech in earnest, he asked for 15 seconds of silence to pray that "the innocents on both sides may be spared," during which the only thing that could be heard was the buzz of the florescent lighting and the dull hum of the air vents.
Stein proceeded to loosen up the audience with a 20-minute monologue of jokes, ranging in subject matter from the Gopher hockey team to the fact that he was a Republican in Hollywood. Stein spoke with his characteristic monotone for which he is best known, but instead of being boring, it had the opposite effect. His stage presence was more than enough to keep the audience interested.
Stein spoke of parenthood and his 15-year-old son, whom he described as the "world's laziest human being who still has a pulse." His son had a serious video game addiction, something which boggles Stein's mind. He spoke of "Everquest" and "Day of Defeat" in the same world-weary tone as one might use to describe a plague.
"How to Ruin Your Life," Stein's latest book, has been by far his most popular. It has sold more copies than all of his previous works.
He read excerpts from this book, much to the audience's delight. With rules such as "Self-discipline isn't necessary," and "envy everybody," these rules are the exact opposite of anything a parent would say to a child, which may be part of their appeal. The single best way to ruin one's life, according to Stein, is to "have a romantic relationship with someone with a lot of problems and believe that you could change them." He received sustained applause and cheers for this last statement.
Carrying on with the theme of love, Stein wrote another book called "How to Ruin Your Love Life," which used the same formula of bad advice presented as good advice. This book comes out in August and Stein made it known with great fanfare that we were the first people to hear excerpts from it.
After talking about his books, Stein spoke of his college years and how he learned to be grateful to his parents and grateful for everything in general. He gave advice on important things that people should do in life, ranging from "be thrifty" to "fall in love."
In the closing moments of his talk, Stein spoke of his parents, and how he deepened his relationship with them. He also described the day he finally realized he couldn't be the best at everything he did and how it changed him. When he finished, Stein took several questions from the audience members, ranging in subject matter from his opinion on the national debt to "how to win Ben Stein's money."
With his work in television and being a prolific author, one might think that Stein wouldn't have the time to tour. Not so.
"He tours college campuses, goes on many different TV shows, so he's always touring. That's basically his career," said Amanda Hallfrisch, an SCSU junior who is the National Events Coordinator on the University Program Board (UPB). The process involved in getting Stein to SCSU involved a committee action to decide to bring him and correspondence through his agent.
Despite the fact that his talk show was cancelled after three seasons, and "Win Ben Stein's Money" is in its last season, Stein seems happy. His latest gig is as a judge on Star Search, where he works with Naomi Judd and a handful of other revolving judges. From the sound of it, Stein couldn't be happier. "If you could write to God for a job, and have it be the best job in America, it would be being a judge on Star Search," Stein said.
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