Held in comedic custody

Nearly 400 students were held in comedic custody of "Reno 911!" Deputies Garcia and Jones on Tuesday, March 4. The suspects filled the University Union Potomac Lounge for the event, spilling over onto the couches that lined the room. The Campus Activities Board sponsored the event.

The show was split up into four segments that included stand-up acts from Carlos Alazraqui (Garcia) and Cedric Yarbrough (Jones), along with an "impression-off," an improvisation scene based on the show, and a question-and-answer session. Towson's Last Comic Standing winners Mike Andre and Will Carey opened the show.

"I thought it was really awesome. I watch 'Reno 911,' so I was familiar with the guys and I thought it was cool how they did their own thing," Katie Conway, a freshman forensic science major, said.

Alazraqui, a 20-year veteran of stand-up comedy, began the show with a wide variety of jokes ranging from his time in college to the pantomimed act of sodomizing a farm animal, which helped explain how he was a "light-skinned Latino." His rationale was that the Spanish "spread their seed all over the world," including farm animals.

Midway through his set, Alazraqui was interrupted by his partner in faux-law enforcement, Yarbrough, who informed the audience he was backstage "drinking and masturbating."

The two remained on stage together for the "impression-off," which pitted the pair against each other for their best impersonations.

Alazraqui's arsenal included Bill Clinton, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino's "Scarface," and Billy Crystal. Yarbrough contested with Bill Cosby, a scene from Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" cartoons and a rendition of the Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" that segued into his solo stand-up performance.

"I thought it was really unique," Carey said. "I didn't know that they did stand-up, so I really [enjoyed how] it was multi-faceted. There was improv [and] audience participation. It was really cool."

Yarbrough put on more of a musically inclined performance, imparting onto the audience his interpretation of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On," not as a sensually smooth song about making love, but rather a bathroom ballad about a difficult defecation session.

The pair surprised the audience after Yarbrough's set, coming back on-stage as their fictional alter-egos, Deputies Jones and Garcia. Because "Reno 911!" is largely unscripted, the two members of Reno's finest performed an improvised sketch involving a student who played the part of a "suspicious victim who raped a hooker."

The scene was then reenacted in the style of a "porno," an idea suggested by the audience.

The show climaxed with Jones breaking a prop beer bottle over Garcia's head. It was followed by a question-and-answer session, in which one Towson student asked Deputy Garcia and Deputy Jones if they would prank call her boyfriend.

"Basically, we're the guys from 'Reno 911!' and we're doing your girlfriend," they said into the student's cell phone.

"I thought the show was pretty solid, they did a good job," Earl Gray III, a junior electronic media and film major, said. "I was surprised at how well they worked on their feet….they stood on their own as comedians."

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