Zach Sherwin and Myq Kaplan visit Muhlenberg

Last Friday, Oct. 14th, comedian and rapper Zach Sherwin performed in the Red Doors to an energetic crowd. Zach Sherwin boasts 54,880 subscribers and 2,609,087 views on his YouTube page, but you most likely know him from the hit YouTube show Epic Rap Battles of History. Though Muhlenberg Activities Council (MAC) only hired Sherwin to preform, he also brought along his friend, comedian Myq Kaplan to open. Sherwin described his presence as “Justin Bieber opening for a Diplo concert.” According to his website, “Myq Kaplan is a comedian named Myq Kaplan.” He also has a special on Netflix named Small, Dork and Handsome. This wasn’t the first time Kaplan has appeared on a Muhlenberg stage. Kaplan opened for Sherwin with his classic combination of observational comedy, wit, and wordplay. The audience seemed to enjoy with wide-spread laughter following every punch line.

At the end of his set, Kaplan introduced the audience to his “friend” Zach Sherwin. Before Sherwin even started with the jokes, he was quick to point out he had called Kaplan his “best friend” earlier in the night, whereas Kaplan only called him “friend.” He opened his set the same way he opens every college performance, by lightly roasting the college through its website and information pages. He was quick to point out our lack of arsons as well as our 111 drug/alcohol violations, joking that someone “took one for the team” when the count was just at 110.

He then started with his comedy set, the highlight of which was a string of anagrams of “Muhlenberg College.” The first, which he found ironic given Muhlenberg’s personable atmosphere, was “Cell! Go Here N’ Ge glum!” The next was what he described as a type of lube: “Bunghole Creme Gell.” He jokingly listed worse lube names; one of which, “Long Leech Germ Lube,” was actually another Muhlenberg College anagram. Other anagrams included “Glee Club Hell Mongrel,” “Gong Bell Mule Cheer,” “Chug Beer, Men’ll Ogle,” and “He’ll Crumble One Egg.”

Sherwin then proceeded on to the rap segment of his set. His brand of rap is highly comedic and drenched in wordplay. One of his songs, piggybacking off of Nicki Minaj rhyming “commercial” with “commercial,” was focused on the word “set.” The word “set” has 464 different meanings, so Sherwin used this in his favor, comedically rhyming the word with itself multiple times. Other songs included “Legato Gelato,” a rap involving a man at a bar trying to understand a phrase he had never heard. One of his last raps was titled “Circumcising Wolverine.” The song was as strange as its title, following a man trying to come up with a modern equivalent to the tale of Sisyphus.

After his raps, Sherwin then opened the show up to the audience, asking for random words to spell backwards. Though he didn’t get them all, the skill was still impressive. However, at the end of that segment, he included each of the words in a freestyle rap that wowed the audience. The night ended with Sherwin rap battling Nicholas Rubingh; at Rubingh’s request. They both went head to head, with Rubingh insulting Sherwin’s appearance and Sherwin insulting Rubingh’s rap battle etiquette. Though the crowd seemed to think Sherwin was the winner, both seemed content with their performance.

Both Myq Kaplan and Zach Sherwin stayed for almost 45 minutes after the performance, taking pictures, joking, and talking with fans. Both on and off the stage, both were very funny and personable people. Altogether, the audience seemed to really enjoy both of the performances.