By Megan Callahan

Darren Knight, a controversial comedian who talks a mile a minute, put on a spectacular show for the audience even though most of the audience members weren’t students here at VSU. He got a lot of laughter during his set as well as Red Squirrel did as the opener for his show.  

During Southern Momma’s set he set up the right jokes to crack up the audience and held them just the right amount of time to get an even bigger laugh. 

 Throughout the middle of his set, he decided to go off script of his original material and riff some jokes about how children are more likely to run a household nowadays.  

Throughout his set, Knight told various stories about his friends’ children, and how he is always entertained by their drama. Darren also told various stories about growing up with his mom, and how different his childhood was from his friend’s children now.  

For example, Knight told a story about how his friend got a tattoo, while giving a backstory about how his mom has always forbid her kids from getting tattoos because “their body is a temple.”  

When Knight’s mom found out, Knight imitated his mom giving them a lecture about how she warned them not to get tattoos, because their body is a temple (while Darren dramatically smoked a cigarette during his imitation.) 

As for Knights, “Southern Momma” persona shared some insight on how he came up with the character. Knight admits that it wasn’t his original idea to do a character or persona.  

Knight admits, “Somebody had sent me some other videos of people stepping outside and acting like someone else. And I got a couple of clips sent to me by a couple of guys. It inspired me to kind of be like, I think I can do this I think I can do it better, and I did. 

Knight has decided to branch off and do other things besides doing the same old persona. Especially since Southern Momma has been around for 11 years now. 

Darren stated, “These characters are old. Now since I’ve branched off, we kind of did a revamp, and I want to do other stuff that falls along the lines of Southern Mama.  

Knight included many stories during his set, but he also shared some stories about what it was like growing up in Alabama, and how he got his start in his hometown. 

After Darren was posting videos on YouTube for a few months, he explained how he got his start at an open mic night at Peerless Saloon and Grille in his hometown in Alabama. He explained how he was badmouthing the other performers, and the bartender overheard Knight and challenged him to do better.  

The bartender put him on the setlist, and he did a 5-minute set which ended up being 3 times as long as it was supposed to be.  

Knight stated, “Fernando was giving me the lift hand gesture to keep going. I ended up doing a 20-minute bit and it was a lot of fun.” 

Knight started doing stand-ups in local pubs and comedy clubs and uploading videos onto YouTube and Facebook at the same time. While he was performing at gigs, his following was getting higher and “spreading like wildfire.” 

As for his Southern Momma, Knight admits that it wasn’t his original idea.  

Knight admits, “Somebody had sent me some other videos of people stepping outside and acting like someone else. And I got a couple of clips sent to me by a couple of guys. It inspired me to kind of be like, I think I can do this I think I can do it better, and I did. 

Now Knight shared many stories, but he also told stories just as hilarious as his dad. 

He ended the set by telling many well-crafted jokes about how his dad can’t hold in his shit, literally. Knight also did several imitations of his dad that left the audience cackling in their seats. 

To close out his performance, he brought back out Red Squirrel and asked the people in the audience who served in the army to stand and told the audience to give them a round of applause while Knight and Red Squirrel raised a drink to them.  

Once the members who served our country sat back in their seats, Knight made a shocking dedication, “Also we dedicate this show and the previous shows to Charlie Kirk.”  

This controversial dedication got a round of applause from the audience.  

However, this wouldn’t be the first time Knight made a controversial dedication like this. The audience wasn’t allowed to take any pictures or recordings during his set in case he said something inappropriate. 

Someone in the audience tried to record his act without him noticing, and Knight singled this person out saying, “remember no recordings, I’m still under a lot of heat right now.” 

Knight also stated this as one of the biggest lessons he has learned in this industry by saying, “When you’re known by a lot of people, you have to take into consideration things that I was lack of a better word, ignorant too. You got to watch what you do and watch what you say. So that has been kind of a learning experience for me. I’m a very outspoken person and I don’t have a filter. 

Knight has been known to have a lot of opinions on stage, but he has also been going on tours for almost 10 years now. Even though he has been on many stages, performed many sets, in several different cities. And yet he puts everything he has into each performance. 

“This may be my 500,000th time of doing this, but it’s somebody’s first experience with me out in that audience, So I want to give them my all.” 

After 10 years on the road, Darren has expressed interest in acting and has had his eye on several projects involving a comedy type setting. 

Moving forward, Knight would like to bring in more characters on social media and said a lot about how he will continue to try to hold his tongue and not to get into anything in politics.