Comedy Central’s Anders Holm visited his alma mater Saturday to answer questions for students about his time at UW-Madison and the success he has had since graduating in 2003.
The “RED Talk” event, which was led by Vice President of UW-Madison Homecoming Committee Natalie Ahern in Mills Concert Hall, was the first of its kind at UW-Madison. It was modeled after the scholarly “TED Talks” and was formatted as a question-and-answer session.
Holm used humor he is best known for to recall the stress of finals and the adventures of being a student athlete as an undergraduate. Centered around his theme to “Keep It Real,” Holm opened up about the reality of sometimes failing and not fitting the image of what most teachers would consider the ideal student.
Holm said that being a Badger influenced his life after graduating and moving to Los Angeles to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.
“The times I had here were character building and friends here are friends for life,” Holm said. “It’s a great place and it’s easy to brag about.”
When asked what students should do to have the full UW-Madison experience before graduating, Holm said having one-on-one conversations with professors is an opportunity to grow.
“Just find out, ‘Who are you? What do you do besides talk in front of us and teach us stuff?’” Holm said. “You might be surprised how interesting they are, because if they’re working here at this school and this school is the ‘the jam’ they are probably ‘the jam’ also.”
Because questions were chosen prior to the interview, the event ended with a 20-minute question-and-answer from the audience.
The Homecoming Committee was excited to host Holm at their kickoff event for the university’s Homecoming Week.
Sophomore and member of the Marketing Committee for Homecoming Annie Staskunas said she got involved with the organization because it gives back to the school directly.
“The biggest thing about Homecoming is students and alumni coming to events,” Staskunas said. “Being excited about this doesn’t mean anything if people don’t show up, so it was awesome to see students come tonight and it was great we got to secure Anders Holm.”
