Comedian John Mulaney will speak May 28 at 6:30 p.m. in a free virtual event for UF students and faculty.
Accent Speakers Bureau, a student-run organization funded by UF Student Government, announced its first-ever virtual speaking event after postponing all of its Spring events in March when Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that four UF students tested positive for COVID-19 and the university announced that classes would move online.
Accent Chair Steven Wolf declined to comment on how much Mulaney will be paid to speak, a sum that comes from student fees. The Alligator has requested Mulaney’s contract.
The show will be held online using Microsoft Teams, a virtual meeting program that hosts up to 10,000 participants at a time. Students must register for the event in advance, and tickets are free to any UF student or faculty member with a valid UF email address, Wolf wrote in an email. Registration opened Friday and closes at 3:30 p.m. on the day of the show.
The first 45 minutes of the event will consist of a moderated conversation followed by a 15-minute student Q&A, he said. Mulaney will share some behind-the-scenes stories about the start of his career, his time at Saturday Night Live and his stand-up specials, Wolf said.
“These are obviously unprecedented times we are all facing right now,” Wolf said. “Students may be at home or in Gainesville with very little to look forward to these days and we thought someone like John would bring a lot of joy and excitement to the Gator community.”
Mulaney was also scheduled to perform at UF April 19, 2018, but canceled when presented with other “career opportunities that were too good to pass up.” He was replaced by comedian Jim Jeffries.
Accent will be releasing the official link to the show a couple of hours before the event through students’ UF emails, Wolf said. Attendees will then have to sign in as a guest on the program using their UF email and password in order to access the event.
More than 1,000 people have said they are interested in attending, according to the Facebook event page.
Contact Nicole at nrodriguez@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @_nrodriguez99.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that John Mulaney will be Accent's first virtual speaking event, not its first virtual event. The article has also been updated to reflect that Accent Spring events have been postponed, not canceled.
Mulaney shared behind-the-scenes stories about the start of his career, his time at Saturday Night Live and his stand-up specials during Thursday's event.
