An Honest Review of Pete Davidson’s Surprise Cedar Rapids Show

Last week, the people of Eastern Iowa were in for a huge surprise.

On Friday, December 1st officials from VenuWorks announced that comedian, actor, and 'Saturday Night Live' alum Pete Davidson would be performing in Cedar Rapids the following week.

Tickets for the 8:00 PM show on Wednesday, December 6th sold out quickly and officials had to add a second show at 10:30 PM to accommodate the demand for this surprise show.

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I was lucky enough to be able to go to the early sold-out show on Wednesday evening. As soon as the tickets went on sale, I made my way to the theater's box office and waited in line to snag myself a few tickets. 

While it was a relatively last-minute announcement, the show proved to be worth all of the hype and anticipation. Fans who got to go to the 8:00 PM show (like myself) were in for a hilarious and interesting performance.

The six-foot-one comedian swaggered onto the stage, dressed head to toe in gray sweats with a flannel, black dad cap, and UGG boots on his feet. With an outfit like this, you'd think he was going to spend a night in watching Netflix, not necessarily entertain a sold-out audience in Iowa.

Once the crowd settled down, Davidson hilariously welcomed the crowd to his "secret" show. He had seen some of the coverage surrounding his Cedar Rapids stop and took that as an easy in to connect to the crowd.

Due to the nature of the show, audience members had to have their phone sealed up in a special cell phone bag, that would stop fans from using their devices/recording during the performance.

While some were thrown off by this, I found that since all phones and distractions were away that the entire crowd seemed to engage more with the material!

The comedian shared stories about his relationship with his mother, his ever-changing celebrity status, and some hilarious missteps he's made when purchasing a home.

Overall, this was a fantastic show. Fans familiar with Davidson's work could not be disappointed with the performance. He delivered the type of jokes and material that we've grown to expect from the comedian.

Davidson messed up during the set-up of one of his big stories of the night. While some greener comedians would be frustrated by this, Pete leaned into it and had fun at having to essentially restart the set-up again and again.

Many of the most memorable moments of the night were unexpected.

At one point in the show, a random, singular piece of confetti fell from the ceiling of the stage right in front of Davidson. Without missing a beat, he joked about how the piece of paper was up there and waiting for the perfect time to fall. AND he did a sort pf physical impression of the confetti falling that had the entire crowd cracking up.

Later on in his set, Pete heard a cricket and launched into an off-the cuff moment. It culminated in Davidson calling out fellow comedian Matt Rife and jokingly saying that he sent the cricket to the show to mess with him.

I saw Pete Davidson several years ago. At that time, he was touring with another huge star in the comedy world, John Mulaney. It's clear that in the years since I last saw him, he has grown as a performer, writer, and standup comedian.

The comedian shared at the end of the show, some exciting news! He has a new comedy special dropping on January 9th of next year.

Next up on the tour schedule for Davidson are a run of Midwestern shows.

He is set to perform four shows in Madison, Wisconsin on Thursday, December 7th and Friday, December 8th.

Then he will head on over to Chicago for two shows on Saturday, December 9th before wrapping up his time in the Midwest on Sunday, December 10th at the Mystic Lake Casino Hotel in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Stay up to date with everything going on in Eastern Iowa by downloading the free station app from your app store. Also, do not forget to follow the station across all social media platforms for more information about other shows coming to our neck of the woods.