Better late than never.

The Big Eight Conference on Black Student Government’s kickoff event started a little later than expected, but entertained hundreds of students nonetheless.

More than 900 people lined up for the POWER Jam, which provided a full house of conference goers and interested others at the Memorial Union Great Hall on Thursday with entertainment from popular comedians. Conference chairman Kyle Pierce said, “I’m speechless. It’s not everyday that you see this many black people in one room at Iowa State.”

The Comedy Jam, which was scheduled for 8 p.m., began at 9:15 p.m. and had conference participants waiting inside the Great Hall while anxious organizers waited for the performers to arrive.

The performers, who were traveling from all over the country, were experiencing difficulties getting to Ames due to the weather, organizers said.

After the wait, host Darius Bradford, from St. Louis, cranked out a monologue that got the audience warmed up for four comedians: Lavel Crawford, Cory Holcomb, “Small Fry,” a female comedian from Atlanta, and Zooman.

The crowd answered with cheers, and this theme of black pride continued through the evening as many comedians talked about black pride in their acts.

Organizers have been planning the conference since October 1995, Pierce said.

Pierce said the conference “was everything I hoped and more.”

“I’m so proud of the entire conference staff,” he said.