ISU AfterDark’s first event of the semester was like nothing students had seen before. Unexpectedly going fully online didn’t throw comedian Preacher Lawson off his game for one second.

While originally planned to take place at the Memorial Union, ISU AfterDark announced on Friday that their event would be moved completely online. Lawson’s comedy show and Q&A session was available to students between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m.

Diving right into his comedy from the get-go, Lawson wasted no time breaking the ice between him and the Student Union Board executives.

“This is so quarantine,” Lawson said. “Thank you so much for letting me perform inside my house.” Lawson never failed to bring out laughter from his virtual audience.

By blending the lines between his comedy act and his natural personality, Lawson seemed very relaxed and delighted to be performing for ISU AfterDark, while also not being afraid to make fun of himself.

“When I tell people I’m vegan, they’re immediately like ‘Oh, this guy,’” Lawson said. “The reason I decided to be vegan was that I had way too many friends.”

Lawson quickly moved onto talking about how he first got into doing stand-up comedy.

“I think my first stand-up show was me in the living room with a microphone,” Lawson said. “When I first performed, I was too scared to go up when they called my name so they moved on. Until my mom waved me down and got me on stage. It went really bad.”

Lawson was soon asked about what made him decide to audition for “America’s Got Talent.”

“I was doing stand-up eight years prior to going on ‘America’s Got Talent’.” Lawson said. “I was nervous the whole entire show. Especially with Tyra Banks. You know that I’m in love with you, right?” Lawson said, jokingly addressing Banks.

Even in passive conversation, Lawson was able to slip in jokes easily.

“The UK laughs differently,” Lawson said, in response to how performing on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ differed from ‘America’s Got Talent’. “They laugh so fast. Look it up on YouTube.”

Lawson gave his audience a sneak peak not only into his comedy special but also some of his upcoming works.

“Filming it was pretty surreal,” Lawson said. “It was one of the greatest experiences. The next one’s going to be even better.”

Towards the end of his interview, Lawson was asked about how he keeps himself motivated, especially during these trying times.

“Motivation is like the devil,” Lawson said. “Working out, training and writing are just routine to me. You just have to do it.”

Before departing from his virtual interview, Lawson gave some parting advice to the prospective comedians, actors and writers out there.

“You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble if you do whatever you can today,” Lawson said. “Be happy in the moment.”

Whether Lawson was performing his brilliantly scripted material or talking from his heart, fans who were watching surely weren’t able to stifle their laughter.