In the 2005 film “The Aristocrats,” George Carlin offers some sage advice that neatly sums up everything a comedian should know to properly tell a dirty joke. Step one: Establish that there is a line. Step two: Deliberately cross that line, repeatedly. Ideally, bring the audience along with you. And, if you’re really good at your job, make them glad that they did. During “An Evening With Tracy Morgan” on Sunday at Cornell’s Bailey Hall, many lines were crossed.

 

“We’re all adults here,” Morgan said early on in his set. That was the general vibe he wanted to exude. Anyone expecting to see Morgan rehash old Saturday Night Live “Brian Fellows” skits were mistaken. “30 Rock” viewers hoping for an impromptu rendition of “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah” also had their hopes dashed. Audience reactions ranged from mortified sorority girls storming out of the theater to howls of delightful approval from the fans that could take a joke. Taking a joke is kind of an important skill to have at a comedy show.

In standup comedy, there’s “working blue,” off-color comedy along the lines of Carlin and Lenny Bruce. Sunday night, some of Morgan’s best lines were a navy blue shade so dark they might as well have been black.

Unless the majority of the audience was secretly bused in from Peoria and promised they were about to see the family-friendly comedic stylings of a Brian Regan or Gallagher, there’s really no explanation for the shocked reactions to all of Morgan’s nastiest material.

One could easily imagine Tracy Morgan in his tour bus on the way up to Ithaca, wondering how many different ways he could successfully mess with sheltered
students whose only previous exposure to him was “30 Rock.”

Morgan has a finely crafted persona of being completely insane. Part of the fun of watching his character on “30 Rock,” Tracy Jordan, is wondering where the character stops and the real Tracy begins. Morgan is the kind of guy who will get himself kicked out of a hip New York City nightclub, maybe literally tossed out on the street by bouncers, just to avoid paying the tab. He’s occasionally insane, but always in control.

The best moments from the night’s show came from Morgan’s rapid and random changes of topic. He talked about the struggle of finding a quiet place to masturbate one minute and spoke about the joys of higher education the next.

Morgan kept his political observations to a minimum for a comedian in an election year. Countering Tina Fey’s now semi-infamous Hillary Clinton endorsement, Morgan made an endorsement of  his own on SNL’s “Weekend Update” a few weeks ago.

Yet last night he was inexplicably supporting Hillary too, saying about Obama: “I don’t know that dude!”

Something else audiences might not have expected was Morgan’s Don Rickles-esque waves of abuse heaped on the sorry students sitting in the first few rows of the theater. Morgan decided early on that he just didn’t trust some angry white dude to the side of the stage, fearing he might “go get a trenchcoat or something.” More than a few ladies were hit on from the stage, whether they had boyfriends with them or not.

Morgan kept repeating that the audience was just not feeling him enough and that they were judging him joke for joke. “I know you’re all intellectuals,” he said. “I don’t give a f**k.”

The people who had the best time on Sunday night were the ones who didn’t either.

Tracy Morgan performed on Sunday night at Cornell University's Bailey Hall.