After weeks of waiting, The University of Wisconsin–Stout got to host comedian, writer, People’s Choice Award Winner, and vlogger Matt Bellassai. The event was set up in a talk show style with the host being Eric Huse, who also happens to be the Stout Student Associate president. Over 800 people were at the sold out event. The crowd consisted of Menomonie natives, Stout students, and people from surrounding cities – needless to say, it was a full house. When Bellassai finally walked on stage, the crowd went nuts, but that was just the beginning.
Early Life
Bellassai opened up with a little of history. He’s a Chicago native and went to Northwestern University and majored to political science and journalism. He graduated there and as he claimed he “technically got a degree.” He said his first blogging experience was an embarrassing Tumblr account called “Actually Matt”, but begged us not to look it up, then continued to talk about how he reached all of his success.
His Buzzfeed Career
Matt Bellassai applied to Buzzfeed in 2012 when it wasn’t as popular and claimed a big part of why Buzzfeed became so popular. He initially just started as a writer but ended up becoming a senior editor and began “Whine About It”. Recently Bellassai decided to take the plunge and leave Buzzfeed in order to explore his own options as a comedian, writer, and vlogger. He also mentioned a potential TV in the making, but couldn’t give any details.
The Wine
Of course the host had to ask Bellassai what his favorite wine was, in spirit (no pun intended) of Matt’s rise to fame. He responded with what every college student lives by: “what ever is cheapest.” He also did mention “a JUG of Carlo Rossi wine” being one of his favorites. He explained his disastrous 21st birthday, which included lots of vomiting in a taxi along with many of his other drunken mishaps.
The Squirrels
One of the funniest parts of the show was when Bellassai explained his hatred for squirrels. They are definitely his kryptonite from what it sounds like. It started off by him explaining his favorite “Whine About It” video was the fall episode because he got to explain about squirrels. He told us a story about his run in with a nasty squirrel that broke into his apartment and stole his cookies, and a week afterwards the squirrel returned with a different stolen bakery item “just to tell me he didn’t need me anymore” as Bellassai put it. Throughout the rest of his show, Bellassai referenced his hatred for squirrels frequently.
The Sass
This was the best part of the entire show. The crowd was on the edge of their seat just waiting for the next incredibly sarcastic and sassy thing to come out of Bellassai’s mouth. He was a very down to earth individual, which made him even better to listen to. He still fan-girls over Beyoncé and Harry Styles, drinks cheap wine, stuffing his face with Indian food at 2 in the morning. Despite the fact that he’s climbing up the ladder of fame, he still is very relatable and has problems that all of us face. This show was most definitely the funniest show that has come to Menomonie (or as he called it, “anemone”, pronounced the way that Nemo said it) in a really long time. If you missed it, look up some of his videos on Youtube to get a glimpse of what you missed!