Saget’s ’79 visit to NMSU was no laughing matter
Comedian was allegedly booed off stage; penned response to school paper
LAS CRUCES — Comedian Bob Saget wrote a letter to the student newspaper at New Mexico State University following a 1979 performance at the Pan American Center in which he was purportedly booed off stage.
Saget, who would go on to enjoy an illustrious acting and stand-up comedy career beginning in the mid-80s, died a week ago Sunday. He was 65.
Before he became the star of TV’s “Full House” and host of “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Saget was a touring stand-up comedian trying to make a name for himself.
On March 21, 1979, Saget, who would’ve been 22 years old at the time, landed a gig at NMSU’s Pan Am Center as one of two opening acts for the hard rock band Head East.
Following the show, Saget submitted a letter to the editor of The Round Up, which was published March 26, 1979.
The letter begins: “I’d like to go on the record for saying that I actually do like your school, even though I wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms … It’s a shame that 1,900 students had to ruin it for the other 100.”
Saget goes on to thank his fans and then promises, “I will not slander your school or town on the Tonight Show this summer.”
He continues: “After my ‘show,’ I went to Lamar’s with a few people from your programming committee and eventually forgot that I had performed. You’ve got a nice town and school. Don’t burn it down.”
Saget ends his letter by stating: “I wish to sincerely thank those of you who tried to hear my act and enjoyed it,” and then he offers to get “free water” for anyone who visits him at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles.
‘Bob Saget, rumored to be a comedian, also showed up’
Pat Wier reviewed the show for The Round Up. He writes: “Head East hit the stage with that hunger Wednesday night in Pan Am and ate up the crowd with some hard punching rock and roll.”
Wier talked to Hard East bassist Dave Birney after the show, who was quoted in the review as saying, “The crowd was small but they really were having a good time and that’s when we have a good time and try to give it all we’ve got.”
The review ends with this paragraph: “Richie Liccea soloed as the warm-up act and was well received. Bob Saget, rumored to be a comedian, also showed up.”
Marina Nickerson also attended the show
and had a vastly different take. She wrote a guest review for the El Paso Times.
Nickerson’s review begins: “Had I headed any direction but west Wednesday evening, I would have been more entertained than I was listening to Head East concert …. However, among the 3,000 exuberant fans who verified that hard rock music is alive and well, I suffered alone.”
The review ends: “The concert’s one redeeming feature was a comedy act by Los Angeles singer Bob Saget. Here again, my reaction represents a majority of one.”
Mixed reviews
Did Wier and Nickerson see the same show? What prompted Saget to write a letter to The Round Up? The Sun-News spent much of the past week trying to find someone who was at the show who would go on record but to no avail. If you were at the show, please email News Director Lucas Peerman at lpeerman@lcsun-news.com.
Barbara Hubbard, the longtime special events director for NMSU who is now retired, said she didn’t remember the concert and was sure she didn’t go to Lamar’s with Saget after the show. “I think I would have remembered that,” Hubbard laughed.
David Ysias, the news editor of The Round Up when Saget’s letter published, said he attended “virtually every on-campus concert” in 1979 and recalled the Head East performance. “Sadly, I did not attend that show,” he said.
One Round Up staffer from 1979 who was at the show but didn’t want to go on record wrote about Saget’s performance on Facebook: “I think he was booed off the stage. I recall one drunk screaming “YOU SUCK!” A girl near me barfed … As he left the stage, he said something close to: ‘I’m going to be on Johnny Carson and I’m going to tell the whole country what a shithole Las Cruces is.”
According to Saget’s IMDb page, he didn’t perform on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” until 1987, the first year of “Full House.”
Saget’s first TV appearance did air in the summer of 1979. It was a stint on the show “Make Me Laugh,” in which comedians try to make contestants crack a smile. Saget would appear on several talk shows early in his career including “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1981 and “Late Night with David Letterman” in 1986.