Students planning on attending Thursday's Senseless Acts of Comedy performance might want to get there well before the 9 p.m. showtime.

Last Thursday's performance was standing room only, and officials had to turn students away from the auditorium in the Brown-Lupton University Union.

It was the first time students were denied entrance in SAC’s 11-year existence, Shawn Wagner, events coordinator for the BLUU, said

“It was historically, for the BLUU Auditorium, the largest audience we’ve ever seen,” she said.

Kent Mire, operations coordinator for the BLUU, said the auditorium seats 300. After the auditorium ran out of seating, students sat on the stairs and on the ground around the stage,  Mire said.

Mire said he assigned several students to stand in front of the doors to prevent further people from entering.

“It was just to a point that it would be unsafe if anyone else came in,” Mire said. “If you were there, you saw the limited amount of space they had to use for a stage.”

Kelly Ryan, junior communications major and SAC member, said everyone in the troupe was surprised by the size of the audience.

“We were all backstage screaming. We were so shocked,” she said.

But SAC members regretted that some people did not get to see the show, Ryan said.

“I felt bad for the people we had to turn away, because that’s never what we want to do,” she said. “But, if anything were to happen we obviously want our audience to exit the auditorium in a proper manner and be safe.”

Wagner said if SAC continued to draw such a large audience, BLUU operations staff would find a larger space to use.

“They would move SAC because there’s so many people who love it, and not just the students,” Wagner said. “It’s really nice to be a victim of that kind of success.”

Sophomore English and pre-law major Gaby Pardue attended the show and said she did not mind how crowded it was.

“We had to sit on the floor, but it was worth it," she said. "The show itself had the most energy of any of the SAC shows that I have been to.”

Pardue also said she would continue to go to SAC shows in the future even if they were just as crowded as the show last Thursday.

“I will [go] in the future, however I will elbow my way in for a seat or bribe people with food for a seat. Or even camp out the night before. It’s worth it for a good laugh,” she said.