"I knew you'd touch the Jell-O pudding!" shouted Bill Cosby to a surprised audience as he came alive in the HUB on Monday night.
Bill Cosby, played by Amechi Nwabueze (senior-pre-medicine) was one of the many influential African Americans making an appearance at the second annual Living Black Wax Museum.
The event was coordinated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. as the first of many events as a part of NAACP Week.
About 20 people at a time were led through the exhibit as Penn State students acted as "wax figures" and spoke briefly about things audience members may have never known about them.
Charles Cole, chairman of the event, said the idea for the event originated last year as a way for students to learn about black history.
"This is different from a lecture in a classroom and different from reading a book," Cole (senior-biology) said. "It's something interactive and fun."
The theme for this year's exhibit was, "Today is a gift, that is why it's called the present." It focused on icons who have made their contributions in the past 25 years.
Travis Salters, who played Tiger Woods at the exhibit, said the point of the theme was to show that history is still in the making.
"I hope [the audience] understands that we're still making history," said Salters (sophomore-broadcast journalism and African American studies). "It's not just about Dr. King and Malcolm X."
The characters did more than simply give their list accomplishments.
They told the characters untold stories and unknown struggles -- surprising many audience members.
"I never knew about Angela Bassett's or Tiger Woods' past, I found out a lot about people," said Jeremy Wilkerson (senior-sociology).
Woods revealed he was a victim of hate crimes and Bassett told the audience she attended Yale University.
Other characters provided humor and animation to their stories, like Tyler Perry who encouraged audience participation and Will Smith who played a clip of the "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" theme song as he sprang to life.
