Baker Orange

Media Credit: Shawnee Barron

02/18/08

Many know him as a reckless taxi driver who rants about traffic and causes many traffic accidents.

Others know him as an overprotective father who drives his children to the most promising trick-or-treat houses.

But there is more to sophomore Bob Linebarger than these two characters he portrayed in the recent Baker theater production "Marcus is Walking."

Watch an audio slideshow featuring Linebarger.

When he walks offstage, Linebarger sings in choir, participates in speech choir and is a Resident Assistant in Gessner Hall.

Linebarger enjoys being an RA because he likes to be there for residents anytime they need him.

"I said to myself, 'Man, I want to have an influence on other people, especially freshmen,'" he said.

Freshman Sam Altman lives in the basement and is one of Linebarger's residents. Altman likes Linebarger's personality and thinks he does a good job.

"He's pretty fair," Altman said. "He can tell people no, and he has a good sense of humor about everything."

Linebarger admits that the job can be challenging. Writing up people who disobey the rules is a task he does not enjoy.

"It's hard to be disrespected by people who you will always be there for," he said.

The pleasure he gets from his campus job does not compare to the feelings he has for theater, though.

"I fell in love with it in high school," he said. "I knew I wanted to do it in college."

Linebarger, a theater major, enjoys entertaining an audience, especially performing comedies.

"Comedy is what I want to do with my life," he said.

Throughout high school, he was a member of an improv comedy group and loved it. He wanted to continue in college, but in Kansas there are few colleges that offer an improv program.

He didn't wish to attend any of these colleges, so he decided to create his own group, "Loud Noises," on campus.

When he is not entertaining an audience by performing in Loud Noises and in Baker theater productions, he is entertaining his friends.

"We laugh a lot," sophomore Tiffany Cornett said. "So that's fun, and he's a good person to talk to."

Cornett has known Linebarger for over a year and enjoys hanging out with him because of his personality.

"He's a very caring, funny, happy person," Cornett said. "He just really cares about other people a lot."

Others agree.

"He has an aura about him," Altman said. "When you're around Bob, you just feel better about yourself."

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