One night, two schools, 16 comics, one microphone and a healthy spirit of competition were all it took to pack a local venue and keep the audience laughing for hours.

The RooftopComedy.com National College Comedy Competition came to Chicago March 31 with a regional match between Columbia and Northwestern University at the Lincoln Lodge, 4008 N. Lincoln Ave. Eight comics from each school took the stage to perform three minutes of stand-up.

After the show, the audience and a panel of three judges cast their votes to determine the top four performers from each school. The finalists will move on in the competition for a chance to perform at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival June 10-13 in Aspen, Colo. ,and the TBS Just For Laughs Festival in Chicago June 15-19. Videos of their performances will be posted on TBS.com and the public will vote online to determine the winners.

Chris Stephens, one of Columbia’s four finalists, had high hopes for all of the performers, and he said everyone did even better than he had expected.

“I was shocked by the competition,” Stephens said. “I have no idea who’s going to take this, or who should, for that matter. They were all hysterical.”

Stephens, a junior television writing major, started performing stand-up two years ago at one of Columbia’s Wise Ass open mic nights on a dare from some friends of his. He said he would enjoy doing it professionally, but wouldn’t rely on it as a stable career.

“It would be nice, but it probably wouldn’t pay much,” Stephens said. “I mean, I feel like it’s too cutthroat and stuff, you have to owe favors to people. I’d rather write jokes for someone that would be willing to pay me thousands of dollars for no reason. An idiot, basically,” he added, laughing.

Dan Millstein, a Northwestern alumnus, said he came to the show to support his school and local comedy and get some laughs. He said he thought TBS’s involvement as a sponsor of the competition gave young comics a chance to reach a wider audience than they would otherwise be able to.

“It’s great that they sponsor this so you can get these kids who don’t have as many opportunities to get onstage and get this exposure,” Millstein said.

Drew Hunt, another Columbia finalist, agreed the competition was a good opportunity not just for student comics, but for Chicago comedy in general.

“If it gets the public more aware of the standup scene in Chicago, then that’s awesome,” Hunt said. “[The students] are just a really small—and I really mean that—a really small percentage of a lot of talent that’s out in the city. So if it can bring awareness to the kind of stand-up that’s going on here, then I think that is great.”

Hunt, a sophomore at Columbia, said he has been doing comedy on and off for about two years. He said he tries to perform as often as he can, but schoolwork sometimes has to take top priority.

“It’s kind of tough, though, with school,” Hunt said. “You’ve got to kind of balance. You have to kind of pick and choose when you go out to a mic or when you do homework. It can be kind of tough to stay consistent.”

RooftopComedy.com was started five years ago as a platform to help comedians put their work out online. The site is partnered with several comedy venues, where cameras record live shows which are then posted to the Web.

“We’re able to provide a platform for up-and-coming comics to promote their comedy, their craft, their material to a wide audience,” said Jenn Stokes, national events director for Rooftop Comedy and coordinator of the National College Comedy Competition.

She said the company started the college competition three years ago as a means of connecting with younger comics and helping them get a foot in the industry.

“We thought that this would be a great opportunity to get more entrenched and get to know comics at a younger age than typical and help them to get noticed and develop their material and their artistic craft in comedy,” Stokes said. “So, really getting involved with a younger audience and helping develop them as comedians as they grow and get more involved in

the industry.”

Columbia’s four comedian finalists were Chris Stephens, C.J. Toledano, Drew Hunt and Steven Haas. Their videos will be posted to TBS.com and voting will open to the public on April 22. The online voting will determine which schools advance in the competition and which ones are eliminated.

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