WMU comics bring the funny

By Analiese Grohalski
Western Herald

Western Michigan University will be one of the 32 American colleges fighting for laughs when the Stand-Up Comedy Club competes in the third-annual Rooftop Comedy National College Comedy Competition (NCCC).

Photos courtsy of Rooftop Comedy/From left to right the Western Michigan University comics are: Sohrab Foroozesh, Trevor Smith, Alec Robbins, and Chris Raby.

TBS and Rooftop Comedy are joining forces to find the “Funniest College Comedy Team.” Each college will send four students to present their three-minute sets across the U.S. on stage and online to find the funniest students.  Voting begins today at www.tbs.com.

Representing WMU in the competition is Alec Robbins, Sohrab Foroozesh, Chris Raby, and Trevor Smith, all members of SUCC. A vote for any of these individuals, will count toward WMU as a team.

The top four schools, based on the online voting, will perform in the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival with VIP trips to Aspen, Colo. where a winning team will be crowned. The top four individuals in the competition will be invited to perform at the TBS Presents a “Very Funny” Festival: Just for Laughs.

“We may not be getting paid but getting in contact with people is always good, if they remember your name or slip you a business card,” said Foroozesh, member and co-founder of the SUCC.

The regional rivalry round was filmed at Connxtions Comedy Club in Lansing on March 29.

Online voting for the regional round between WMU and Michigan State University goes through April 26.  The winner will advance to the top 16.

Robbins, a sophomore, said they all did a great job competing against MSU and feels really good about the whole thing.

“We all did three-minute sets and all of us did a great job,” Robbins said. “I had a particularly great set. It was a quick and concise three minutes with some of my best material squeezed in, and the audience loved me. We all had met earlier in the week to help each other fine-tune our sets. It really worked to our advantage at the show.”

Although the live audience members are a major part of any stand-up show, in this competition they’re not the only ones the comics need to impress. Fans and comedy lovers can watch any school’s comedians and vote for them throughout the competition at www.tbs.com.

Foroozesh doesn’t know how he feels about having the competition judged mainly online.

Voting online is good for publicity but the judging could be unfair, Foroozesh said.

“Actually, you can go to the website and vote every five minutes,” Foroozesh said. “There’s always some kid from some other school that will vote for himself every five minutes.”
The SUCC had looked into entering the competition last year but missed the deadline. This year, Raby, SUCC’s president, e-mailed Rooftop Comedy over the summer saying that the WMU club was interested. He then began speaking with a representative from Rooftop Comedy to get all the information.

“It was quite a long process to get involved but it has definitely been worth it,” Raby said.  “First, we had auditions to figure out who our top eight was.”

Raby said that there are a lot of people who’ve been doing stand-up longer than others, so he selected the comedians with more experience.

Those eight comics were then cut down to the four that would serve as WMU’s “starting lineup” for the competition at Connxtions last month by an audience vote.
The SUCC has about 10 members.  The club has a wide range of comics, who make the audience split their sides with different styles of jokes.

“Some of us are a little less immature, some are more mature,” Foroozesh said. “I tend to stick with [male genitalia] jokes but we have our guys who want to do their political jokes and that’s fine.”

Forouzesh said he is one of the more immature comedians, but getting onstage without being nervous comes with time.

“You always get nervous seconds before, but once you get out there it all washes away,” Foroozesh said. “You kind of black out, do your thing, and get off. After a time, you remember how to breathe, what you’re doing up there and read the audience.”

TBS Presents a “Very Funny” Festival: Just for Laughs will take place June 15 – 19.

To vote for WMU’s team and view a bracket of their journey through the competition, go to www.tbs.com.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Apr 21 2010. Filed under A & E, Weekend Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com