College of Communication senior and former Daily Free Press columnist Steve Macone joked his way to the winner’s circle Friday night, being named Boston University’s funniest student in front of 275 students after beating out 11 other comedians at the third BU Central Funniest Student Competition.
Amid constant laughter and high energy, the six finalists — College of Arts and Sciences senior Christian Lynch, School of Public Health and School of Law graduate student Abe Barth, COM freshman Taja Perkins and COM seniors Chris Sartinsky, Jono Zalay and winner Macone — had a “terrific show,” according to Office of Residence Life Director and competition judge David Zamojski.
Judges Zamojski, Judicial Affairs Director Daryl Deluca and Programming Council President and COM junior Kate Guastaferro shared their comments after each comedian performed 10-minute sets. Based on reality television shows Last Comic Standing and American Idol, the judges eliminated six of the 12 comedians in the preliminary round. The audience voted after the final competition, awarding Macone the 2006 honors.
As the winner, Macone has the opportunity to perform with Full House’s Dave Coulier in a future comedy show.
“I’m excited about it,” Macone said. “Full House was a cool show. It will be cool to meet Uncle Joey.”
Macone said he usually performs in Boston comedy clubs, including the Comedy Studio in Harvard Square up to three times each month, and performed with BU’s Slow Kids at Play last year. Despite this practice, and the two days he took to prepare for the show, he was still “really, really nervous.”
“College students are great to perform for,” he said. “They’re very smart and get my jokes quickly. I don’t have to tell dirty jokes, because we find the same things funny.
“It’s an honor to be picked when the rest of the competition was so solid,” Macone continued.
Of those “solid” performers, first-time performer Perkins had the audience roaring with one-liners.
“My favorite band is Panic! at the Disco,” she said during her performance. “Yeah, you can let your guard down — I’m not really black . . . except on the BU application.”
Zamojski described Barth’s performance as “dead-pan delivery.”
“It was one clever one-liner after another,” he said.
Zalay held the audience’s interest with his anecdotes of college rejection letters, while Sartinsky had chuckles throughout his performance. Lynch held his own among the other performers with comments about Jesus Christ.
Competition host Laura De Veau said “the kids did a great job.”
“They were ready, enthusiastic and really supportive of each other,” the ORL assistant director said.
De Veau warmed up the audience before the competitors and kept the ball rolling in between each performer, receiving constant laughs.
BU Central Undergraduate Programming Assistant Allie Flauter said she was “really happy with how [the show] went.”
“I thought the audience reaction really stepped up from the preliminaries,” the COM senior said. “I was so happy to hear so many people laughing.”
The Funniest Student show has drawn crowds for the past two years, Flauter said, so the venue plans on hosting it again next year as “kind of an annual tradition for BU Central.”
Taking cues from American Idol, the three judges assumed the roles of judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell.
“I don’t know how it happened, but someone called me Simon,” Zamojski said. “I think it’s important to receive feedback. I don’t think it was harsh — just direct.”
Despite Zamojski’s sometimes tough critiques, he sung praise of the overall success of the show, a sentiment the judges shared.
“We liked all the comedians,” Deluca said. “They had outstanding material. They were succinct, creative and had phenomenal stage presence. We picked the right six to continue on, but I’m happy Steve got it.”