Boston University student Alex Reed stood on the stage in BU Central and told more than 350 students about his favorite interest: soliciting prostitutes.
‘I love prostitutes,’ Reed, a College of Communication junior, said. ‘They’re like disposable wives.’
Reed was one of the six finalists for BU’s annual comedy showdown, competing for the title of BU’s Funniest Student on Friday.’
The six finalists brought all different aspects of their lives to their acts. COM senior Jillian Jorgensen, the 2007 winner, spoke of a cab driver she was consistently stuck with for a summer, who would look up her astrology signs for her and give her astrological warnings.
‘He told me Mercury was in retrograde, and I shouldn’t go 60 miles from home,’ Jorgensen, a former Daily Free Press reporter, said.
BU doctoral candidate Jono Zalay poked fun at his experiences in the BU research laboratories.’
‘I give cocaine to rats,’ Zalay said. ‘It’s the lord’s work.’
Zalay said one of his colleagues does a similar experiment, but with humans.
‘The ad is asking crack addicts if they would like to turn a hobby into a career,’ he said.
The first round happened on Nov. 6, at which point a combination judges’ opinions and an audience vote helped narrow down the first pool of contestants to the final six, who competed in the second and final round. Winners were determined based entirely on audience votes.
‘The part I enjoy the most is watching the improvement between rounds,’ Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life David Zamojski, who’ judged the competition, said. ‘Students are always much stronger.’
Zamojski said he especially liked COM sophomore Chris Clemente’s act, which featured jokes about masturbation.
‘He was able to turn his awkwardness into humor,’ he said.
The other judges included COM junior Brooke Ackerman, who was standing in for Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore, and Programming Council co-Presidents Kristi Dodadil and Sam Minkoff.
Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Kathryn Rough said she came to cheer on Chris Clemente, who had never done standup before BU’s Funniest Student.
‘He was the best,’ she said.
At the end of the night the audience voted, and Jono Zalay came in third place, Chris Clemente in second and College of Arts and Sciences junior Jesse Neil in first.
‘It feels great to have won, especially among so much talent,’ Neil said. ‘This is my first year. In fact, this event was my first time doing standup comedy. I usually perform sketch comedy in Slow Children at Play here at BU. As far as next year is concerned, I would definitely consider being in the competition again.’
‘I think that we can all agree that the top three were very talented,’ School of Management sophomore David Dessanti said.
Host Steve Macone said BU’s Funniest Student is a great way for anyone’s comedy career to get started ‘-‘- even his. Macone won it in 2006 and is now a professional comic.
‘It’s an incredibly fickle thing, standup,’ he said. ‘How well you do depends on a thousand small things. What I’ve learned from seeing the competition is that, for whatever reason, BU has churned out some pretty funny people.’
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