Random Acts of Comedy stages second show

A new opportunity for students to make first attempts at comedy is growing. Union Board’s Random Acts of Comedy staged its second-ever event Tuesday.

Seven student comedians and groups took the stage in the Indiana Memorial Union’s Frangipani Room to perform improvised routines and stand-up comedy. All student comedians are invited to share their talents at Random Acts of Comedy.

“We’re going to basically try and create a brand and provide an opportunity for comedians on campus to showcase themselves for other students, for their friends, whoever they want,” said Brett Bassock, live entertainment director for Union Board.

Bassock said Random Acts of Comedy will occur monthly for the rest of the year, but he hopes it will become a biweekly event next year. He said Union Board Live already has a weekly music series.

“I thought it’d be an amazing idea to do that with comedy, to give students that
opportunity with comedy just like we do with music,” Bassock said.

The original idea for an open comedy night came from senior Harlan Kelly, who studies creative writing and communication and culture. Kelly is a member of Awkward Silence Comedy, an improvisation group on campus.

He said with all the comedy groups formed on campus, he wanted to provide a more open format for those students and others.

“There were a lot of people in the comedy community who want to do just little side projects together, and there are a lot of students who do stand up on campus,” Kelly said.

There are currently seven comedy groups on campus, Kelly said. Two of those are sketch groups, two are hybrid groups that perform sketch and improvisation and the three others do exclusively improvisation.

Kelly said watching these talented students perform sparked the idea for Random Acts of Comedy.

“A few of my friends who are in my improv group did stand up before our show and I was like, ‘Dang, this is funny,” he said. “I’m sure there are a lot of other funny people. There should be something on campus where they get to do that.’”

Though the Comedy Attic in Bloomington attracts many local comedians, Kelly said
he wanted an event strictly for IU students.

Between 50 and 60 people attended each of the first two Random Acts of Comedy events, Bassock said.

He hopes to see a crowd of 80 to 100 people next semester as the interest in comedy events like this increases among students.

“I think so far, the comedy groups have done really well embracing this, he said. “And we’re hoping to expand it to students who, whether this is their first time ever performing or if they’ve done it a million times, whatever their experience is — we just really want to welcome anyone in.”