Student comics build local comedy show scene through venues, performances

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Syracuse University’s underground basement comedy shows are student-run and casual. But on Saturday, UU’s College Chuckle Student Comedy Show was an opportunity for comics like Sam Baylow to perform in a larger space.

“It’s really exciting to conquer an actual stage rather than just an elevated platform in someone’s basement,” said Baylow, a sophomore at SU.

Saturday’s show featured students from all years and varying levels of experience. The event aimed to shed light on Syracuse’s thriving amateur comedy community. Although UU has held events with professional comics in the past, this was the first student stand-up comedy show UU’s hosted.

Kristin Moffitt and Luke Berninger, SU students and UU’s co-performing arts directors, are in charge of booking comedians and speakers who come to Syracuse to perform, and decided they wanted to showcase the student comedy scene on campus. Berninger performs at The Playground, a student-run basement comedy venue.

“We knew that there were these student comics who had so much potential, and they’re so talented, and we figured why not give them an even bigger platform to just show off their work and how funny they are?” Moffitt said.

Baylow’s first stand-up show at SU was for the comedy group The Kumquat, where he said his love for comedy clicked. He now performs at student comedy venues like The Playground and Krab Night, which have quickly gained a large following of student comics and fans.

Baylow said what sets the SU comedy scene apart is the fact that it is entirely run by students and initiated by the community. At schools like NYU or USC that are located in large cities, comedy venues don’t have as much community support, he said.

“Syracuse is a very wonderful city, but its culture isn’t given to you. You have to create something yourself,” Baylow said.

He said that stand-up comedy at SU has created a new type of nightlife culture that brings people together in a way no other school does. That is how Syracuse has defined itself and its comedy scene, Baylow said.

“It feels like this College Chuckle is a celebration. It’s an acknowledgement — what you guys are doing is meaningful,” Baylow said. “It’s really changing something, and we would like to be part of that change.”

Lucas Portnoy started doing stand-up a year ago and helped to get The Playground running. He and the rest of The Playground team reached out to comics that might want to perform and created an ongoing community.

He said Saturday’s show was an opportunity to see if the jokes he performed at The Playground would get a laugh in a new environment. He said it was also an opportunity to advertise The Playground and grow its audience.

“When they’re students performing, there’s a little bit of a benefit of the doubt,” Portnoy said. “When it’s for students, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all just watching our peers do something that is difficult to do.”

Junior Julia Dicesare, who also performed Saturday, said the community at The Playground is very tight knit. She said her social circle revolves around comedy communities on campus.

“We all live in a way where we’re always trying to find the funny side of everything and what everybody else is doing all the time,” Dicesare said.

Dicesare wants to pursue a career as a comedian, so comedy events on campus for her are a way to hone her skills. She said her ideal life is one where she can support herself by making people laugh.

“Since University Union has a broader reach for students on campus, I think I just want to make sure I’m doing a set that will appeal to everybody,” Dicesare said. “It feels like the stakes are a little bit higher.”

The audience was made up of friends, family, and assorted students who created a relaxed atmosphere for the comics, Moffitt said. UU provided free food and merchandise and even held a raffle for an autographed poster.

Anthony Tibolla typically does sets at student-run venues on campus and has done so since his spring semester freshman year. As an acting major, he sees stand-up comedy as another part of the performing world, and Saturday’s show was no different.

“I’m a pretty socially anxious person, but there’s something about being on stage that feels kind of other in that moment. I don’t feel exactly like me. I feel like there’s space in between,” Tibolla said. “I also just like making people laugh. It’s a very fulfilling thing.”

He said that in both acting and stand-up, he feels like a heightened version of himself. Performing is a way to express yourself without being seen directly, he said.

The performers have a personal connection to their sets, but they also love to have fun onstage, Portnoy said. The chance to bring that fun to a larger audience is exciting, he added.

“We’re not just doing it for fun, even though it is really fun,” Portnoy said. “There’s people here who are legitimately really, really funny and it’s cool to show that and show that we can make an audience laugh.”

Lucas Portnoy was previously a humor columnist with The Daily Orange. He does not influence the editorial content of the Culture section.