By Kaya Bogot
Comedy and laughter filled the Baltimore Room on the first floor of STAMP Student Union on the night of Oct. 26 as part of the Punchbowl Comedy Open Mic Night.
“Punchbowl is a student-run, open-mic comedy show every week here at Maryland. We’re the only weekly comedy mic that anybody can sign up for,” said biophysics graduate student and Punchbowl staff advisor and director Mathew Connell, who was also the host of the night. “Our goal is just to have a consistent group of people who can come together and do some funny jokes and have a fun show.”
This past Punchbowl, which took place in the Baltimore Room at STAMP Student Union, featured nine student comedians, all varying in comedic style and approach. About twenty people filled the audience, mostly consisting of other performers, along with a few of their friends and a photographer. In the back of the room, there were a few other students who were already there before the show and decided to stay.
The topics of the sets ranged from PharmD Graduate Mudit Verma’s jokes about dating the movie “Up” (the Pixar movie) to Dominic Williams’ jokes about TLC shows. Many of the performers, including Verma, Dion Barnes, and senior finance major Anish Kodan, also did some crowd work and ad-libbing. A few expressed and joked about their excitement for finally seeing a girl in the audience.
“I have some experience, and this is a smaller setting for me, but you know, nerves still exist but I’m going to do my best and hopefully get some laughs,” said student comic Ben Rike before his set. “That’s my goal, laughs definitely feed the old ego… On a good night, one to two laughs is definitely the goal.”
Rike’s set consisted of jokes about the fact that Christians get free advertising from lowercase “t’s” because they look like crosses, the Dahmer show on Netflix, tips for drug users and “smashing” zombies.
For many of the night’s performers, Punchbowl is an excellent place for them to try out their jokes in front of an audience and gain experience. Such is the case for seasoned UMD comic and chemical engineering student, Ben Robinson, who some may have seen during his Maryland Night Live performance at the 2022 NextNOW Fest.
“My set tonight was not as good as most of them,” said Robinson. “My first time ever coming here I prepared my set for like a week in advance and wrote it out and ran it by friends. But this one I sort of tried out some new material, it was a little bit rough, so I need to work on the delivery a bit more for the next time.”
Students can see some of these aspiring comics on certain Wednesdays and Fridays in the Baltimore Room at STAMP.
To find out when their next show is or to sign up as a performer, Punchbowl Comedy posts updates on their Instagram @punchbowlcomedy. You can also find more information on Terplink.
Featured Image: Dominic Williams during his set at the Punchbowl Comedy Open Mic Night on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022 in the Baltimore Room at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Photo by Ian Roe.