Campus comedian and senior Gary Miller was named the Last Comic Standing for the second year in a row last Saturday night.
Competing against Miller were juniors Emma Levich and Nick Caputo, and freshman Leo Nguyen. The students’ showed off their stand-up comedy talents while competing for cash prizes of $300 for first place, $200 for second place and $100 for third place.
“I think this show stands out because of the medium of comedy,” said Miller. “Comedy has always been this subversive, punk rock type of artistic medium for me where I could say what I want in a different way than I would acting, directing or in poetry.”
The winner was chosen by student judges including seniors Dan O’Leary, Chris Huerta and Vanessa Reyes, along with juniors Miggy Perez and Wendy Guadarrama.
“I like how it gives comics a chance to shine,” said O’Leary. “I know some students over the years have done comedy at Mr. Augustana, but this isolates that which is nice.”
With many of his fellow Phi Omega Phi fraternity brothers attending to cheer him on, Miller impressed the crowd with pick-up lines and topical humor.
Nguyen, the second place winner, joked about his Asian-American background and the unusual situations it has put him in throughout his life.
“[T]his is the first time I have ever done stand-up comedy,” said Nguyen. “I had some experience in acting, but stand-up is very different since it is very much improvised, at least for me.”
Caputo, the third place winner, discussed college life at Augustana and various plights of the dating scene.
Levich, also in her first stint at stand-up comedy, joked about the problems of always being late and frequently craving French fries.
Augustana’s student improvisational comedy group Heywire performed throughout the show and audience members had the chance to be entered into a raffle for various gift cards.
Though Miller has had a lot of experience with stand-up comedy, he admitted there is a lot of pressure that comes with it.
“I think the pressure comes from not only speaking in front of people, but feeling like you have to be funny for them,” said Miller. “When you go up and have a blast and say what you want to say you’ll feel a lot better.”
“I think there is a large amount of pressure. It can be nerve wracking being on stage and it was visible at times,” said O’Leary.
All pressure aside, all the performers left their best on the stage.
“This is a way for me to be vulnerable in a different kind of way and hopefully get people to forget about the world for a bit,” said Miller.