Junior Amie Talbert won Augustana’s Last Comic Standing event last year by telling the story of how a homeless man told her she would make a good prostitute.
Talbert is back again to compete in this year’s Last Comic Standing, at 5 p.m. on Saturday in the Gävle multipurpose room, and will be discussing the intelligence level of middle school students.
“This homeless man came up to me and scared me more then I have ever been scared in my entire live before,” said Talbert, referring to her routine last year.
She said that, while waiting for the bus with sophomore Cayle Higgins, a homeless man came up to them, asked them if they did drugs and then told Talbert that she would make a lot of money as a prostitute.
Talbert then told her boyfriend, who made her cry due to his own laughter at her tale.
“I thought, this is true material, because I am in shambles right now,” said Talbert. “Hopefully something horrible will happen to me between now and Saturday. We can only hope.”
She is one of six competitors who all auditioned last week in front of the event’s hosts, the Office of Student Life’s (OSL’s) Multicultural Programming Board (MBP).
Wendy Guadarrama, MBP campus outreach co-chair, said that the other competitors include: sophomore Nicholas Caputo, junior Gary Miller and seniors Teodoro Alonso-Emanuel, Mara Cantrell-Paulson, Marquise Williams and Lauren Anderson.
Guadarrama also said the audience will be the judge and will decide the winner based on loudest claps.
Octavio Cordero, MBP special events co-chair, said the comedians with be competing for the first and second place prize of $300 and $200, respectively.
This is an increase from last year’s winnings that were $200 and $100 prizes for first and second place.
“We just decided to give people a little more incentive and that maybe it would give the event a little more (of a) prestige with more participation,” said Codero.
Along with maintaining her title, the increase in prize money is one of the reasons Talbert decided to compete again.
“Currently standing, I am $200 funnier than everyone on this campus, and I hope to be $500 funnier than everyone on this campus by the end of this week,” said Talbert.
Talbert’s main goal is to make people laugh and to try to have a comedy style that is accessible to her audience.
“I like to say that people who people think are funny are just around them at the right time, because I make so many jokes that are not funny at all, that are just horrible groaners, but I still make those jokes for me,” said Talbert. “I don’t tell jokes I don’t think are funny.”
One way she prepares for classes and performances is to pretend to hate them so she feels the need to beat her competition.
“I’m planning on having an idea of someone, and then I’m going to hate them,” said Talbert. “They’re going to be my comedic rival, and that will motivate me to be funny.”
Her target is Miller, because she thinks that he is funny and generally likes him, so she has chosen to hate him “for at least Saturday.”
“Gary Miller, I’m coming for you,” said Talbert.
Talbert looks forward to her upcoming performance centered on her real-life experiences.
“People should come, and they should laugh very, very loudly, because it will trick other people into laughing very, very loudly,” said Talbert.