By Sean Callahan, News Editor
If SVC community members weren’t busy in April, they might remember seeing Benjamin Edwards, junior history major, and Christopher Jewel, junior English major, put on a stand-up comedy show for a jam packed Luparello Lecture Hall. On Wednesday, Nov. 15, from 9:30 to 10:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center, Edwards, Jewel and Bradley Hallick, senior mechanical engineering major, took the stage one by one to achieve that goal a second time: make hundreds more SVC students jam packed into a theater laugh.
Edwards cited inspiration for the stand-up comedy show from an acting class on campus, in which fellow students were impressed by his stand-up attempt. He had also worked with Jewel, Hallick, and Hallick’s friend and brother on a YouTube channel, Milkshake Night Productions, in which they made and performed various skits. Jewel was equally interested in the stand-up night. After the first show’s successful turn out, Edwards decided to go bigger, leading him and Jewel to enlist Hallick as a third comedian for this semester’s show.
One aspect of the group’s event-planning that was noticed by many on campus was the marketing. Weeks before the show, white flyers with plain black and bold text of varying sizes decorated campus. They advertised the upcoming show with witty remarks and jokes, such as, ‘This is who we wanted for the show: literally any other person with the ability to talk into a microphone,’ and ‘Come laugh! (or not).’
“I don’t use photoshop, I don’t know how to do any fancy designs or anything. The flyers are made on Microsoft Word. They’re supposed to be funny, but they’re not,” Edwards said.
In regard to the immense turnout of this semester’s show, Jewel felt the success built credibility for him and Edwards. He and Edwards also agreed that their effort put into making four different types of flyers attracted people due to originality.
The show opened with Hallick whose self-proclaimed angle was that people didn’t know who he was. Therefore, he stuck to talking about himself. Much of his stand up consisted of various stories of his hometown and his experiences in it.
“Most people tell me I tend to drift into stand-up comedy when I’m giving a speech or an address. But I say, ‘no, that’s just how I talk,’” Hallick said.
Hallick has not done stand-up comedy before this show. He decided to open as the first comedian, because he was the newest member of the group and to pay respect to Jewel and Edwards, who he considered “the main acts.”
Hallick considers his process to be mainly typing funny stories or situations that come to him, leading up to the show. He then edits them to fit for a stand-up routine.
Jewel was the second comedian of the night. Much of his routine consisted of his observations of people in various places, including the SVC Community Center.
His process is similar to Hallick’s, except the notes he takes are based mainly on funny or odd observations.
Edwards was the final comedian of the night. His routine spanned several topics, including single life and dating life. Edwards considers his process similar to Hallick and Jewel’s
If he had to give advice for new comedians, Edwards would say to critique one’s own jokes, just as they would critique others' jokes. He said to treat stand-up comedy like an art. Similarly, Jewel felt that comedians should not be surprised if the audience laughs at parts of jokes not intended to be funny.
“You practice the jokes so many times that you think, ‘these are no longer funny to me, so I really hope they’re funny to someone,’” Jewel said. “You have to stay confident in what you previously wrote and think ‘this will be funny to people who haven’t heard it before.’”
Edwards, Jewel, and Hallick want to thank the SVC community for coming out to the show. Edwards has said that future shows are “definitely expected.” Jewel and Hallick are open to joining Edwards again as well.
Jewel would also like to leave the SVC community with these final words: “Why do gorillas have big nostrils? Because they have big fingers.”
More of Hallick and the others’ work can be found on the Milkshake Night Productions YouTube channel and The Milkshake Night Podcast. Edwards’ comedy, as well as videos or photos covering shows, can be found at his comedy Instagram (@benedwards.comedy).