By snoadmin
Two Cal State Long Beach students and two alumni advanced to the Soup-Or-Bowls Finals, a nationally-renowned comedy competition.
After competing in the Uncle Clyde’s Comedy Contest at the House Comedy Club in Pasadena, senior creative writing student Kyle Clark, senior film and electronic arts student Alexis Jones and alums Adam Franshier and Michael Hover made it through the preliminaries and advanced to the finals.
The comics ranged from professionals to amateurs and CSULB students simply trying to pass their final exam in a film and electronic arts department comedy writing and performance course by performing their written materials on stage. Clark and Jones were among the students to perform on stage for their final exam. Little did they know they would make it to the next round – Soup-Or-Bowls. “I was just expecting to have fun and when I was on stage it was like an insane, surreal ride,” Clark said. “I didn’t even expect to win.”
According to Jones, the event is huge for semi-pros trying to make a living as a comedian. Comics come all the way down from Seattle for this, she added. “I was kind of in shock when I made it [to the Soup-Or-Bowls], after all I was just performing to pass my finals,” Jones said.
Uncle Clyde’s Comedy Contest takes place every Wednesday and is a year long Comedy Contest held at the Ice House Comedy Club. Out of about 100 comics who participated in the comedy contest 60 comics were selected by audience vote to participate in the Soup-Or-Bowls.
The winner of the finals receives $500, a professional opportunity to work for a week at the House and entrance into the Boston Comedy Festival. Second place receives a gift certificate to Louise’s Trattoria restaurant. Third place receives Clyde’s traditional huge side of fries. At the end of the year, those who participated in the Soup-Or-Bowls will be invited to perform in the Clyde’s Cup Grand Champion challenge in which only one comic will be chosen to win.
“It was exciting being on the main stage as the American icons,” said Clark. Although both Clark and Jones consider themselves more writers than performers, they both agreed that the person who won first place in the segment they both performed in deserved to win.
“You know a winner when you see one,” Clark said. Jones and Clark performed on the same day in front of an audience of about 30 people. “I practiced at a couple local clubs but it didn’t compare to actually being on the stage at the Ice House,” Jones said.
“It blows my mind that somebody would care enough to actually listen and laugh at my opinion.” Her advice to comics looking to go on stage for their first time is to make sure that you take a shot first if going as the first comedian because the audience has not been warmed up yet.
I know nothing about writing, but i still think this was an interesting & great article to read.