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Comedians compete for ‘smiles’ at Madison Avenue
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by Becky Vevea
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
University of Wisconsin student comedians will compete
tonight for laughs and donations to give children with facial deformities the
opportunity to smile.
The Wisconsin Alumni Student Board will host Madlaughs:
Comedy for a Cause at Madison Avenue tonight at 8 p.m. The event is free and
open to the public.
“You’ve got to have smiles to give smiles,” said last year’s
winner and this year’s closing act, Nick Rezny. “Laughter is the best feeling
of all.”
The event gives student comedians a chance to showcase their
skills, said Shannon Gallagher, head of the Madlaughs planning committee.
Each of the eight comedians has five to 10 minutes to
perform his or her skit. According to one of Madlaughs coordinators, Brianna
Salinas, the planning committee held auditions to make sure the skits were
appropriate.
“I’ve been a smart ass for a long while but speaking
professionally since I was 17,” Rezny said.
Rezny, a former motivational speaker, said most of his
comedic material comes from angry feelings he wrote down when he was sick of
the sugariness of motivational speaking.
“I’m really looking forward to hearing the comedians,” said
Tom Minser, one of the coordinators for the event. “I’ve seen them in an
intimate setting, but it will be cool to see how they do in front of a hundred
people.”
The audience votes by placing money in the box designated
for the comedian they prefer. The comedian with the most donations wins.
Salinas said she hopes people will get into it and get
competitive if they want a certain comedian to win.
“The more competitive people are, the more we can donate to
Operation Smile, which is great,” Salinas added.
The winning comedian will receive a $50 Dell gift
certificate and the opportunity to host All Campus Idol, another WASB event
held during All Campus Party in April, according to Minser.
“The other comedians will get a gift bag just for
participating,” added Salinas.
According to Operation Smile’s website, they operate medical
missions in 26 countries, providing free surgeries for children with cleft lips
and cleft palates. Salinas said WASB chose to donate the money to Operation
Smile because it fit so well with the event.
“We were looking for something that went along with a
stand-up comedy show,” Salinas said.
WASB started Madlaughs last year and raised well over
$1,000, Minser said.
This year, they sent out an e-mail to the campus community
announcing the event and hung posters around campus.
Salinas said they expect between 150 to 200 people to attend
the event.
“We had no idea what to expect,” Gallagher said about the
turnout of people exceeding the capacity of the venue last year. “We have a
bigger space this year.”
Originally scheduled for November, the planning committee
moved the date of the event because a Packer game was scheduled the same night.
The doors open at 7:30 p.m. As students arrive, a DVD about
Operation Smile’s projects and efforts will play so people can see exactly what
their donations will do, Minser said.
Anonymous (February 27, 2008 @ 1:39pm):
Good luck Nick! You are a funny man.
-Trevek
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