The energy was electric at Comedy Club on State’s second round of local comedy competition, Madison’s Funniest Comic. The room was filled with loud cheers and the palpable tension of nervous comics uneasily pacing. Wednesday night was a critical juncture for the remaining comedians, many of whom are looking to develop their comedic brands.

After two preliminary rounds weaning the competition pool from 80 people to 30, Wednesday night was the first real round of competition.

Local comedian Nick Lynch sat nervously reviewing his notebook. He was going on stage next as contestant No. 25. Lynch has entered the competition every year since it began six years ago, he said. He is one of many seasoned competing comedians.

Comics were required to perform three minutes of material unused in the preliminary rounds. It was an event designed to weed out the fresh meat from the experienced.

Lynch said he goes to the Comedy Club’s open mic nights most Wednesdays and uses them as an opportunity to gauge interest in his new material.

“It’s where you figure out if something works or if it sucks so horribly that you should never say it again,” he said.

This Wednesday, however, eight judges –three established comedians more than the preliminary rounds – sat in the back of the room reviewing each contestant’s performance and every audience member sat with a scorecard. At the end of the night, Comedy Club manager Joe Buettner would compile the audience members’ and judges’ scores to determine the top 20 comics who would continue on to round two.

Contestants ranged from local hopefuls to a student from Minnesota who had to travel hours to make it each Wednesday.

For Lynch watching each set was met with the nervousness of having to perform later on toward the end of the night. But for those done with their set, the anxiety came with having to wait for the results.

Contestant No. 7, Geoffrey Asmus, said that meant a night critiquing his routine and drinking.

“A lot of comedians drink,” he said, laughing. “That’s how it is!”

Search begins for Madison’s funniest comic at Comedy Club on State

But Asmus said the nerves help him with his routine, especially because his onstage persona is the nervous guy. That’s his shtick — nervous and funny. In one of his bits, he said he loves women who still use flip phones because it shows they don’t expect much out of life and that would work in his favor.

“I always tried to be the funny man,” he said. “I won one of those stupid superlatives in high school about being funny.”

Max Giles, who went on before Asmus, had a very different shtick. Where Asmus used nervous, self-deprecating, girls-don’t-like-me humor, Giles performed as an easygoing, goofy and smarter version of Chris Pratt’s character in “Parks and Recreation.”

“Size doesn’t matter,” Giles said in one of his jokes, think how harmless tigers would be if they were small (they’d be cats) and how scary bees would be if they were big.

Contestant Lauren Cahillane was less certain in her stage persona. She said she hasn’t quite figured out her niche yet, but enjoys the creative liberty. She has been doing comedy off-and-on for two to three years and relishes how supportive the Madison comedy scene is, especially to amateurs.

“I’m enjoying trying to find my voice,” she said. “It’s an adventure that’s not remotely over.”

Lynch, Asmus, Giles and Cahillane confirmed, Madison’s Funniest Comic is a place for those especially committed to honing their craft through practice and gauging audience reactions to new material. Lynch has been doing comedy for almost eight years. Asmus holds both a day job and does shows six days of the week. Giles, a senior in college, takes the bus five hours from school in Minnesota to make it to rounds of the competition.

After 45 minutes of tallying results, the competition was narrowed down to 20 contestants who square off next Wednesday at the Comedy Club on State.

Lynch, Asmus and Giles made it through to the next round and will perform Wednesday, Feb. 25.