By JESSICA LEPORE
Staff Writer
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Three Saint Rose students made it to the semi finals round of auditions after giving their best five-minute stand up comedy in the free “Make Me Laugh” auditions.
Dylan Hartford, Mike Eisenstein and Alyssa Haddad were picked by a panel of judges after seeing all of the comedians. The students move on to potentially make it to the finals and win the grand prize of a free headshot, a write up in the Times Union, an interview on “Alternative to Sleeping with Ethan Ullman,” a write up in Albany’s Metroland, and paid performances on Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour.
Make Me Laugh, an organization designed to help aspiring young comedians, came to Albany for the first time this week looking for college students. The first round of auditions was held on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at The College of Saint Rose, along with SUNY Albany, RPI, Siena and Sage throughout the week.
Saint Rose students lined up at 8:00 p.m. to audition for the stand up comedy competition in hopes of making it to the next round and being one step closer to becoming the overall winner of the contest.
Alyssa Haddad, troop leader of the College group Crate of Apes, had been advertising about the event to find stand up comedians in the area.
The event was free and open to the population at Saint Rose. The club has about 15 active members and is always welcoming new people.
The show featured comedian and Make Me Laugh creator Dan Frigolette, comedic radio host Ethan Ullman, comedian Gene Getman, BET comedian Matt Richards and contestant auditions.
Dan Frigolette, creator of Make Me Laugh, started his first competition in Syracuse and had a singular goal in the process.
“We wanted to create more opportunities for the community in this area that don’t live in New York City to facilitate the concept of doing stand up comedy,” Frigolette said.
Filming and doing stand up for the auditions, Gene Getman, who is originally from Russia but grew up in Brooklyn, runs the shows with Frigolette.
“I’ll be getting up and showing the kids how it’s done,” Getman said. Make Me Laugh hopes to give opportunities throughout the Capital Region at local colleges.
“The idea is to create opportunity where there is none,” Frigolette said.
