Culminating another round of its weekly comedy nights, the Northberg Tavern is set to host the Campus Comedy Showcase Finals, highlighted by a competition between preliminary finalists, most of them Columbus locals.
A Northberg tradition for seven years and one element of its multi-faceted entertainment bill – which includes everything from hip-hop on Mondays to local rock bands on weekends – the comedy night remains one of the most accessible and consistent amateur nights for aspiring Columbus comedians.
The finalists competing today are the winners of the tavern’s regular Tuesday night competitions, which include several local comedians doing five-minute sets, judged by crowd response. Each weekly winner receives a $30 prize, the MC spot for the following week, and a berth in the finals, held at the end of each twelve-week session.
“Yeah, it’s great because it’s always there,” said Jeff Darling, one of tonight’s twelve contestants. “It’s a good place to try out new material. More often than not, the crowd is awesome: They’re just drinking and laughing. And stuff that works there doesn’t necessarily work anywhere else,” he said.
A regular at the Northberg and other local comedy nights, Darling is one of many who have utilized local opportunities like the Northberg and Easton’s Funny Bone as the first step in a comic career. For Darling, that career has allowed him to bring his act around Ohio and to other places nationwide.
The Northberg’s Tuesday night showcase – which runs throughout the year – remains the most consistent forum in the string of amateur nights that have come and gone around campus.
“It’s one of our steady nights,” insists Jim Berling, the bar manager. “You know, we have our regulars, the friends of the comics coming out to support.”
Like the comics who come out to try their acts and move on, it is a changing crowd, varying with different student and local populations.
With an enormous student population and substantial local comedy scene, Columbus has always offered opportunities for comedians. In the past, there have been weekly comedy nights at Estrada’s – at the corner of King and Neil avenues – and before that at the Library – north of Lane Avenue on High Street.
Most comics seem to agree wholeheartedly on the value of local amateur showcases. Damien Kitte, another of the weekly winners set to compete tonight, insists that comedy night provides a solid stepping-stone for local comedians.
“It took me a while to get up the nerve to get up there and do it,” he said, noting that he went and watched performers long before getting up and performing a routine himself.
But however nervous even the smallest local audience can make a performer, an atmosphere like the Northberg’s helps eager comics try out new material, seeing which jokes are effective and which need to be reworked.
“I have almost a ‘trial and error’ system when I’m up there,” Kitte said, though it is one that will mostly likely be near perfection for the upcoming finals – where the grand prize is up to $150 – after the finals got bumped from its scheduled spot last week.
Set in a dimly-lit underground barroom, the Northberg stage is a standard scene for comedy: A spot-lit microphone against a blank wall of brick, facing a handful of wooden tables and chairs, a rectangular bar running lengthwise down the side and several booths on a far wall.
The small campus tavern has always been successful in bringing comedians an audience and meshing professional acts with budding local talent.
In addition to the competition between the 12, the showcase will also include performances by professional comedians Dan Swartwout, who has performed his routine across the country, and Jake Iannarino, who has appeared in comedies such as “The Animal” and “The Hot Chick.”
The Northberg is located at 2084 N. High St., at the corner of Frambes Avenue under Donato’s Pizza. Doors open at 9 p.m., and the show begins at 10:30 p.m. Cover is $3 for 21 and over, $5 for 18-21.
