South Bend Tribune: “Two guys walk into a bar…”
Kathy Borlik of the South Bend Tribune gave me a surprise phone call last week with questions on the Rooftop National Comedy Competition. Two things surprised me:
1) That the South Bend Tribune was aware that I was involved in the competition and cared (I think I need to thank RNCC for sending press releases out to our respective hometown papers).
2) That I easily slipped into cliche and conceited mode. “You see Kathy, I find that my stand-up is influenced a lot of by storytellers like Bill Cosby…I write what I think is funny, and I hope others do too”. Turns out I’m vain enough to start talking in interviews like I’ve done them a hundred times.
The column has now sparked a minor rivalry between myself and Nathan Gropp, a South Bend native I’ll be going against at Indy. We would probably have eneded up being best friends, but now this column has made the challenge. It’s on. Thanks again Kathy.
Two local college students will participate on March 31 in the Rooftop Comedy Second Annual National Competition to find the funniest college student.
The participants are Nathan Gropp, of Mishawaka, who is a senior at Ball State University, and Chad Quandt, of South Bend, a junior at Indiana University.
Nathan is a music student and Chad is majoring in telecommunications.
They and a number of other IU and BSU students will have a joke-off at Crackers comedy club in Indianapolis.
Nathan participated in the first competition last year and made it to the regionals. He is a Penn High School graduate and the son of Catherine Gropp. He said his humor is based on observations and he looks up to Woody Allen, Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld.
He said he has been writing jokes for the past year. He will gauge the audience and competition and deliver his act. If other performers are telling jokes about George Bush, he will go in a different direction. Nathan said he would like to pursue a career in comedy and this experience is a good place to make connections.
Chad is a graduate of Adams High School and the son of Ron and Diana Quandt. He started doing stand-up late last year. His fourth time on stage was the night he took part in the competition.
Chad said he tells stories, a la Bill Cosby. And, he said, he has a Word document full of material.
As for the future, “If someone wants to give me money for making people laugh, that would be something I would like.”
The winners will advance to an online voting site. Check www.RooftopComedy.com/college to check out their journey.
Chad Quandt Performing at the RNCCC
If you’re in Bloomington, IN this week you’re invited to check out some Live Stand-Up Comedy hosted by Rooftop Comedy. This is for a shot to make the IU Comedy Team which advances onto the higher levels of the contest, the next of which is versus Ball State University. Each audience member gets three votes. 8 ADVANCE. AUDIENCE CHOOSES.
10pm
The Funny Bone (4th and Walnut)
Open to All Students
FREE
Hosted by Comedian Geoff Tate
List of performers — All IU students.
- Chad Quandt (yours truly)
- Ben Bizuneh
- Tom Brady
- Josh Cocks
- Jamel Dotson
- Michael Gasso
- Brett Goldman
- Andrew Greaves
- Brach McRae
- Adam Mendelevitz
- Andrew Niemira
- Dwight Simmons
- Jack Skolnick
February 19th, 2009
A Grand Amount of Hits
Last week we hit a little landmark for The Quantumn Theory. 1,000 hits. While “real” blogs get this amount in a matter of seconds, I have to say thanks for everyone who let me see this on the blog.
1K!
Thought 99 percent of these hits are from friends and the Facebook community, I hope that ratio to change. Not in that you stop reading, more that other people start to join the cause. We’ve been going for a month and a half. Let’s hope we keep growing at this rate.
Thank you for helping us reach this mark.
Thank you for recommending any of the content to a friend.
Thank you for the surprise party I’m sure you’re planning me.
Zombie March 2008 Tease
Last week I teased my interview with the master of the undead, Max Brooks. Now that it’s done, and my heart’s slowed to a normal speed I’ve been editing the footage together into a digestible video. Seven hours later and I have two excellent videos:
-Max Brooks Interview and footage from his lecture at Indiana University
-Coverage of the Bloomington Zombie March 2008.
These babies are in sparking HD and ready to be devoured by your eyes. Unfortunately I overestimated the internet. There is no video service that can process videos larger than 1GB. Shouldn’t we be able to do that by now? You can order chinese food from your laptop, but there’s no one offering a higher standard for HD video?
When I can get back to the lab and tweak the resolutions and quality to a small enough size, you’ll hear it first. Until then, here’s a one minute sample I made for IUSTV to use for their news program.
Zombie Survival 101
Just had an amazing opportunity to interview one of my favorite writers: Max Brooks. His books The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z are bestsellers, and he gave a tremendous presentation here at Indiana University tonight. I have a ton of footage to sort through and will have the edit done by the end of the week. Something to look forward to.
