On Thursday night, Wackadoo's Grub and Brew was transformed from a casual restaurant to a venue for new and seasoned stand-up comedians to test their skills as part of the Campus Activity Board's One Knight Stand.
For many of these performers, it was their first time ever getting up on stage to showcase their stand-up comedy routines.
"We definitely encourage people that, you know, regardless of their experience or even if it's their first time just to come out," CAB Comedy Director Jay Bassin said.
Bassin, a business major, has worked at previous comedy nights like this one before, but this was his first event as director and he was excited for the turn out.
"We always have a good attendance at comedy events because UCF has a very good sense of humor and really respect comedy as a genre," Bassin said.
The event was open mic so anyone could walk up and to get a laugh from the audience, but Bassin, a sophomore received emails from 19 different performers -- amateur and professional, students and non-students, from all over the state of Florida.
One of the emails he did receive was from freshman Samir Ketema.
Ketema, a computer science major was the second person of the night to perform.
For Ketema, this was his first time performing his comedy in front of a large crowd.
"Half of me was nervous and half of me was just like do your thing," Ketema said.
In high school Ketema did a lot of acting which prepared him for dealing with performing in front of large crowds.
"It's a high," Ketema said. "Every time I got on the stage it just feels so empowering, it's an adrenaline rush."
For Ketema, comedy is about telling stories from his own experiences and making them into jokes.
"If you're an observational person you can find jokes anywhere," Keteme said. "When I go on stage I don't tell jokes I tell an argument or I tell a story, I tell something else other than a joke."
Despite the short set time of 5 minutes, Ketema was able to improvise most of his set and even tell a much shorter version of a crazy night at a local Waffle House.
Leaving the stage, Ketema even managed to find a new fan in Austin Chegini.
Chegini, an international and global studies major, attended the open mic night just to get a feel for the performance aspect.
"I wasn't brave enough to sign up, but I wanted to see how well the other students were," Chegini said.
Like Ketema, Chegini was into acting in high school and loves to tell stories as well.
"I've always been like a story teller. I have funny stories that I like to tell people and when I tell them they always tell me I should do stand up because they always laugh and I just like to make people laugh," Chegini said.
Chegini also draws from his personal experiences to tell funny stories, like the time his dad lied to a waiter about his brother going into the army to get free dessert at T.G.I. Friday's.
Though he did not perform, Chegini is looking forward to the next event so he can get a chance to make people laugh.
As for now however, Bassin has no new comedy nights set in stone, but is looking forward to other future comedy shows especially after they counted more than 270 people at the event.
"When it comes down to it the epitome of UCF is having fun," said Bassin,"everybody is looking for a way to take a break from studying or the work they have the to do and so that's our job. We put together the events so people can have a laugh and take a break off from that."
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