More than music at Open Mic Night

By Alexa Wallick

Cardinal Staff

Pat Howard kept the crowd bent over in laughter with his impressive stand-up performance at Saint Mary’s University “Open Mic Night” on Nov. 18.

“I love being up there,” Howard said, “I really love to make people laugh. It’s one of my favorite things to do.” Howard has performed his comedy routine four times since April 2010. Even though he started performing just recently, he plans on doing more comedy performances in the future.

“What has been interesting for me is that half of the crowd seems to enjoy my stand-up, while the other half seems to be skeptical of my controversial material,” said Howard. Howard gets inspiration for jokes from personal experiences and from things he observes in everyday situations and puts a slight twist on. In his last performance, his jokes ranged from a slightly distorted perspective of Thanksgiving to the ups and downs of his past romances.

“I like to make fun of myself,” he said, “If you can’t laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?” The comedians Howard idolizes are men such as Dave Chapelle, Daniel Tosh, Dimitri Martin and Jim Carrey. They give him the inspiration and desire to begin doing stand-up.

“When people come to Open Mic Night, they should expect to see a variety of things,” Howard said, “People should keep an open mind when other students want to try something different.”

“All of the love and support really made me want to go up there,” he said. Howard is also thankful for the smaller and closer environment that SMU provides. According to Howard, this type of community challenges him to try new and fresh material every time he goes up in front of a crowd. Howard said that if he were attending a bigger school, he isn’t sure he would have had the courage to do stand-up.

“Come to Open Mic Night, come support it,” Howard said, “If not now, when? This is college. I think it’s really time to take advantage of the opportunities that SMU gives you.”

Howard will graduate in the May 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in English. Howard has currently only made his comical appearances at OMN but said that he looks forward to pursuing strictly stand-up comedy routines elsewhere, such as places around his hometown in the Chicago area.

Photo by Alexa Wallick