At Sit & Spin Stand Up 4, aspiring stand-up comics had the chance to showcase both their talents and the popularity of stand-up comedy on campus.

Student comedians kept the audience laughing throughout the show at McCormick Tribune Center on Friday and Saturday night. Taking on topics from Harry Potter to sex, the 12 students performed for almost an hour and a half in 11 different acts.

Matthew Hays, a member of the improvisational comedy group The Titanic Players, said he attends one or two theater productions every week and was impressed by how well Sit & Spin Stand Up approached a unique theatrical genre.

“The process for (stand-up) is so different because it’s so focused on the individual,” the Medill freshman said.

Now in its fourth year, the event has become a staple of Northwestern’s stand-up community, producer Nicole Silverberg said. The Communication freshman said Sit & Spin Stand Up has established itself as “the premier stand-up event at NU.” More than 40 students auditioned to participate in this year’s show, an increase from last year, said Emmy Blotnick, one of the co-directors of Sit & Spin Stand Up 4.

Ellie Reed, who appeared both as a comic and one of the show’s co-directors, also participated in NSTV’s Winter Stand-Up Showcase earlier this year.

“The NSTV showcase was new this year, and that proved that Sit & Spin Stand Up does not have a monopoly,” Reed said. “As long as there’s someone who wants to put a show up, there will be comedians who will want to perform.”

While the NSTV Winter Showcase is a recent addition to the stand-up scene at NU, Stand Up 4 featured many of the students who performed in the NSTV showcase, Blotnick said.

“There’s just sort of a community of people interested in comedy, and there’s overlap in a lot of the groups,” the Communication senior said.

Communication freshman Erica Israel attended both shows and said she enjoyed the opportunity to gauge the performers’ progress.

“(It was) impressive to see how much they’ve improved since (the winter showcase),” Israel said.

Silverberg described the Sit & Spin show as a collaborative effort among the comedians. They helped each other refine their sets through workshops, she said. They also organized trips to local open mic events to help themselves prepare.

This process gives NU students feedback that sets them apart even from professionals, Reed said. After spending the summer performing at Comix, a comedy club in New York City, Reed thinks Sit & Spin gives students a way to perform a “league above” even the professionals.

“We have the benefit of workshop, the benefit of feedback and rehearsing,” Reed said.

This show gathers many students who have an interest in pursuing stand-up professionally to perform side-by-side, Blotnick said. She said most of the performers are looking to make a living in some form of comedy.

The growth of stand-up on campus doesn’t need to be constrained to groups like Sit & Spin and NSTV that have already established themselves in the genre, Blotnick said.

“Putting on a stand-up show at NU is really a pretty easy undertaking,” she said. “All it takes is performers who really care.”[email protected]