The stage in Sanders Theatre is flanked by marble statues of important men draped in cloth and gesturing grandly—hardly the expected venue for discourses about fisting and an apocalypse-themed prom. However, on September 1, young comics from Harvard brought these and a range of other irreverent themes to the stage during LMAO: A Night of Comedy.

The event included performances from campus groups Harvard College Stand-Up Comedy Society, Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Immediate Gratification Players, On Harvard Time, On Thin Ice, Respectably French!, and Three Letter Acronym, with professional comic Harrison R. Greenbaum ’08 headlining. The Crimson sat down with Doug M. Bright ’13 (OHT; TLA), Carina M. Livoti ’14 (HCSUCS), Andrew N. Shindi ’13 (OHT; OTI), Katherine C. Damm ’13 (IGP), and Tessa M. Kaplan ’13 (HPT) for a roundtable discussion of what it means to be a comic.

The Harvard Crimson: So, does being a comedian help you or hinder you romantically?

Katherine C. Damm: Definitely helps. That’s all I’ll say.

Doug M. Bright: People like people who can make [them] laugh. I probably don’t do it on purpose, like as a way to trap people.

Andrew N. Shindi: I mean, do you guys tell people that you do comedy when you’re meeting someone new or going on a date?

DMB: [Snorts] No.

KCD: I do, and they’re always like, “Really?”

ANS: Or you tell them and they say, “Oh! Be funny! Do something funny, like, right now.”

Carina M. Livoti: Just slap them in the face and walk away.

ANS: My fallback is to pretend I’m Henry Clay. “Great Compromiser? I hardly know her!”

THC: Is there anything that makes you laugh out loud? Or are you jaded?

ANS: Very jaded.

KCD: I laugh at everything.

CML: If you came to a stand-up meeting and performed your material for us, if people are nodding, you’re doing well. People get nervous and think, “Oh no, I’m not funny.” It’s not that you’re not funny. It’s that we’re jaded.