The University of Minnesota Comedy Club is a space where people can hang out and joke about things that happen to and around them to prepare for the club’s April show Thursday at the Comedy Corner Underground on West Bank.

Every week the small club meets to talk about their days, tell their newest jokes and give each other feedback sometimes in the form of a roast.

The club performs at the Comedy Corner Underground every third Thursday of the month. Each willing member wanting to perform that month has a three- to five-minute set.

To co-president Evan Schwarz, the club acts as catharsis for everything else going on in the members’ lives. Whether they are in a club meeting or on the stage at the bar, members have space to talk about whatever they want.

“It’s very easy to get caught up in that day-to-day grind of doing things,” Schwarz said. “Stand-up is kind of a release valve for all the dumb shit people notice in the day. It’s nice to take an hour or so just to laugh and have fun.”

The meetings each week flow like conversations. When someone has a joke to share, they simply say, “Here, I have a joke.” 

Hayden Lessiter, a freshman and former Minnesota Daily employee, told a joke about economics majors and growing mint. He ended the joke with, “Get it?” The room went silent. 

Senior Seth Bredael responded with, “I don’t even think the structure was there.” Everyone laughed at that.

Lessiter wrote the joke down for later anyway.

They discuss everything from Hinge, Lent and the word “bloomers” being funnier than “underwear.”

The club can have anywhere between eight to 12 members show up, each with different approaches and reasons they enjoy the club.

Schwarz enjoys expressing his jokes in front of an audience. He believes engaging with an audience makes a stand-up performance more interesting and that it is always a nice surprise when the audience laughs at unexpected points in the performance.

Lessiter, who enters the room like the Seinfeld character Kramer and has endless puns, just likes to perform stand-up.

Carissa Wong, a sophomore, joined the club because the people like comedy as much as she does.

Joshua Detloff, a sophomore with a killer Jennifer Coolidge impression, loves writing bits and testing them out on audiences.

“You never know if something’s going to be good or if something is going to be bad until you say it,” Detloff said.

But Detloff said he can get discouraged. He was in a rut at the end of last year after he bombed at a show.

“I felt like I was on a negative downward trajectory,” Detloff said. “But I feel like you just put in the work and put in the time and perform until you can get out of a rut.”

They all agreed jokes pop up randomly. There is no deeper strategy for coming up with a joke. When a joke comes up, Schwarz likes to sit down with it and write it all out to see if he can expand it.

Justin Johnson, otherwise known as “lefty crumpet,” is a University alum who will be opening the show next week. 

Tickets are $3. The club’s last show of the year is on May 15.