The eyes of comedy aficionados across the nation turned to Duke when one of its own won the RooftopComedy National College Comedy Competition in May. Tim Ball, Trinity '08, won the three-tiered contest by beating out contestants from 31 schools at the university, regional and national level.
The funny thing about Ball's win, however, is that he participated in the original first round of the competition on a whim.
"One day my friend Lindsay from Duke told me that RooftopComedy was having a national stand-up competition in search of the funniest college kid," he said. "So I thought to myself, 'Hey why not? I'll give it a shot.'"
Although he entered the competition upon his friend's suggestion, Ball has thought about the entertainment business as a future.
"Comedy is a passion of mine and I do want to pursue it as a career," he said. If he chooses to continue this passion, Ball would be building upon a solid foundation of comedic experience from his time with Inside Joke, Duke's sketch-comedy group. Kyle Knight, Trinity '08 and last year's president of Inside Joke, said Ball's achievement was a significant one..
"He was in an audience-vote contest up against comedians from schools with three times the enrollment of Duke, and he won," Knight said. "It means Duke students know comedy when they see it."
Indeed, his victory is even more noteworthy because he made it to the finals in Aspen as a wild card after losing to Mary Sasson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the regional round.
"I had to get voted back into the finalist group in order to get a chance to go to Aspen," he explained. A large contingency of Duke students came out in support of fellow contestants such as Ball, Varun Lella, Trinity '08 and former editor of recess, junior Daniel Lewin and sophomore Prashant Swaminathan. Clearly, their presence paid off.
While Lella and Swaminathan approached the subject of race and growing up Indian in America, and Lewin attacked UNC basketball star Tyler Hansbrough, Ball prepared a wide scope of content that ranged from commentary of the typical office environment to Spanish classes to reality shows. Making fun of such popular shows as the Maury Povich Show and MTV's Next, Ball noted what he views as the ridiculous nature of modern television.
More than just bringing up these subjects and discussing them, he incorporated voice imitations and body movements to actively convey his opinions to the audience.
Ball said his performance in Aspen, available online at the RooftopComedy Web site, was delivered with confidence that veiled his internal panic.
"I was so nervous that I threw up in the morning," he said.
Nevertheless, his poise translated into victory.
Besides receiving a check for $1500, the exposure from the competition is a positive first step to a showbiz career. The prestige of winning a national competition could potentially be what Ball needs to get his foot in the door of the entertainment business.
For the recent Duke graduate, the experience is simply a dream come true. And naturally, he'll crack jokes about it.
"I could not believe it. It was so surreal," Ball said. "I did not know what to do except to smile and say thank you. and of course, go to a whorehouse afterwards."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.