The day of a big performance is always nerve-wracking. Matt Vergun, Senior, is preparing for his stand up comedy show and improv performance.  Matt gets ready by going over his stand-up skit maybe 20 times throughout the day. He also likes to “get the bad improv out, in improv you can’t ask questions or say no. So throughout the day I ask people as many questions as I can and say no to almost everything.”

Vergun started stand-up this November, but he has been performing improv shows since 2013. In 2013, Vergun was working with an improv group when a director saw one of his performances and noticed his talent. Vergun is now one of the founding members of an improv group called Pipes, he is also the youngest in the group. “I don’t feel weird about being the youngest. The thing with improv is that you can be whoever you want. One minute I’m an eight year old kid, and the next I’m an old Grandpa.” 

Stand-up comedy is something that Vergun always knew he wanted to do. “I’ve always been the person to try to make everyone laugh, the class clown. Then I started to watch a lot of comedians, my favorite is Moshe Kasher. When watching him, I would think to myself. ‘I can do this’.” 

While his first stand-up show was a learning experience for Vergun, in some ways so was the second show. “In my first show I ran through my skit, way too fast. So for the second show I practiced slowing down, and I went through my act too slowly. I need to find a happy-medium.” 

Vergun writes all of his own jokes, and spends a lot of time and effort on them. “I write about an hour to two hours everyday. My jokes are inspired by almost everything. I get everything down on paper and then cut and paste.” A surprising thing about stand-up comedy is some of the rules and techniques. “Some techniques are to plant a seed, the rule of thirds, and to change your material for every crowd. For example, the crowd at a college in Boston might not laugh at the same thing a group of older people in Providence would laugh at,” he said.

After Vergun does his stand-up comedy his improv group, Pipes, comes on stage and performs. “The different part about improv is that it is never the same. Every show is a different experience. It’s either a hit or miss.” 

Vergun sees stand-up comedy as something he will do his whole life. “Stand-up is something I would love to make a career out of,” he said. “I hope to go to college for comedy performance and writing, at Columbia College in Chicago.”