Comedians in Ithaca create community through laughter

In Ithaca, comedy groups can be found connecting both on and off campus. At Ithaca College, student comedians create community among themselves by working together on material, but they also create a larger connection with their audiences through laughter.

While schools in surrounding areas have more comedy clubs, IC focuses on connecting with the community. For instance, Cornell University has roughly 10 groups, and Vassar College has eight comedy clubs. 

Friendship can easily be found in the four comedy-centered clubs on campus. The IC Comedy Club is a non-audition, general interest club. IC Sketch Comedy Club is also a non-audition group to practice writing sketches. Stand-Up Comedy Club is audition-based and helps members practice stand-up that they have written, while Acahti Players Improv Comedy Troupe is an improvisation troupe that contenders have to audition for.

Senior Cormac Abbey is the president of Acahti Players, which is Ithaca spelled backwards. He said that working through the audition process is a very difficult task. Abbey said that everyone who has come in is funny, but the group wants to make sure they have different comedic forms in the group. One thing Abbey said he loves about the group is how well members can work together. 

“I love how community-based it is, how team-oriented [it is],” Abbey said. “It’s gonna sound obvious, but you can’t do improv alone, it’s shared storytelling really. … And I find that we’re considering the audience, but we do improv so much for us too, where we’re just trying to make each other laugh at situations.”

Junior Sander Markley is the co-president of the Sketch Comedy Club alongside senior Ari Klawans. Markley said he uses comedy both on and off the stage.

In scary moments in life, comedy can be used as a response. Markley said he had a health scare and was in an ambulance in December 2024, and used that time to make the people around him laugh. 

“The EMT asked me if I had any allergies, and I said I was allergic to weakness,” Markley said. “And then at some point, I turned to the EMTs and I said, ‘If I die, make sure to put on my gravestone, Sander Markley: He just wanted to be the Ice Spice of our generation.’ And I got the person driving me to the hospital to giggle.” 

Off-campus groups also try to keep the comedy culture active. From Sept. 25 to Sept. 27, the City of Ithaca had its 8th Annual Finger Lakes Comedy Festival at The Downstairs and Nomadz Rekkidz Entertainment Space, featuring 44 comedians from around the U.S. and Canada. The festival was started by an IC alum, Christopher Miree ’13. Miree said in an interview with Ithaca Week that he wanted to bring comedy more to the surface in Ithaca and allow diverse voices on stage who do not always get to be under the spotlight. 

Nikki MacCallum, a New York City-based comedian, was the headliner for the festival Sept. 27. She was involved primarily in the musical theater scene before her career as a comedian. However, after her memoir “DRY RUN” came out in 2019, she realized that she wanted to have more creative freedom. So, she turned to writing music and sketches instead of trying to fit the Broadway mold. This then introduced her stand-up career, bringing musical comedy to the stage, writing parody songs for the audience to relate to.

“The truth is always the funniest,” MacCallum said. “It just is, because the big thing with comedy, what makes something funny, is when it’s relatable, right? So if you’re speaking from your own true experiences, chances are other human beings out there have had similar experiences.” 

She said making people laugh through her musical parodies is her overall goal, but her motto in life is to make others feel less alone through her work.

“I think that translates in everything I do, with my book, with my music, with my comedy,” MacCallum said. “That’s really kind of my mission.” 

IC senior Will Delaney, president of the Comedy Club, said he helps newcomers to comedy get comfortable with writing sketches, preparing stand-up or working in improvisation.

“Funny doesn’t exist,” Delaney said. “You know, people aren’t funny or not funny. If you want to be good at stand-up comedy, it’s something you can try. It’s not like no one is incapable of being a brilliant comedian, just a matter of trying over and over again.”

His first year at IC, Delaney auditioned for the stand-up club and did not get in. He said he took the semester and worked on his material in the general club and got into the stand-up club the following semester.

Delaney and Markley both mentioned they look at “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” for their comedy inspiration, which is a sketch comedy show starring Tim Robinson. They also said that they stay involved in most of the comedy clubs on campus to keep their creative outlets flowing.

While all of the comedy groups on campus are tight-knit, most members have one they favor the most based on their own interests. 

Junior Sophie Nathan, who is an active Acahti member, said what she has learned from her time in the club is that the differences that everyone brings makes it unique. 

“I really want to encourage people [who] think that comedy might not be a place for them, or that’s not like their defining characteristic about themselves, that in fact, they could bring something really valuable to the space,” Nathan said. “Every person who joins kind of shapes the community and shapes the humor of the people around them. And we all get inspired by each other. So I think if you feel like you might not fit in, that’s exactly why you should join in.” 

Delaney said he has found such a strong community that builds off of each other. He said they always know how to make each other laugh in the club.

“All of us have gotten so much better individually; we’ve gotten better at comedy,” Delaney said. “I think I’ve met some of the funniest people in the world. My friends in comedy, maybe we just learned how to make each other laugh super efficiently. It shocks me how funny these people are.”