“In high school people used to say I was funny, but I never thought so,” says 24-year-old Gordon Baker-Bone. Pretty modest for the newly crowned Funniest College Student in New Jersey.
In December, the Maplewood resident beat out 22 peers at William Paterson University’s inaugural intercollegiate stand-up comedy competition. Contestants were judged on originality, tightness (time until the punch line), and overall performance, with points deducted for profanity.
When it was his turn, Baker-Bone—yes, his real name, and no, he didn’t make a joke at his own expense—took the mike and immediately hooked the crowd with a visual gag. He launched into an impression of a street thug wearing awkward attire. “Give me all your money,” he quipped, and flipped his scarf behind him. “It’s hard to look tough when you’re wearing a scarf,” he added sheepishly.
Baker-Bone, a Bloomfield College student, began his quest for laughs by chance four years ago when a professor promised him an “A” if he tried out his routine at Rascals Comedy Club in West Orange.
“It was really nerve-racking,” he recalls, “but it felt right. I didn’t want to get off the stage.” He performs regularly at the Improv Jam Comedy Lab in Eatontown and recently made the roster at the Comic Strip Live in Manhattan. If those clubs get a crush of college students at the door, you’ll know who they came to see.