Members of 8th Floor Improv perform in front of a crowd in the Union at their Western themed show on Sept. 25, 2026. Credit: Faith Schneider | Managing Design Editor.

As the crowd settles and the stage lights warm the Ohio Union’s Cartoon Room, Backburner Sketch Comedy president, Alexandra Hajdu-Nemeth, a fourth-year in health sciences, stands backstage with the night’s performers, an origami star pressed into each palm.?

The group’s pre-show ritual is meant to steady nerves, and it is one Hadju-Nemeth said she relied on the night of her first comedy show.?

“Seeing someone on a stage, putting something out there that they created that’s original, seemed really scary,” Hajdu-Nemeth said. “It wasn’t until I actually saw one of my sketches performed on stage that I felt like it was truly a part of me.”?

Hajdu-Nemeth is one of many students involved in comedy at Ohio State, where sketch,? improvisation and stand-up groups give undergraduate students room to explore creativity through writing, acting, improvisation and video work.

“I’ve always been an artist, but it wasn’t until college where I met people [in comedy],” Hajdu-Nemeth said. “I didn’t even know that sketch comedy was a possibility for me to do or what it was.”?

Backburner, founded in 2015, is an open-membership student organization that? encourages students to explore different forms of comedy through writing workshops, acting practice and collaboration with other campus groups.?

Hajdu-Nemeth said the group draws inspiration from sketch comedy shows like “Saturday Night Live,” but its style leans toward absurdist humor and subverting expectations.?

“We welcome people with all different types of humor,” Hajdu-Nemeth said.?

Students interested in performing submit sketches ahead of the group’s monthly shows? and attend two meetings to rehearse and refine their work. Hajdu-Nemeth said the group’s support makes it easier for newer members to take creative risks.?

“At the end of the day, even if you’re vulnerable and maybe the audience doesn’t really vibe with your sketch, you all have each other,” Hajdu-Nemeth said.?

Mollie Asquino, social media and marketing chair for Fishbowl Improv and fourth-year in health and rehabilitation studies, is familiar with the vulnerability that comes with being an improviser.?

“I know people aren’t laughing at me,” Asquino said. “They’re laughing at what I’ve said and what I’ve created, and I feel like that’s a testament more to my creativity as a person and my ability to immerse people in that world that we’re building.”?

Asquino said the ability to express herself through comedy is made possible by the support of other Fishbowl members, many of whom keep comedy in her life outside the organization.?

“We try to teach our guppies, ‘Don’t go into a scene thinking [about] what’ll get? the biggest laugh,” Asquino said. “We’re going into a scene thinking, ‘How can I support my teammates?’”?

Asquino said Fishbowl was founded in 2009 by alumnus Alex Lefeld after he was cut from 8th Floor Improv’s callbacks, later establishing itself as the university’s free-to-join improv group.?

Fishbowl shows blend improvisers’ varied characters, signature games and audience-driven scenarios.?

“It’s defining the character through physical action and embodying the voice so that, even if I can’t hear anything you’re saying, I look at you and I see somebody different,” Asquino said.

Fishbowl encourages creative expression during its new member auditions each semester, and hosts open auditions for students who want to try improv without committing to the full-time cast.?

“There’s so many different avenues to express creativity and it’s such an important thing to do, especially as we’re growing into adulthood,” she said.?

That sense of exploration and support looks different across campus’ comedy scene. For members of 8th Floor Improv, creativity grows through the friendships and long-term collaboration that shape performers both on and off stage.?

Founded in 2004, the group’s motto, “best friends doing best friend improv,” reflects its commitment to making practices and shows welcoming for new members, said Mason Melvin, 8th Floor’s treasurer and a third-year in French and francophone studies.?

Melvin said he recalls his earliest days in the group as a crash course in improv’s roots, as he was guided by older members who helped new performers find their footing in the group’s style.?

“It takes so much courage to go up there, do something you’ve never done and hope that other people like it,” he said.?

Melvin said the close relationship 8th Floor maintains with its alumni has strengthened his confidence over the years, and he credits former president Samuel McQuate as one of his mentors who guided him early on.?

“I was so nervous when I first got in the group, but he was super kind and reaching out, making sure I feel good about what I’m doing,” he said.?

The responsibility now falls on the current cast, Melvin said, to carry that mentorship forward to new members and students who come to their open practices.?

8th Floor is preparing for several upcoming programs, including its annual alumni show and Bellwether, which Melvin described as “the biggest free college improv festival in the world.” The festival gathers college and professional teams in the Ohio Union for two back-to-back nights of performances.?

However, the impact of campus comedy reaches beyond the performers themselves, according to Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, professor of Comedy, Culture, and Society. She said she has watched students discover how humor shapes emotional responses for the people onstage and the audiences who react to them.?

“You’re drawing the laughter out of people, you have a kind of magical ability to create a situation in which people can release their feelings and know how good it feels to laugh,” Curley said.

Curley said in these groups, students examine how humor connects people, study improv and stand-up techniques and analyze how stage work shapes social differences.?

As part of that work, she encourages them to attend comedy shows around Columbus and reflect on what they see.?

“One of the things that my students have really kind of opened my eyes to is how close the relationship is between laughter and other kinds of bodily expression,” Curley said.?

As Backburner prepares for its spring shows, Fishbowl looks ahead to Tides and 8th Floor prepares for Bellwether, Hajdu-Nemeth said she hopes the Ohio State’s comedy scene continues to offer a place where students can gather, laugh and support one another.?

“Laughter is super important,” Hajdu-Nemeth said. “The stress of college is enough, but also the stress of the world. People need a place where they can be relieved from that, even if it’s just for the hour and a half that our show is going on.”