Quickly approaching finals may be serious, but they haven’t stopped the sound of laughter from echoing in bars around Baton Rouge every week as students enjoy local and national stand-up comedy acts in their free time.Stand-up comedy is gaining popularity around Baton Rouge, and bars are encouraging the trend by offering weekly comedy nights.The Station Bar and Grill, Phil Brady’s, The Funny Bone and Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s offer weekly open mic nights during which amateur and professional comedians take the stage to provide stressed students with the opportunity to laugh.Students also use the local venues to find their own places in the comedic spotlight.Sylvia Medrano, mass communication junior, said she enjoys making people laugh and doing something outside her comfort zone. “When I do stand-up, I touch on a    variety of topics,” Medrano said. “It’s basically anything and everything that goes on in my life or that I find interesting.”Medrano said she finds comedy in everyday occurrences, such as dating, the opposite sex, food and even her own appearance. “I’ve found that if you can relate to your audience through your material, they’ll understand you and be able to see the funny in things,” she said.And Medrano is just one amateur comedian bringing humor to students.Cameron Brexler, University alumnus and host of Above Ground comedy nights held Wednesdays at The Station on Bennington Avenue, said the bar offers amateurs the opportunity to hone their skills and prepare their comedy resumes.”[The bar] has that energy that they would have if they went to Denver, New York or L.A.,” Brexler said. The Station also books professional comedians from Baton Rouge and New Orleans to follow the amateur comedy as headliners for the night.The bar has featured Van Chew, who appeared on BET’s “ComicView,” and several comedians who performed at The Station are currently featured on HBO’s New Orleans-based series “Treme.” “As it’s growing, the people are getting funnier,” said Brexler, who has hosted Above Ground Comedy since August. “We give anyone who wants to do comedy the opportunity to do it.”The Student Activities Board is also continuing to capitalize on the comedic trends, as it hosts its third annual Last Comic Standing event. Auditions for the event were held Tuesday and Wednesday. Students performed for an SAB panel that will select the performers who will move on to the final event, which will be held May 4 in the Cotillion Ballroom. “Comedy isn’t a venue that is explored a lot on this campus,” said Marlon Boutin, chair of SAB’s Pop Fusion Committee. “We want to put on programs to get students as involved as possible.”SAB is trying to blend the amateur and professional comedic world as well. Erin Jackson will serve as host of the May 4 event.Jackson was a semifinalist on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” in 2008 and has appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Boutin said Jackson brings real-world experience to the table, and she represents a small population of female comedians. “She’ll be an asset to the student comedians coming who will compete in this,” Boutin said. “A good part is that the student comedians get a chance to speak to the comedian hosting the event.”A panel of judges at the Last Comic Standing event will select the top three comedians, and the audience members will vote on the best of those three contestants. Alex Stein, a general studies junior who auditioned Wednesday for Last Comic Standing, said he was always the class clown throughout school, which inspired him to try stand-up.Stein said he would love to pursue comedy professionally if he could find a job that would allow him to do so.”I want my comedy to be bad, not PG-13,” Stein said. “I want it to be raw. I want to annihilate people with my comedy.”In addition to SAB’s upcoming event, bars are hosting special comedy nights dedicated to particular events and themes. Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s on Third Street hosted its fourth annual 420 Comedy Show on Tuesday in conjunction with National Pot Smoking Day. The Station is also looking to host a Cinco de Mayo-themed comedy night May 5, Brexler said. Boudreaux & Thibodeaux’s The Laugh Attic and Phil Brady’s Comedy Jam both attract significant audiences Tuesday nights. The Funny Bone Comedy Club attracts professional comedy acts to the Baton Rouge scene. The club is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and features headlining acts that hail from across the country. New York-born comedian Scotty K will appear at the club this weekend. He has shared the stage with such professionals as ChrisTucker and D.L. Hughley, according to the Funny Bone’s Web site. And students are becoming increasingly interested in finding opportunities for humor as the comedy scene seems to grow. Brexler said The Station receives a strong college crowd on its comedy nights, allowing students to use laughter to escape worries during the week.”I love knowing that I made someone laugh,” Medrano said. “I make it a daily mission to make at least one person laugh. That way I know that for at least one moment in the day, they were happy.”____Contact Matthew Jacobs at [email protected]