The Second City logo | Photo courtesy of www.secondcity.com

Colorado State University-Pueblo hosted the stand up comedy group, The Second City Comedy, in Hoag Hall on Feb. 16. The Second City Comedy Tour is a program designed to train future stage members in stand up comedy and improvisation. Famous alumni that have performed in this program include Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Amy Poehler, Vanessa Bayer and Bill Murray.

The event featured six comedians: Alison Gates, Andrew Knox, Greg Ott, Miranda Randazzo, Liz Reuss and John Thibodeaux.

The comedians touched on topics of dating in a bar scene, the upcoming presidential election and various improvisation pieces with the influence and suggestions from audience members.

Audience members would share scene ideas, conversation ideas and attitude tones to help the comedians get into a comical character.

The program began in 1967 and have given members the opportunity to travel across the United States and Canada to perform at events hosted by universities, festivals and other organizations.

Directed by Jen Ellison, Ellison had help from stage manager, Scott Flores-Deter, and music director, Dane Halvorson, with the program.

Students as well as local community members were in attendance. Mass Communications majors Brianna Garza and Savannah Schofield were in attendance for their second year.

“We have been coming to the Second City Comedy show every time we can, they are really funny and we enjoy going,” Garza said.

“It’s a good way to get out, have a good time with friends and have a good laugh,” Schofield said.

The two students heard about the show that evening from the school email digest as well as the print mediums provided on-campus.

“I like to utilize attending on-campus events because we pay for them with our student fees,” Schofield said.

“I enjoy going to on-campus events because they are easy to access for on-campus residents, like myself. They are fun and offer a lot of activities for a wide range of people,” Garza added.

More information on Second City  and the cast can be found at www.secondcity.com/people/touring.

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Enactus organization will be featuring three workshops on Feb. 29, March 7 and March 14. The campus organization creates projects every year to benefit the local community.

The CSU-Pueblo campus Enactus president, Timothy Zercher describes the organization as a platform to help develop students as well as the Pueblo community.

“We do this by conducting a few projects a year which focus on using creative and new ideas combined with basic principles to better our community and environment,” Zercher said.

The latest project Enactus is planning to incorporate is a series of free workshops and trainings that are sponsored by Sam’s Club in order to help women entrepreneurs in Pueblo.

“Our hope is that this series will help the women business owners and starters in Pueblo to develop and grow their small businesses,” Zercher said.

The workshops will be lectured by local experts and will be based on topics of social media management and marketing, ways to build and improve effectiveness in small businesses and how to navigate the lending market.

“I also think people will be surprised to realize the expertise we have in Pueblo and the amount of knowledge they will be bringing to our workshops,” Zercher said.

Zercher added that he is excited about the workshops and about the potential they have to impact the Pueblo community.

According to Zercher, Enactus hosts developmental workshops for members of Enactus that focus on interviewing, resume building and other professional skills.

“In doing these projects we are able to allow our members very practical and effective ways to build their skill sets while building their resume,” Zercher added.

More information on Enactus can be found on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/CSUPuebloenactus/?fref=ts for students interested in joining the organization.

Details regarding to the upcoming training workshop can be found at http://www.csupuebloenactus.org/#!blank/c6v5.

Beth Stelling | Photo courtesy of TheeErin/ Flickr

Colorado State University-Pueblo featured stand-up comedian Beth Stelling in Hoag Hall Feb. 3. Stelling has been featured on American talks shows such as Jimmy Kimmel Live and Conan, and has also been highlighted on Comedy Central.

Stelling credits the start of her stand up career to starring in musicals growing up.

“I would play the funny role in musicals in high school,” Stelling said.

According to Stelling, her two older sisters played a major role in her decision in getting into the entertainment industry.

“I have two older sisters and watched them on stage and that’s when I released I wanted to perform,” Stelling added.

Stelling has been in stand up comedy for nine years. The first time Stelling found her humor she was at a music recital. She turned off the electric keyboard and started playing jokingly.

“The first time I was ever publicly funny, I didn’t practice at all. I played an electric keyboard but didn’t know any notes. I just let it rip,” she said.

The Ohioan shared her advice for anyone seeking to perform in stand up comedy.

“Do what’s right for you. People say you will probably bomb it the first time, you might not you might have a really great time your first time,” Stelling said.

Stelling said that she was around friends during college when she first tried doing stand up comedy.

“It wasn’t until years in I was at one of my first paid gigs that I bombed,” she added.

Stelling also spoke about how crowd involvement was important.

“It’s contagious and confidence is also contagious,” Stelling said.

“The best part about stand up comedy is throwing something out there that’s unique to you and having people laugh.”

For those that missed Beth Stelling’s event, there will be another comedic event, the Second City Comedy Tour, an improvisational comedy enterprise that is a starting point for many comedians. Notable alumni of this group include Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Steve Carrell, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler and more. The event will be held Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in Hoag Hall.

Love Your Melon | Photo Courtesy of Love Your Melon CSU-Pueblo Facebook page

Colorado State University-Pueblo students Maggie Geolat and Bri Mason are in in the process of developing a new campus organization called Love Your Melon.

The organization markets a buy one give one campaign. For every hat or item purchased a child with cancer in America will receive that same product.

“Love Your Melon is an apparel brand that gives a hat to every child battling cancer in America, funds childhood cancer research initiatives and provides immediate support for children and their families,” Geolat said.

The organization will market the products and at the time of checkout on the online webpage, customers are able to choose the school they want to support. Once a school gets enough credit. the school’s crew will visit a hospital to distribute the product to the children.

According to Mason, Love Your Melon is a nationwide student run organization and the products are manufactured in Denver.

“I believe that Love Your Melon will have an amazing impact on our campus because just with the two months that we have started this organization there have been multiple people that have wanted to help and be a part of this organization,” Mason said.

“I really believe in what Love Your Melon is doing,” Geolat said.

Geolat believes that the organization will thrive on CSU-Pueblo’s campus.

“They are creating memorable experiences for these brave children and it is a great way as a college student to help give back,” Geolat said.

The Love Your Melon nationwide organization only allows 20 students per college campus crew. The CSU-Pueblo campus crew is still in need of members. If the crew becomes full then a waiting list will be established.

More Information can be found at www.facebook.com/csupuebloloveyourmelon.com or by contacting Mason at ba.mason@pack.csupueblo.edu.

Members of CSU-Pueblo’s Rodeo team | Photo courtesy of the Rodeo Team’s Facebook page

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s club sports director, Bill Moorman, is aiming to advance member recruitment and team participation for the Rodeo Club this semester.

With high hopes for the upcoming season, Moorman, who is responsible for all club sports on campus, said that he is very excited for the future of the Rodeo Club.

“One of the biggest goals I have is to find a location for the team to call their home arena,” Moorman said.

“They need a place to practice together and eventually host rodeos.”

According to Moorman, another big goal of his is to grow the club in terms of members.

“We are looking at the possibility of sending some of our team to high school rodeos to spread the word that rodeo is an option at CSU-Pueblo,” Moorman added.

Moorman said that the university plans to implement agricultural science courses for the fall semester of 2016 which could lead to more member recruitment if more students are enrolled.

“We are beginning to work on offering agricultural science degrees in the upcoming year,” Moorman said.

He said that this would enable many students to pursue a new degree in a field they are interested in and open the option of participating in the Rodeo Club for CSU-Pueblo.

The spring season for the Rodeo Club will begin in Casper, Wyo. on March 4. This rodeo event will kick off the 2016 spring season with five rodeos located in Wyoming and Colorado. The Rodeo Club for CSU-Pueblo will be located in the Central Rocky Mountain region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

More information about the club can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoStateUniversityPuebloRodeo or by contacting Moorman at billmoorman@csupueblo.edu.

“President Di Mare has met with the team and is excited about the opportunities rodeo will create in efforts of growing the university,” Moorman said.