“I recently read a study that mentioned that kids these days are typing ‘lol’ and not actually laughing,” said Leigh Ann Jasheway, University of Oregon professor and professional comic. But the kids that came to the quarterly (and free) “Quack Me Up” stand-up comedy showcase held in the Ben Linder room in the EMU on Thursday night had no problem actually “laughing out loud.”

“We do this show once a term, and we’ve talked about doing an all-women show, an all-minority basis show, but for now we have anybody we can get. Our goal now is to represent comedians that aren’t all that well-represented,” said Jasheway.

Jasheway frequently teaches a class on stand-up and comedy at Lane Community College.

“I realized that most of my students were studying stand-up but not allowed to go see stand-up, since most of them were under 21,” Jasheway said.

Seven local comics performed for about 10 minutes each set to a room full of students. They could perform any material they wished as long as it wasn’t “too blue.”

Melody Dodd had no problems with this stipulation as she launched into her comments about masturbation on stage. “I just can’t seem to have any fun masturbating. I only want to be ‘just friends’ with myself,” Dodd said.

According to Jasheway, only about 15 percent of comedians are female. Of the comedians at the show, about half were female. But comedian Stephanie Purtle sees this as an advantage.

“I don’t want to be another white male comic, doing the same thing over and over again. We’re really lucky to be in the Pacific Northwest. There are definitely more female comics here than in most of the country,” Purtle said.

Purtle has been doing comedy for only a year, but her routine shows polish. After earning her masters in communication, she yearned for the satisfaction that teaching speech classes gave her.

“I wanted to find a way to perform after teaching, and comedy seemed like a good fit,” Purtle said.

Comedian Seth Milstein has been interested in comedy since he was six.

“I grew up really poor, and I remember watching comedy on television. Here are my parents, they’re laughing, they’re experiencing joy and they’re not arguing. I want to do that,” Milstein said.

Growing up poor seemed to be the strongest thread amongst all the comics performing.

“I’ve been in bands, but comedy is more dangerous than playing music. When you’re up there on stage, you don’t have a guitar to hide behind,” Milstein said.

Chris Castles has been doing stand-up comedy for five years. His material during the show revolved around mostly food puns, but the audience ate it up.

Before the beginning of the show, the comics mingled together and bantered. Many of them had performed together before.

“I think that a lot of my strongest influences are the local comics in the area,” Castles said.

When asked why he chose to do comedy, Castles replied, “It’s cheaper than therapy.”

Sticking to the Pacific Northwest comedy circuit, most of the performers travel up to Portland on a regular basis to catch shows in the greater metro area.

Heckling is a common problem for comedians but not for comedian Kevin Kimble. A seven-year veteran of the comedy scene, Kimble is no stranger to problems that a heckler provides, but he takes those trails in stride.

“When I’m up on stage, it’s my world but most of the time I don’t get into it with them,” Kimble said.