Laughs as a Launching Pad

Contestants on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” competition don’t get a lot of time to make an impression, so Alycia Cooper ’93 recently had to search her 15-year supply of jokes to come up with something quick and punchy.

When in doubt, reach for the material under “Kids These Days.”

“These kids are so spoiled,” she said on the July 29 episode, “they will unplug their granddaddy’s oxygen tank to charge their cell phones.”

Cooper passed muster with the all-star panel of judges—Roseanne, Keenen Ivory Wayans and Norm McDonald—and is through to the second round of the stand-up contest, which gives its winner a $250,000 grand prize and network development deal.

For its ninth season, filmed earlier this year and airing now, the show invited only experienced comics to compete. The first round ends this week.

“There’s no cattle call,” says Cooper, who was a contestant in 2007 as well but did not make the finals. “They are casting personalities, because everyone is funny.”

Originally from Temple Hills, Md., Cooper has been performing almost her entire life. She came to College Park with an interest in writing screenplays and television shows, but her love of the stage was rejuvenated by winning a spot as Eveline, the Wicked Witch of the West, in a UMD production of “The Wiz.” After stints on shows such as UPN’s “The Parkers” (with now Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique) and a day job working in reality television, Cooper decided to turn a stand-up hobby into a full-time gig.

She now lives in Encino, Calif., but really lives on the road.

“The beauty of it is, you get to see the United States,” she says. “All for free, essentially. I can’t complain.”

But after a decade and a half of travel and injuring wrists carting luggage around, Cooper says she is ready to take the next step, one that could be provided by “Last Comic Standing,” whose season premiere in July garnered 6 million viewers.

“What you want now is a sitcom, so you can sleep in your own bed,” she says. “No one wants to be a road comic forever.”

There’s a temptation to view stand-up as relatively effortless, and Cooper, whose material dishes on topics from family to sex to celebrities, believes that is the biggest misconception from viewers. Preparation and development are key in a performance where a wrong word or misread audience can doom a set, and years of work are behind the ease of a comedian on television.

Cooper, whose Twitter handle is @AlyciaCooper, is hoping her own hard work will eventually mean someone else is carrying her luggage—and maybe a few other things.

“I can’t wait to get to the day someone is holding my umbrella,” she says.