In the middle of his comedy act, Ryan Mast took a moment to show his audience his sixth novel, which he said was the kind that had sexual innuendo as he reached for the hard-cover copy. He started at chapter 1,000.
For Mast, who lives in Muncie and has regular performances, this was not his first time competing for The Comedy Moshpit Show.
"They did one last year, and the one this year just topped it," he said. "The competition was just great. There was no clear cut as to who was going to win because everyone was doing so well."
The audience laughed for more than two hours as the nine final contestants competed for title of Indiana King of Comedy on Wednesday night. The contestants talked about every topic they could think of, from DUIs and relationships to pop culture and nerds.
The contestants each gave a 10-minute act and then had a "lightning round," in which each comedian had a minute in their last chance to please the audience with their acts.
Mast won the first place in this year's competition, while Cortney White won second place and junior political science major Jeff Doran won third. The prizes this year for the first, second and third place winners were $500, $100 and their $10 entry fee, respectively.
White, who also participated last year for The Comedy Moshpit and has been performing for the past seven years, said the competition was tough in this year's contest.
"The whole time the competition has been going on, I have had to really get my stuff together knowing that I had to bring it up here," he said.
Jake Lentz, co-founder of The Moshpit Comedy Show and a Ball State student, said about 60 people signed up originally to compete, with the other 51 eliminated within the past few weeks. He said compared to last year, the show had improved in many ways.
"The crowd was packed, the lineup was stellar, everyone was killing it, the energy and the fun was tangible," he said. "You could walkin in the middle of someone's set, and you could tell they were already killing it. This [show] has just been constantly getting better, I can't wait to see where this show is in another year."
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