Past Portland Comedy Competitions Would you like to read up on some of our past competitions? Scroll down to see how our previous competitions have gone and who has won them.   Eric Severson - Winner 7th Annual Competition 7th Website Again, this competition continues to grow. With 16 total nights in January, we had an amazing run. Although, that's not to say it wasn't off to a rough start. The first night of the competition was cancelled, and the second night horrible as the competition was set to start right when the ice storm of 2004 hit. But, we overcame and finished strong. Out of a great pool of comedic talent in the Northwest, Eric Severson emerged victorious with hilarious set on the night of the finals. It was a photo finish however, with 2nd place finisher BJ Johnson giving him a run for his money. Eric continues to headline all over the Northwest and feels that winning the Portland Comedy Competition allowed him to get a lot more club work and it really increased his exposure in the Northwest. Here is a list of the final five, all of which did a great job and were strong contenders: 1. Eric Severson 2. BJ Johnson 3. Justin Hayes 4. Joe Fontenot 5. Don Frost   Debbie Wooten - Winner 6th Annual Competition Our largest competition ever! Spanning across 11 nights of comedy in venues all over the Portland metro area this event was a huge success. This was our first year ever with the competition having an online presence. Debbie Wooten, a highly talented comic with 20 years of experience in the business narrowly defeated Matt Braunger for the victory. Arlo Stone, Keith Wallen, and Lonnie Bruhn where also among the finalists. Finally, a big thanks to Widmer Brothers who greatly helped the competition by partnering with Comic Affair as an official sponsor of the event for the first time.   Joe Frice - Winner 5th Annual Competition With help from McMenamins, we again hosted the finals at the Kennedy school. This year they actually stopped playing movies that night so that we could take over the theater and produce our show there. This was in response to a huge overcrowding issue the previous year when we were in the ‘gymnasium’ room. Joe Frice, a sketch comic by trade took the title this year. He did a great job transitioning one of the many characters he plays in sketch comedy into a hilarious stand-up comedy act. Joe, while likely due to head down to L.A. in the near future is still involved in sketch comedy in Portland and produces a monthly talk show at the Ash Street Saloon in downtown Portland.   Edie Rogaway - Winner 4th Annual Competition As our first year working with McMenamins pubs & Brewery, we had our first official ‘large venue’ show for the finals. Estimated at around 300-person capacity, we were easily at close to 400 people on the night of. A little bit out of control with the crowd size in such a small space, but the room was roaring with laughter all night. Finalist Edie Rogaway with took first place and became our first female winner. While Eide’s primary career is now a criminal defense attorney for Multnomah County, OR., she hasn’t hung up her jesters cap yet. You can see her performing at Harvey’s Comedy Club in downtown Portland a few times a year when she gets the itch. Visit Edie's Website to see what she's up to these days: Edie Rogoway   Bill Bradley - Winner 3rd Annual Competition A good year for the competition as we knew we were getting large enough that it was probably time to start our move away from hosting all shows just within the open mic comedy scene. It was becoming obvious that we were drawing from more of a mainstream crowd and the only thing holding back crowd size was the amount of awareness the general public had on the event. With another packed house at Berbatis Pan restaurant & Bar, Bill Bradley won the event. After winning the event, Bill went on to develop a one man, one act play that he toured around the west coast performing. While I’ve since lost touch with Bill, if I had to take a guess, I’d say he’s probably out there somewhere using his gifts of rhetoric and persuasion to form some sort of radical activist group or maybe organize some union for workers of the world.   Gary Lucy - Winner 2nd Annual Competition After getting our feet wet, we decided we were still stupid and wanted to go back again for another competition. With the common comedy open mic haunts such as Berbatis Pan and the Cobalt Lounge, we assembled the 2nd annual competition. Lots of volunteer help went into putting this together and spreading the word about the competition. On the finals night, after all the judges’ scores were tallied, Gary Lucy was the winner. Originally a postman for the United States Postal Service, Gary took to stand-up comedy like a fish to water and after only one year in comedy he won the competition. Not too long after winning, Gary quit his job delivering the mail and moved down to L.A. to pursue a career in show business. Gary ended up getting a job as a joke/trivia writer for a show on Comedy Central called “Win Ben Stein’s Money”, where he worked from the show’s inception until it’s cancellation. In 2004, Gary won a daytime Emmy award for his comedy writing!   Joel Clemments - Winner 1st Annual Competition With a few open mic comedy shows going around Portland and a little over a year of experience in running comedy shows, we decided that it was time to organize the first Portland Comedy Competition. Several fun shows, good crowds and great comics. A very handsome and newer comic to the Portland scene by the name of Joel Clemments took the gold at this event. Joel, who was passing time working as a comic until he finished up his masters degree in psychology left Portland and headed to Bend, OR. After graduating college, Joel decided to pursue career paths outside of comedy. What a waste! Wherever he is now, we wish him well.