Kent State was selected to be one of 12 schools to participate in the American Eagle Outfitters College Comedy Tour. The winner from each school will compete in a national championship in Cancun, Mexico.

Colleen Burch, All Campus Programming Board special events coordinator, said students are granted two minutes to show off their skills at the preliminaries. One more competition will take place on campus before students can vote for the university’s representative in the national championship.

ACPB will host the event, which begins at 8 p.m. on Feb. 6. Any Kent State student 18 or older can participate.

Four comedians, including Jasper Redd and Bryan Callen, will perform at the second event.

“It’s a little bit different than events we’ve done in the past,” Burch said. “I’m really excited about it.”

Chris Taylor, vice president of ACPB, said he is also very excited about the event because of its entertainment value. Whether or not students like comedians doesn’t matter — either way, they will be entertained by good comedy, or by people making fools of themselves, he said.

“It’s an opportunity for students to try out their humor,” Taylor said.

At the time, ACPB did not know how many colleges applied for the American Eagle-sponsored event. Doug Hite, who is in charge of publicity at ACPB, estimated the number to be more than 100.

Taylor shared Hite’s assessment.

“There were a ton,” Taylor said. “We applied, and we got it.”

Those interested in signing up for the event should either go to the ACPB office in the Student Center, or contact them by e-mail at [email protected]. The cutoff day to sign up is Feb. 5, the day before the competition.

Contact on-campus entertainment reporter Joe Shearer at [email protected].