Jesse Case wins 2008 Rocky Mountain Laugh Off

Earlier this week, Nashville-based stand-up comedian Jesse Case proved he could make the Mormons laugh by winning the 2008 Rocky Mountain Laugh Off in Utah. Among comedy contests, the Laugh Off probably doesn’t rank near the top, but consider this: Last year’s winner, Marcus, took the momentum from that win into the following month’s Seattle comedy contest, won that, and then took that momentum into his audition for Last Comic Standing, which eventually earned him second place and a nationwide tour. For his part, Case writes on his MySpace blog that he felt many of his fellow competitors deserve just as much attention as he does. Even in winning, Case notes that having stand-up comedy judged, scored and ranked is an "impossible" notion, and even more so in the Laugh Off, where the judges were randomly plucked from the audience?! Case writes:

"This is where the judging breaks down though. All of these guys should
have done better. They should have placed better than they did. The
fact that Andrew Sleighter, Dan Smith, and Tony Moschetto didn’t tie
for first every night tells you that there are flaws in the system.
Those guys are GREAT comics, and destined for great things. Andrew just
moved to Boston and will eventually, like most Boston comics,
transition into New York, where he’ll thrive. You can’t just give 4
random people score-cards and expect fair results."

That said, we still congratulate Case on his win.