A 12-inch turkey sub sandwich with Monterey, cheddar, lettuce, cucumbers, banana peppers, ranch and honey mustard, toasted, is what Justin Schmitt, 20, orders from Subway before every comedy show.
“It’s just always kind of been my sandwich,” Schmitt said.
Schmitt, better knows as Schmitty, has been doing stand-up comedy for about a year. It all started out when his roommate’s brother, Nick Hartford, 23, and his friend John Howard, 26, were looking for an opener for one of their shows.
“We needed an opener for a second show,” N. Hartford said. “We knew Schmitt was funny and that he could deliver on stage as well so we decided to give him a shot and it turned out really well.”
The show was held at the Elk’s club and the trio has also performed at the Crystal. Schmitt is younger than the other two and brought in a younger audience for the shows.
N. Hartford said that Schmitt’s first show was great but his second time was even better.
“[Schmitt’s material is] very original,” N. Hartford said. “It’s kind of refreshing to hear a new voice, not the same, same old same old you hear from upcoming comedians trying out jokes. He has a lot of confidence with what he does.”
After opening twice for N. Hartford, and Howard, Schmitt has done one Open Mic Night in the University Center at the University of Montana (UM) and said he would like to do more Open Mic’s and more comedy in general.
“I would love to get more into it,” Schmitt said. “Hopefully one day, maybe after graduating, [I’d like to] move down somewhere I can get into the comedy scene more. I’d love to have the opportunity to take a comedy class and to see how far I can take this.”
Schmitt said he would compare himself to Chris Farley and already has a signature joke, “S’mores before whores,” a spin off of the modern phrase “Bros before ho’s.”
“I came up with the bros before hoes part and I was like okay, I need to relate this to food and girls somehow,” Schmitt said, “So I was thinking about it all day and it just hit me all of a sudden and I was like this is perfect.”
Before the bigger shows, Schmitt prepared with the others for a month to a month and a half prior to preforming. Schmitt writes his own jokes but takes feed back from the others. Hartford said that it shows when he preforms.
“[The jokes] just comes to me, during the day, because you have to base it off personal experiences or experiences people can relate too,” Schmitt said. “So I’ll just think of something I think is funny and write it down. Writing a routine, I’ll just work it and work on the punch line, work on the delivery. “
Schmitt is currently a communications major at UM but has yet to decide what he would like to do with his major once he graduates but he does know he does not want to working in an office setting. His dream job would be to touring comedian.