Cedar Rapids native named Funniest Person in Iowa by annual comedy competition

CEDAR RAPIDS — As Melanie Mackey walked into The Ideal Theater on Oct. 10, the personal stakes were high.

The Des Moines nonprofit employee and stand-up comedian was on the verge of burnout. After several years of performing comedy sets virtually every weekend, she needed a win.

But with plenty of practice and grit galore, her audience at the finale for one of Iowa’s biggest stand-up competitions didn’t see a struggling artist. They simply saw the Funniest Person in Iowa.

Mackey, crowned that night by The Lucky Cat Comedy’s fourth annual competition, didn’t win with one-liners, dry humor or crude jokes. Armed with plenty of material from growing up as a girl of Filipino descent in nearby Center Point, she gave the crowded room a peek behind the curtain of her personal life.

She captivated the crowd with her opener about women apologizing too much. Then, she guided them through the story of being “othered” by her teachers and classmates through elementary school.

She wore traditional Chinese clothing to school for Spirit Week. Her classmates once thought she was Mexican.

Her teachers treated her as if she was not born in America. One singled her out to help welcome a new immigrant classmate. So she asked: Why me?

“I’m sure you felt the same way when you moved here from your country,” her math teacher said.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, I was born in Cedar Rapids. I am the fifth smell,” a young Mackey retorted, delivering a twist on the slogan of Linn County’s seat.

This time, the mostly white crowd in the room wasn’t laughing at her. They were laughing with her.

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Becoming Iowa’s funniest person

The finale was tailor-made for the City of Five Seasons, but the clinching closer joke has gotten laughs as far as Omaha.

It wasn’t until Mackey went to college and had friends from different backgrounds that she realized the funny stories of what happened to her in elementary school weren’t really funny.

“We definitely poked a lot of fun at me being Asian growing up. These things didn’t seem like huge memories until I shared them with other adults,” said Mackey, whose sets also specialize in jokes about feminism, dating and personal observations as a woman.

Mackey got into stand-up comedy after doing theater and improv in high school and college. She’s been doing her comedy since 2020, when she summoned the courage to do her first open mic set.

“It’s one of those things I always ... dreamed of,” she said.

In a sense, some of her jokes wrote themselves. Mackey simply harnesses the irony that binds comedy to life’s mishaps.

With a trifecta of charisma, charm and physical comedy woven into the delivery of her punchlines, it wasn’t just what she said that had the audience in her palm — it was how she said it. She credits her confident stage presence and control of the room, one criterion for judges in this competition, to constant practice.

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Winning with the power of comedy

Jordan Sellergren, one of the judges that night and the owner of alt magazine Little Village, said Mackey’s stage presence, charm and personal touch was what set the stage for her win.

For nearly a decade, Sellergren has helped organize the Roast of Iowa City, another comedy event now in its 13th year. This year, Little Village launched the inaugural Roast of Des Moines, hosted by Mackey.

On a scale of 1 to 10, judges are instructed to grade each competitor’s five-minute set in terms of funniness, originality and stage presence. Going into the evening, Sellergren expected only a couple of things.

“I expected it to be pretty raunchy. I expected there to be a lot of masturbation jokes,” she said — both of which happened.

Mackey’s set didn’t have any of that. But what it did have was a connection that turned strangers into her cheerleaders around the sold-out room.

In an era of near-constant historic headlines, political polarization and social upheaval, comedy is a form of speech that still has the power to unite people who are polar opposites on touchy topics. In a well-crafted routine, even things like racism and suicide can be unmasked for the room to examine without fear.

“There’s a pact between the comedian and the audience,” Sellergren said. “It’s a relief that it can be funny. It’s a relief that you can laugh at your own pain.”

But what’s more is that, in doing so, comedy compels a country facing unprecedented gridlock to look at the world from different angles and refine their perspective on current events, she said.

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That doesn’t just require an outgoing personality and a few knee-slappers — it requires vulnerability.

“People use humor as a shield, but when you’re performing this piece about yourself on stage, it’s an incredibly vulnerable experience,” Mackey said. “It helps bridge those conversations. When you can make a joke about a hard topic, it means you can have a conversation about a hard topic.”

Need a laugh?

The Lucky Cat Comedy hosts open mic nights for stand-up comedy twice a week:

Every Monday at 7 p.m. at Field Day Brewing, 925 Liberty Way in North Liberty

Every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Old Neighborhood Pub, 608 16th St. NE in Cedar Rapids

For more info, find The Lucky Cat Comedy on Facebook.

Developing an underground scene

Haley Rosendahl, owner of The Lucky Cat Comedy, started her comedy producing company out of the former Thew Brewing in Cedar Rapids.

Thew Brewing, first started in 2018 at 301 Second Ave. SW, relaunched as The Lucky Cat in May 2022, citing success from Thew Brewing’s prior comedy events. It ceased brewing operations in February 2024, as the owners anticipated the $81.5 million First and First West development in the Kingston Village neighborhood.

Today, it lives on through events like this one, fostering underground talent that is operating without a brick-and-mortar home. But despite no official comedy clubs, Rosendahl said Eastern Iowa’s comedy scene is strong, attracting comics for open mics as far as Davenport and Cedar Falls.

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“There is definitely a demand for it. This contest has been hugely successful. It draws people out,” she said. “People get excited to see the contest, but in general, people are really interested in seeing live comedy.”

The Funniest Person in Iowa held four preliminary rounds this year in cities across eastern and central Iowa, diversifying what was an entirely Cedar Rapids-based operation last year.

This year, every style from deadpan and dry to racy and vulgar has come out of the woodwork.

Each comic has five minutes, giving the event a brisk but focused pace. Going more than 15 seconds late in a set is an automatic disqualification.

Each preliminary round had 17 contestants judged by a panel of three. The top four chosen by the judges, plus one fan favorite from each city, advanced to the finals in October.

“This is a great way to see a lot of comedy in a short period of time,” Rosendahl said. “It’s rapid fire.”

Competitors say the competition has helped build a sense of confidence — win or lose. Over time, that translates to a healthier comedy scene.

“Anytime I’ve won a contest, I walk away with a refreshed sense of ‘I can do this,’” said Matthew Jacobsen, last year’s winner and this year’s emcee. “I have the ability to grow. The potential is there for me to do this on a big boy level where it could be my career one day.”

It’s a sampler platter of comedy in a world where comics and fans are hungry for more.

“It feels like comedy is more necessary than ever,” Rosendahl said. “In trying times, we are relying on that sense of community to be with people.”

Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.