One year ago, four WKU students started a stand-up comedy show in Bowling Green.

Tomorrow, the group will celebrate the show’s anniversary at the State Street Pub at 9 p.m.

“This sprang up because of a want,” Bowling Green graduate student Willance Gardner said. “We decided to create this ourselves because it wasn’t established in this city.”

After the first show in May 2010, the group decided to keep the Bowling Green Comedy show going.

They began hosting comedy shows once a month at Café Vioni and moved to the State Street Pub when the cafe closed.

Gardner took over the show after two of the other organizers, Tyler Jackson and Cameron del Rosario, graduated.

“We’re all really happy it’s lasted as long as it has,” Gardner said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

Jackson moved back to Louisville but didn’t know what he was going to do with his creative writing degree, so he decided to pursue comedy.

He said the Bowling Green Comedy show has gained a good reputation with not only Bowling Green comics but Louisville comics as well.

“It feels good that we’ve fostered a whole community down there,” he said.

The show presents stand-up comedians, many of whom are WKU students or alumni, with skits, musicians and an improvisation crew called “Happy Guys.”

Leitchfield junior Luke Filip, one of the 12 members in “Happy Guys,” said the group is similar to the show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”

The troupe plays games with the audience or acts out themes based on different topics.

“It’s all about the group mind,” Filip said. “Everybody in the group has to get on the same wavelength.”

He said his comedic inspiration came from shows he watched growing up like “Seinfeld” and “Ren & Stimpy.”

Chicago sophomore Ian Maule said he was always called the funny kid when he was younger.

Comedians like Dave Chappelle, Zach Galifianakis and Daniel Tosh fueled his interest in stand-up comedy.

When his resident assistant told him about “Happy Guys,” he decided to try out, but he didn’t make the team.

But his RA still encouraged him to do stand-up at the Bowling Green comedy show.

Maule said stand-up comedy was an outlet for him, so he started performing more and more.

When on stage, Maule said he likes to talk about anything he finds interesting, even his problems.

“I’d rather laugh at a problem than dwell on it,” he said.

Although he performs regularly at the pub, he said he still gets nervous before every show.

“If you act like you’re nervous, the crowd is going to eat you up,” he said. “You have to act like you belong there.”

Filip said he likes that the pub is a place for rising comedians to perform without any pressure.

Gardner hopes to feature bigger comedians on the bill as well.

“We’ve done a good job nurturing it,” he said. “I’m hoping to make it bigger now that we’ve demonstrated that it can last.”

Wednesday’s show will feature about 10 comedians from Bowling Green, Louisville and Nashville.

The cost is $5, and attendees must be 18 or older to enter.

Visit www.facebook.com/comedybg for more information about the show.