Harvard Comedians Garner T.V. Slot

A pair of Harvard comics will have a shot at the big time when they appear on an hour-long national comedy show on Home Box Office cable television in June.

Eric P. Kjellgren '86 and Andrea C. Michaels '80 were two of 25 acts selected last week from a group of about 150 to appear on "Comedians on Campus" produced by New York's Catch a Rising Star comedy club. "Saturday Night Live" regular Joe Piscopo will host the special.

Kjellgren, who performs with his friend Bennett Schneider from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said he was "very pleased" to make the show.

"I had seen comics perform on television and I always wondered what I would do if I were there," he said. The Matthews Hall resident will perform a game show spoof and a parody of a Libyan defense department briefing he auditioned earlier this month.

Having "pared down two years of material to 10 minutes" for her audition at Gutman Library, Michaels, a non-resident tutor and professional comic, will perform a stand-up routine of topical and political material.

Fifteen acts primarily from the Northeast will be taped for the show on Friday night at Tufts University's McPhee Hall. Ten other acts will be taped Thursday night at MIT's Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.

In addition to the acts, Catch a Rising Star will be taping footage of college life this week, possibly including shots of the Yard.

"The good thing about the show is that there are women in it," Michaels said, adding, "there are only about three women comedians in the Boston area. "The show will feature five women's solo women's acts and one that includes a woman.