To some people, turning 30 years old is nothing to smile about.

In this case, it’s an absolute joke.

The 30th annual San Francisco International Stand-Up Comedy Competition is in Sacramento State for the second of six final round stops beginning at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in the University Union Ballroom.

Five finalists are vying for a $10,000 cash prize.

Jim Short failed to reach the final round the first five times he competed. Then, after a six-year hiatus, the Australian-born comedian struck gold. He won it all. Along the way, he outscored his competitors at the Sac State visit.

“The show at Sac State was just unbelievable,” Short said in a telephone interview. “That’s the great thing about being in the competition: You get to perform in front of these really unbelievable audiences.”

Jon Fox, who has co-produced the event with wife Anne for 29 years, said he is pleased with this year’s talent. From May until early September, Anne surveyed videocassette and DVD entries from about 300 comedians. That number was whittled down to 30 contestants who were split into two preliminary rounds. The top 10 contestants moved on to the semi-final round with five moving onto the final round.

The length of the sets expanded from five to eight minutes in the preliminary round, 10 to 12 minutes in the semi-final round and 15 to 20 minutes in the final round. By the end of the Northern California comedy tour, the top five will have competed in 25 shows in 26 days.

“(Audiences are) going to see five acts that have completely trimmed all the fat away from their act,” Jon Fox said from the Villa Montalvo Carriage House Theatre in Saratoga. “These acts are totally committed to winning over the audience, and they have a limited amount of time to do it.”

During the course of the rounds, the performance order changes, Short said. One night a comedian will open the show and then next he could be the closing act. If someone’s a tough act to follow, he’s going to feel it.

A panel of three will judge who’s got the goods. A person who hires comedic talent, a media member and a fellow comedian award scores in seven categories. Those categories include material, delivery, technique, audience interaction, audience response and “gut feeling” about the comedian, Fox said. The audience does its part judging the winner by awarding an “encore point.”

Sac State alumnus Carlos Alazraqui got top honors in 1993 after failing to get past the preliminary round in 1989. It was as important getting the audience into the performance then as it is now.

“There were so many great comics and the psychology of trying to get an audience on your side in five minutes, after 20 comics doing five minutes, is really tough,” said Alazraqui, who plays Dep. James Oswaldo Garcia on “Reno 911!”. “It made the sets kind of fun trying to get those applause points and those types of things,” Garcia said. “If you didn’t do well, you were crushed because you knew you were going to fall far behind in the competition.”

The comedy competition was the brain child of comedy entrepreneur Frank Kidder. The initial attempt was a two-night, 20 comic laugh-fest in April of 1976. The first official competition was held later that year in August where Bill Farley beat out Robin Williams. Yes, that Robin Williams.

Fox was an entertainment reviewer for the Oakland Tribune at the time and he had gotten a job as the program coordinator at the San Francisco Press Club. One of the members tipped him off to some comedians in North Beach. Might be worth looking into for the Friday night entertainment hour, he remembered.

“Here they had this place called the Intersection in the North Beach section of San Francisco,” Fox said. “They had, essentially, a workshop there. The comedians were their own audience and they were incredibly gifted.”

Kidder had a stable of comedians. Fox had press contacts. Fox’s wife was working on an annual sports and boat show. The three people seemed a perfect match.

Since then, Dana Carvey (1977) and Sinbad (1983) have gone on to win the competition. Ellen DeGeneres, Dane Cook and Rob Schneider made it to the final round. Roseanne Barr, Janeane Garofalo, Bobcat Goldthwait, Christopher Titus and D.L. Hugley also participated, but never made it pass the preliminary round.

“It’s great to be around raw talent,” Fox said. “It’s fortunate for us to meet them at this age because when they go on to big stardom, they have very fond memories of this event.”

The winner of the 30th annual event will be announced Oct. 9 match at Cache Creek.

Prices are $7 for Sacramento State students, $10 for general admission. For tickets, contact the Sacramento State Ticket Office at (916) 278-4323 or Tickets.com.

Nate Miller can be reached at [email protected].