Sixteen comedians unleashed their best routines at the Vera Project on November 3, hoping to keep their comedy crown dreams alive in the 31st Seattle International Comedy Competition. The competitors earned laughs from the judges and twentysomething audience with riffs on their personal lives—delusional parents, trouble with kids, and nonexistent love lives were hot topics. Yet the night’s winner, Auggie Smith of Portland, stole the show with his hilarious examinations of trick-or-treating and small-city politics.

And after a week of traveling to comedy clubs around the Puget Sound, the field narrowed to five on November 8, as judges compiled each night’s scores to determine the semifinalists. Joe List of New York took round one’s top spot, while Smith (who won the San Francisco Comedy Competition earlier this year), Dax Jordan of Portland, Eddie Pence of Los Angeles, and Tampa’s Kortney Shane Williams rounded out the top five.

The second preliminary round continues this week with 16 new comedians (including locals Drew Barth and Nancy Reed) competing for the remaining five spots in the semifinals, which begin November 16 at Comedy Underground. Stay tuned for more updates from the comedy club trenches.

The winner of the 31st Seattle International Comedy Competition, chosen at the Moore on Nov 28, takes home $5,000 cash and a one-year contract with comedy label Uproar Records.