Would you trust a guy with those dreadlocks?

That train must have been carrying a freight of nitrous oxide, because the audience reaction suggested exposure to laughing gas. The show, which featured six local comedians fighting their way through four elimination rounds, scored heavy chuckles from start to finish.

What got Bruner upset was that the stand-up rounds—including such tasks as heckling a heckler and performing material based on a topic assigned 24 hours in advance—were supposed to be punctuated by pre-recorded sketches and movie clips, all of which succumbed to technical difficulties. But even these glitches led to laughs as co-host Brandon Hahn poked fun at the technical crew.

"Can we shine a light on the guy who edited this for us?" Hahn said. "Look at those dreadlocks! Would you trust a guy working for you with those dreadlocks?"

"Hold on one second," said the dreadlock-sporting techie as he made another belated attempt to get the footage rolling.

"Yeah, hold on one second everybody. Gotta roll another doobie. One second—it's 4/21, we're just gettin' started late."

Comedian Honour Pillow was the comic to survive all four rounds of the inaugural Die Trying "train wreck." And since the University Theater has picked up the show, you can now catch this train monthly.