University of Wisconsin student comedians will compete tonight for laughs and donations to give children with facial deformities the opportunity to smile.

The Wisconsin Alumni Student Board will host Madlaughs: Comedy for a Cause at Madison Avenue tonight at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

�You�ve got to have smiles to give smiles,� said last year�s winner and this year�s closing act, Nick Rezny. �Laughter is the best feeling of all.�

The event gives student comedians a chance to showcase their skills, said Shannon Gallagher, head of the Madlaughs planning committee.

Each of the eight comedians has five to 10 minutes to perform his or her skit. According to one of Madlaughs coordinators, Brianna Salinas, the planning committee held auditions to make sure the skits were appropriate.

�I�ve been a smart ass for a long while but speaking professionally since I was 17,� Rezny said.

Rezny, a former motivational speaker, said most of his comedic material comes from angry feelings he wrote down when he was sick of the sugariness of motivational speaking.

�I�m really looking forward to hearing the comedians,� said Tom Minser, one of the coordinators for the event. �I�ve seen them in an intimate setting, but it will be cool to see how they do in front of a hundred people.�

The audience votes by placing money in the box designated for the comedian they prefer. The comedian with the most donations wins.

Salinas said she hopes people will get into it and get competitive if they want a certain comedian to win.

�The more competitive people are, the more we can donate to Operation Smile, which is great,� Salinas added.

The winning comedian will receive a $50 Dell gift certificate and the opportunity to host All Campus Idol, another WASB event held during All Campus Party in April, according to Minser.

�The other comedians will get a gift bag just for participating,� added Salinas.

According to Operation Smile�s website, they operate medical missions in 26 countries, providing free surgeries for children with cleft lips and cleft palates. Salinas said WASB chose to donate the money to Operation Smile because it fit so well with the event.

�We were looking for something that went along with a stand-up comedy show,� Salinas said.

WASB started Madlaughs last year and raised well over $1,000, Minser said.

This year, they sent out an e-mail to the campus community announcing the event and hung posters around campus.

Salinas said they expect between 150 to 200 people to attend the event.

�We had no idea what to expect,� Gallagher said about the turnout of people exceeding the capacity of the venue last year. �We have a bigger space this year.�

Originally scheduled for November, the planning committee moved the date of the event because a Packer game was scheduled the same night.

The doors open at 7:30 p.m. As students arrive, a DVD about Operation Smile�s projects and efforts will play so people can see exactly what their donations will do, Minser said.�