Tess Tregalles—Proving laughter really is the best medicine

Senior Tess Tregalles has a unique talent of combining acting and storytelling into contagious comedy. The Acting major and Communications minor is apart of a group that started ‘open mic’ nights here at Elon. 

Tess likes to put herself out there by using storytelling as a technique to tell jokes and found her love for open mics while in Los Angeles this past summer. 

“I tried to do an open mic once a week in LA and got great experience and feedback from different audiences,” said Tregalles.

 The ability to try jokes in front of new people every night takes more than talent—it takes guts. 

And here at Elon, an open mic scene is just beginning. “We’re trying to do one once a month,” said Tregalles, “we started it to fundraise for the acting program for the senior class and are hoping to keep them going.” 

The idea is to bring people together who enjoy laughing and making others laugh. Tess hopes more people from all majors and interests here at Elon will think about trying an open mic. “I’m in the arts school, but someone in the business school could want to pursue comedy and I want that connection to bring us all together.”

The Elon community is what makes the experience so positive for Tregalles. 

“I love the community here, it’s so supportive,” said Tregalles, “I love that we can try to be funny and tell good jokes but if we fail it’s okay.” 

Tregalles wants more people to experience the supportive community that humor creates and to think about putting themselves out there by trying an open mic. 

The idea of bringing people from different corners of Elon into one room, bonding over the love of laughter, could not be more inviting. Tess Tregalles continues to inspire people to take risks and not take yourself too seriously. 

October 26this the next open mic where laughter will, once again, be proven as the best medicine.