Timothy Nault found himself at the start of the 2012 spring semester a 25-year-old second-year senior at IPFW with no real direction or hopes of obtaining a relevant degree. After changing his major several different times from undecided to general studies, from general studies to biology, from biology to English, from English to human services, and from human services to….well, you get the picture.
Basically, Timothy Nault had come full circle right back to where he’d started: being undecided.
“None of those career paths made any sense for me. It was ridiculous! I was exploring every option under the sun and then I realized I wanted to kill homeless people … and by that I mean make them laugh.”
The only constant in Nault’s quest for the right educational path to a rewarding career has been the good times he’s had with friends. Nault is kind of the life of the party since he’s always had an uncanny knack for keeping everyone in stitches.
The idea to pursue a comedic career came to Nault when a friend suggested he become a stand up comic in jest. Now, not only does Tim want to chase his dreams for comedic fame he wants to build an entirely new major around comedy.
Making people laugh is not a simple process it takes time, care, and precision to come up with worthwhile and witty jokes. Humor engineering, the proposed name for the new major, may sound like a silly idea but the way Nault sees it is, “if theatre students can have a major they can call their own in which they learn their craft, why can’t comedians? It’s just another type of performance art.”
Currently Nault is petitioning to get his major created. Whether humor engineering will flop or not is not yet known but many people have high hopes for the potential program.
