Stephen Brandano knows where he wants to be in the near future. “Hopefully on Comedy Central,” says Brandano, known around

campus as Stevie B. “I think I’m gonna be a standup comedian with the guitar.”

Brandano, a sophomore undeclared major at UMass, has been making a name for himself around campus with his acoustic guitar and his sense of humor. A solo artist, he plays original songs, cover songs and parodies at open mic nights on campus and in town.

“I do have some original songs that aren’t funny,” Brandano says. “Those are the ones I have the most fun playing, but people tend to like the funnier songs more. I think if I get anywhere, it’s gonna be with the comedy songs.”

Short and thin with dark brown unkempt hair, Brandano – with his reddish sideburns and goatee – can be seen around campus often wearing a Detroit Red Wings jersey, a backwards baseball cap and headphones.

Born and raised in Melrose, Mass., he graduated from Melrose high school in 2001. It was during his junior year of high school that Brandano picked up a new hobby.

“My dad had a guitar and I started playing it,” he says. “I guess I’m self-taught. My dad taught me how to read (guitar) tabs on the Internet, and using that I learned how to play.”

He performed to his largest audience (2,000 people) at his high school graduation.

“Everybody always says to me, ‘When I think of graduation, I think of your songs,'” Brandano beams. “That was really a great moment.”

Brandano brought his musical stylings to UMass, where he immediately floored the student body at the Blue Wall during freshman orientation. It was the first time he played his “funny songs” to a larger audience, and it also marked his first encore.

“I played ‘Miles High’ [a parody of John Denver’s ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’], and everybody loved it,” says Brandano. “I got off the stage and [the crowd] was just like, ‘Have him come back up.'”

He returned to the stage and played a parody of “Walking in Memphis” by Marc Cohn, called “Boston Common.”

“Put on my Grateful Dead shirt / Boarded the train / Touched down in the Boston Common / In the middle of a sunny day / And I’m walking at Hempfest…” he provides as a lyrical sample from “Boston Common.”

“Even now, in my sophomore year, people will come up to me and say, ‘Oh yeah, you played at orientation,” Brandano says. “It was awesome.'”

Brandano sits on the futon in his Z-room in John Quincy Adams tower. The white walls of the room are barely visible underneath the multitude of posters (Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews, Led Zeppelin, Phish, The Simpsons, Reservoir Dogs). Portraits of Eddie Vedder and Trey Anastasio, drawn during class by Brandano, also occupy space around the room. There is a Phish logo drawn by crayon on the wall next to the window.

Brandano is wearing a hooded Dave Matthews Band sweatshirt with blue jeans and a Red Sox cap turned backward. Besides his father, Brandano says Matthews was his biggest influence in him wanting to learn to play the guitar.

“It sounds corny, but I saw ‘Dave Matthews – Tim Reynolds Storytellers’ on VH1, and I was like, ‘Wow, I want to be able to do that.'”

Brandano also lists funnyman Adam Sandler as a major influence.

Currently Brandano has limited opportunities to play to an audience outside of the casual performance around the dorm. He plays the first Friday of the month at the Black Sheep, a sandwich shop in Amherst. Every three weeks or so, there is an “open mic” at the Craft Center in the basement of the Student Union. Brandano encourages newcomers and says anyone who wishes to display their talents should do so.

“We’re always looking for more people,” he says. “Poetry, standup … anything you want to do in front of the mic is more than welcome.”

However, Brandano expresses frustration over the lack of open mics in the area.

“Other than [the Black Sheep and the Craft Center], I really don’t know any other places to play,” he says. “I think we need another place on campus that’s just for (open mics). Like if the Blue Wall had Wednesday night open mic, that would be really cool. Or the Coffee Shop across the way from the Blue Wall … just a little place where you could chill and have someone playing an acoustic guitar. I’d like something like that.”

Brandano realizes playing small shows around Amherst are good for practice, but they won’t get him to the big time.

“I think I have to get out and do more. Just playing these open mics is not gonna really get me anywhere,” he says, adding that he plans to play in Boston this summer in hopes of being discovered.

“I don’t know what the chances are that someone’s gonna find you [in Amherst],” he added.

If Brandano needed any affirmation of his song-playing talents, he received it after playing an open mic at a comedy club.

“There were a couple of real comedians [at the club] and both of them loved me,” Brandano recalls. “I talked to one of them afterwards, and he was just like, ‘Listen, you can do this. You can be big.’ And I’ve always thought about that, and now it’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it.”

Those who have seen Brandano in concert know of his love to perform.

“I went to see him at the Craft Center, and it was the first time I’d seen him play in front of strangers,” said Dan Beaulieu, a close friend of Brandano’s. “You could just tell by the way he worked the crowd, by the way he was smiling the whole time, that he was where he wanted to be.”

Lenny Smith, also a close friend, agrees.

“Stevie B. lives to entertain,” says Smith.

Throughout his four-year career of guitar playing, Brandano’s role as a crowd-pleaser hasn’t changed.

“If someone from the crowd yells something out, and I know how to play it or it’s one of my songs, I’m playing it,” he says. “I like to give them what they want. That’s what it’s all about.”