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In the eyes of these young comedians, there's always something to laugh about.

Even in the intimidating land of SATs, college rejection letters and life-changing decisions, there's humor in all of the stress, say three of The Comedy Academy's graduating seniors.

"It's better to laugh than freak out," said Northwood High senior Leah Solomon.

Solomon should know. Along with classmates Josh Rosen and Sara Mozersky, Solomon has seen life from behind a virtual microphone in a dimly-lit comedy club since the eighth grade. That's when they started writing and performing comedy skits for the countywide after-school academy, which performs in schools and has published anthologies of its work for comedy clubs around the world.

The comedic lens takes some of the pressure off of such events as auditioning for a $50,000 scholarship to play French horn at the famed Chicago College of Performing Arts.

"It was a pressure cooker," Rosen said of the recent audition. "And I know I should feel that way; I know I should. But I can sort of relax and sort of laugh at the absurdity of this: We were all auditioning so we can blow into metal tubes for four years."

It must have worked, because Rosen got the scholarship and will be blowing into his French horn, well, hopefully for the rest of his life.

"Best-case scenario is I will be the principal horn player for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra," Rosen said. "What will probably happen is I will be a high school band teacher. Which is fine."

But Rosen made his point that humor is invaluable in the most unlikely of places.

"If I wasn't able to be a comedian in those kinds of situations, I'm pretty sure my head would explode," he said.

For much of middle school, Mozersky was the snarky kid in the back of the class making snide jokes to her friends. When the aspiring actress got to Comedy Academy and realized there was a role for her sarcasm, she found an outlet for her cynicism — and a new way of viewing life.

"It's amusing to see things that are completely absurd," said Mozersky, who is one of the stars of a modern-day adaption of the famous 1700s comedy "The Misanthrope," slated for Round House Theater in Silver Spring.

One of the more joke-worthy real-life situations for Mozersky these days is her decision to pursue acting. She'll be attending Rutgers University in the fall and will try out for local plays in nearby New York City in hopes of landing the big one.

"When you say ‘aspiring actress,' I think it translates into ‘aspiring waitress,'" she joked. But, hey, at least the humor keeps her from thinking about how to pay rent (did someone say IHOP is hiring pancake flippers?).

"You can have a life without flipping out about everything," Mozerksy said, pun intended.

Solomon was never the obviously funny type. A star lacrosse athlete, editor-in-chief of Northwood's yearbook and future architect (she's currently deciding between several East Coast schools), Solomon didn't realize she was also a star comedian until she started writing scripts for The Comedy Academy. The scripts got published.

"I would like to say I was always funny," Solomon said. But the naturally shy athlete remembers performing her very first show, which she wrote specifically so that she could beat Rosen with a rubber chicken, was frightening.

"I was terrified," she said. "I'm still pretty shy, but I don't have panic attacks before shows anymore."

Nor does she have panic attacks as D-day nears for deciding which college to attend.

"It's better to be able to laugh at yourself and laugh at the situation," she said, shrugging off the stress.

To prove his point, Rosen pulled a crumpled fortune cookie from his jeans pocket (which he admitted he should have removed from his jeans before he washed them). It read: "Blessed is he who makes his companions laugh."