Class In Kalamazoo

Saturday January 31st 2009 - Kalamazoo, MI

My comedy classes are expanding their traditional boundaries and I’m thrilled about it. It’s something I have wanted to do for a while now and today I took a big step by teaching two back to back two hour mini seminars at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

They were set up by a website called www.rooftopcomedy.com who caters mainly to an all college age market with video clips of comedians from all over. I hooked up with them at Zanies in Chicago where I hosted a couple of comedy contests they sponsored between colleges. I’d suggested a class and they apparently have decided to run with the concept.

I had intended to maybe sell a DVD version of my course on their site but they wanted a live class and sold it to the university. Then they hired me to teach it for a fee and had me bring an up and coming Chicago comedian along to do a set for the class and then get my professional critique. He was paid too out of the fee and all in all it went extremely well.

Bryan Berrey was the comic I brought and he really took to the whole program. He’s 24 and just out of college himself and has a bright future in comedy. He’s one of several new fresh and funny up and coming faces on the Chicago comedy scene like Hannibal Burress and Vince Carone and Pat McGann and Adam Burke and Juliana Forlano and others too.

I get to see these people on a regular basis since I host the Zanies rising star showcases on Mondays and it’s good for me to keep my energy in the mix. I’m the old fart but it’s a win/win experience because they can learn from me just like I learned from my mentor in Milwaukee C. Cardell Willis. I can also keep my finger on the pulse of what’s coming up.

Teaching at a university level is a different experience because previously I’ve taught to faculty and not students. I did a great one day seminar at Marquette University back a few years ago now with my friend Lynn Miner who is a professor there. This was a new twist.

There is a campus comedy group at Western Michigan run by a student named Darnell Anderson who is a very sharp guy. He’s the one who bought the seminar and was to serve as my contact for the day. I didn’t know what to expect other than I needed to fill two two hour sessions. I can do that in my sleep so I wasn’t worried at all but it turned out great.

Darnell is an aspiring comic as were most of the attendees. We had about 16 at the first session and some of them stayed for the second which was about a dozen. We covered as much as I thought they could handle and they were very open to it. It was packed with fun and positive energy and I could tell they wanted to get better. It was worth the long drive.

Bryan did his set and I ended up doing one too to demonstrate technique and it was fun to see the respect and awed look on the faces of the students. To them I’m what they want to do and I can relate. If I’d started and met a headliner I’d be in awe too. I appreciated all the attention and respect but they also had some very good comedy instincts and wanted a way to let their creativity out. I would love to teach more of these in the very near future.