Tonight I want to extend a special congratulations to the graduates of my most recent comedy class. Earlier this evening, Anthony DiMuro, Eileen Loveman, Tim "Tizo" Maduro, Elliott Marino, Tim Shea and Steven "Sure Shot" Sorensen took the stage at The Comedy Club in Webster, NY (www.thecomedyclub.us) and put into practice the concepts and craft that they studied the last month. I'm proud to report that they all performed fabulously, to the delight of their families, friends and co-workers.
As their teacher this last month, I'm proud to say that they all took the material seriously and some of the students even took advantage of a few extra "voluntary" classes that I offered to make sure that their material was refined and polished. It paid off; they took the stage with confidence and precision, and I couldn't be prouder of them if they were my own children.
Several area comedians stepped forward and participated in the program, taking the stage in the early part of the show so that none of the graduates had to be "first" and be thrown to the lions. Local comedians Nigel Larson (who also sat in on our classes and offered feedback to the material that was being presented), Rachael Druszkowski (Western New York's Mom of Comedy), Josh Smith (The Rated-R Rockstar) and Andy Boccacino (a graduate of one of my first comedy classes almost ten years ago) took the stage and entertained our audience, setting the table for the graduates to do their thing.
Some people criticize standup comedy classes; they say "you can't teach funny." I might agree with that, but my retort would be that I don't need to teach funny. Everyone is funny. Everyone has the ability to tell a story, relate a personal experience, kid around, come up with a funny retort. The sense of humor is universal. As a comedy teacher, my goal is to show my students how to translate that sense of humor to a group of strangers. It's easy to make your friends and family laugh, they already know who you are. The trick is taking it to the stage and making strangers like you and laugh along with you.
In addition to that, you can teach public speaking and you can teach comedy writing, and if you combine them, you have what can reasonably be argued is the starting point of standup comedy.
Attending the performance tonight were Danny Liberto of the Comedy Company (www.noclowns.com) who I had the privilege of working with Saturday night at a room he books in Du Bois, Pennsylvania, and who also has taught comedy classes with me in the past, and Steve "The Nuclear Guy," who is a former student of mine who now tours around the country doing his standup act and booking his own shows. My thanks go out to them for coming out to support our class. Special thanks also go out to Mark Ippolito(the manager of the club, and believe it or not, a comedy class graduate), who tolerated our class messing up his showroom on his off nights, and Joe T. who gave the go-ahead to me to offer the classes after a long hiatus. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my webguy Bruce who came out, took some group photos after the show, and also is a comedy class graduate (two times!) from back in the day. There was so much love in the room, even my mother-in-law came to the show (no lie!) and her comments, related to me by my wife, was that she really enjoyed the show and she could see these students becoming professionals someday.
I sure hope so.
This week, it's some well-deserved time off before my college game show tour picks up again with the first of three shows at D'Youville College in Buffalo next Sunday. Happy 4th of July everyone! Remember, the Declaration of Independence states that we have certain unalienable rights, and that chief among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And making people laugh, if done well, can combine all three.
Ralph Tetta
Rochester, NY
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Psalm 9 (Trouble)
Wow. Where have you been the last month, Ralph? None of yer damn business, Shecky.
Actually, things have been pretty rough around our house lately. My wife's Aunt Dina, who had been battling cancer, succumbed on Wednesday night, June 17th.
Dina was good to me, my wife Pamela, and our daughter Harmony. She was a member of our family, a remarkable group that took care of us, sheltered us and loved us. I married a great young lady, but I got a bonus with her family.
Years ago, when I proposed to Pamela, my parents were getting ready to retire to Florida and I was living in the basement apartment of the multi-family house they owned. In order to sell the house, I needed to get out and was about to go look for a place when Pamela suggested that we live together at her apartment. I wasn't against living together, especially when we were properly engaged, but we had to ask permission of Dina, as she owned the house. She said yes, and very cautiously explained to me that her niece was a special girl, and that if I hurt her in any way, she would come looking for me. It's been almost 15 years, and I guess I'm doing all right, nobody's taken a swing at me yet.
Dina worked in Social Services, was active with the union, and often would walk a picket line with other unions in solidarity. She was liberal in a lot of things, but insisted that things would be better if people got up off their ass. She was very Catholic, sang in the folk group at Holy Apostles, and deserved a much longer retirement than the one she got. She retired at 60 after the rigors of her disease started causing complications, and spent the last year of her life managing pain when she should have been enjoying herself.
She particularly liked a song that Pamela and I wrote about Harmony called "The Baby With The Nice Round Head" that we would sing all the time. She thought we should get it published, even though it was just a fun little ditty that we would sing to Harmony when she was really little and we wanted to change her diapers.
Dina wanted the best for us and loved us and we tried to help, but at the end of the day, it was cancer, the heavyweight champion of the world. I've done three cancer benefits alone this year, and I could have done three hundred and I don't think it would make a difference. It's a horrible disease, hard to diagnose, murder to treat, and we're no closer to understanding what it is, why it occurs, and why it's so different from patient to patient than we are to understanding God.
When Dina decided to stop treatment and go gracefully, I couldn't fault her. The treatments left her weak and drained, and she'd had enough. Making that decision required courage, a courage I'm sure I wouldn't have. She had plenty of visitors those last couple of weeks, cards, letters, flowers, folks from church, former co-workers, and of course Pamela and I brought Harmony to see her, hoping that her nice round head would bring a smile to Dina's face. I'm happy to report that it did. Harmony still doesn't really understand what heaven is, or what happens to people after they go there. She knows that "Auntie Dee" is up there with Grandpa Tetta, Great Grandma, and Snax The Cat. My mother-in-law Anne described it to Harmony as a big party that never ends, and she seemed o.k. with that. I guess I'm o.k. with it, too, but I picture it more as a state of bliss, basking in the love of the Creator, unaware of what's going on down on Earth. Lord knows, there's plenty going on down here to make anyone frantic, upset, scared or angry, and I don't think heaven would allow those things of their denizens.
On Wednesday night, when it happened, I was driving east towards Syracuse to do a TV program on Thursday morning, and the sky was pissing rain like I'd never seen. It was just ridiculous amounts of water coming down, and no more than 15 minutes after I'd hit the road, my wife called me with choking sobs and I knew that Dina had gone. With the time frame we were looking at and the experience of my father as a cancer patient only a couple of years ago, I knew after hearing that Dina was sleeping and mostly unresponsive that it would be quick, but I had no idea that it would be so soon. I'm happy to report that on the day of her interment, the skies were cloudless, the sun was out, and the service was joyous and well-attended. They even let me get up and read a passage, which I thought was nice. My original choices were considered too heavy-handed, I think, but they found a passage that got the message across and was considered more appropriate. Dina had an ex-boyfriend for years and he turned out to be a real scumbag, and as a present to her, I wanted to read something that basically gave him the guns, but in retrospect, I guess it was better that I just concentrated on a passage that indicated that Dina was a good person and her place in heaven was assured. Afterwards, members of the family including my wife's Uncle Joe from Boston and his wife Gretchen congregated at the Peppermill Restaurant and we had lunch. This was an old haunt of mine, and I could never get Pam to go there, but it was close by the cemetery and a good place to decompress.
Other than that, it's been a pretty busy June with two weeks in the Cleveland area and a week in Syracuse, and then the invitation to go on the Bridge Street show on WSYR-TV channel 9. I talked about teaching comedy, and I've been teaching a class in Rochester for the last month. Our graduation show is this coming Sunday at the Comedy Club in Webster, and everyone's excited and working really hard to brush up their material for the occasion.
There's a lot of work to be done around the house, and today I got the air conditioners in to help combat the 85 degree weather. I planted peppers in the back yard and I'm excited to see if anything comes of it, I'm not exactly known for my green thumb. Yesterday, we took Harmony to see a live exotic animal program at the library up the street, it was fun and a nice change of pace from all the stuff we've had to deal with the last couple of weeks. This weekend, I have a one-nighter down in Pennsylvania with old buddies Danny Liberto and Joe Bruno, and it should be a lot of fun. I've got a low-key yet busy July planned, including a week of jury duty, so we'll see how that goes.
O.k., that's enough. Thanks again for everyone who knew what was going on and their show of sympathy to our family in this time, it's really appreciated. Special thanks to my good friends Steve and Eileen for coming to the memorial service, I know it was a long drive and you're good friends and good people and my wife and I appreciate you. We'll see you at our picnic, and then out at your place for the redneck luau.
Ralph Tetta
Rochester, NY
Actually, things have been pretty rough around our house lately. My wife's Aunt Dina, who had been battling cancer, succumbed on Wednesday night, June 17th.
Dina was good to me, my wife Pamela, and our daughter Harmony. She was a member of our family, a remarkable group that took care of us, sheltered us and loved us. I married a great young lady, but I got a bonus with her family.
Years ago, when I proposed to Pamela, my parents were getting ready to retire to Florida and I was living in the basement apartment of the multi-family house they owned. In order to sell the house, I needed to get out and was about to go look for a place when Pamela suggested that we live together at her apartment. I wasn't against living together, especially when we were properly engaged, but we had to ask permission of Dina, as she owned the house. She said yes, and very cautiously explained to me that her niece was a special girl, and that if I hurt her in any way, she would come looking for me. It's been almost 15 years, and I guess I'm doing all right, nobody's taken a swing at me yet.
Dina worked in Social Services, was active with the union, and often would walk a picket line with other unions in solidarity. She was liberal in a lot of things, but insisted that things would be better if people got up off their ass. She was very Catholic, sang in the folk group at Holy Apostles, and deserved a much longer retirement than the one she got. She retired at 60 after the rigors of her disease started causing complications, and spent the last year of her life managing pain when she should have been enjoying herself.
She particularly liked a song that Pamela and I wrote about Harmony called "The Baby With The Nice Round Head" that we would sing all the time. She thought we should get it published, even though it was just a fun little ditty that we would sing to Harmony when she was really little and we wanted to change her diapers.
Dina wanted the best for us and loved us and we tried to help, but at the end of the day, it was cancer, the heavyweight champion of the world. I've done three cancer benefits alone this year, and I could have done three hundred and I don't think it would make a difference. It's a horrible disease, hard to diagnose, murder to treat, and we're no closer to understanding what it is, why it occurs, and why it's so different from patient to patient than we are to understanding God.
When Dina decided to stop treatment and go gracefully, I couldn't fault her. The treatments left her weak and drained, and she'd had enough. Making that decision required courage, a courage I'm sure I wouldn't have. She had plenty of visitors those last couple of weeks, cards, letters, flowers, folks from church, former co-workers, and of course Pamela and I brought Harmony to see her, hoping that her nice round head would bring a smile to Dina's face. I'm happy to report that it did. Harmony still doesn't really understand what heaven is, or what happens to people after they go there. She knows that "Auntie Dee" is up there with Grandpa Tetta, Great Grandma, and Snax The Cat. My mother-in-law Anne described it to Harmony as a big party that never ends, and she seemed o.k. with that. I guess I'm o.k. with it, too, but I picture it more as a state of bliss, basking in the love of the Creator, unaware of what's going on down on Earth. Lord knows, there's plenty going on down here to make anyone frantic, upset, scared or angry, and I don't think heaven would allow those things of their denizens.
On Wednesday night, when it happened, I was driving east towards Syracuse to do a TV program on Thursday morning, and the sky was pissing rain like I'd never seen. It was just ridiculous amounts of water coming down, and no more than 15 minutes after I'd hit the road, my wife called me with choking sobs and I knew that Dina had gone. With the time frame we were looking at and the experience of my father as a cancer patient only a couple of years ago, I knew after hearing that Dina was sleeping and mostly unresponsive that it would be quick, but I had no idea that it would be so soon. I'm happy to report that on the day of her interment, the skies were cloudless, the sun was out, and the service was joyous and well-attended. They even let me get up and read a passage, which I thought was nice. My original choices were considered too heavy-handed, I think, but they found a passage that got the message across and was considered more appropriate. Dina had an ex-boyfriend for years and he turned out to be a real scumbag, and as a present to her, I wanted to read something that basically gave him the guns, but in retrospect, I guess it was better that I just concentrated on a passage that indicated that Dina was a good person and her place in heaven was assured. Afterwards, members of the family including my wife's Uncle Joe from Boston and his wife Gretchen congregated at the Peppermill Restaurant and we had lunch. This was an old haunt of mine, and I could never get Pam to go there, but it was close by the cemetery and a good place to decompress.
Other than that, it's been a pretty busy June with two weeks in the Cleveland area and a week in Syracuse, and then the invitation to go on the Bridge Street show on WSYR-TV channel 9. I talked about teaching comedy, and I've been teaching a class in Rochester for the last month. Our graduation show is this coming Sunday at the Comedy Club in Webster, and everyone's excited and working really hard to brush up their material for the occasion.
There's a lot of work to be done around the house, and today I got the air conditioners in to help combat the 85 degree weather. I planted peppers in the back yard and I'm excited to see if anything comes of it, I'm not exactly known for my green thumb. Yesterday, we took Harmony to see a live exotic animal program at the library up the street, it was fun and a nice change of pace from all the stuff we've had to deal with the last couple of weeks. This weekend, I have a one-nighter down in Pennsylvania with old buddies Danny Liberto and Joe Bruno, and it should be a lot of fun. I've got a low-key yet busy July planned, including a week of jury duty, so we'll see how that goes.
O.k., that's enough. Thanks again for everyone who knew what was going on and their show of sympathy to our family in this time, it's really appreciated. Special thanks to my good friends Steve and Eileen for coming to the memorial service, I know it was a long drive and you're good friends and good people and my wife and I appreciate you. We'll see you at our picnic, and then out at your place for the redneck luau.
Ralph Tetta
Rochester, NY
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