Teacher (Jethro Tull)

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