Is this thing on?
Tonight was the first meeting of my standup comedy workshop. I got there about 10 minutes late because I went to the wrong building first. It was a small room with about a dozen people sitting around in a circle. The teacher was kind of a loud guy in white pants and a polo shirt.
On the drive into Cambridge, I figured he’d ask us to tell why we were taking the class. Some people talked about becoming more comfortable in front of a room. Others talked about learning to be funny to make their business better. One woman said she had a clean act and wanted to be able to say “fucking.” A couple of people were truly odd. One woman was so quiet, shy, and reserved, I thought she might pass out when the instructor asked her why she was there.
I introduced myself with “My wife and I separated recently, and my friends told me I should take classes to meet people. The Journaling and Scrapbooking classes were full, so I took this.”
The rest of the class was about 2 hours of “comedy terms.” Some were obvious: punchline, setup, bit, etc. Others were new to me: tagline, topline, callback.
The most interesting thing was the way he diagrammed how he made up jokes. He made a table. One side was headed “Statue of Liberty,” and underneath some attributes: myterious, regal, still on the outside, lots going on on the inside. He said “Now let’s come up with something that has the same attributes.” I came up with Condoleezza Rice, but he had already done this before and chose “Mom.” It’s not a foolproof way to make a good joke, though. In fact, I would have to say that most of his jokes were pretty lame.
During class I kept looking at a woman across the circle. After class I went up to her and said, “You look familiar. Where would I know you from?” She said, “I was thinking the same thing.” Then I said her name, and told her: “The conversion class. About 8 years ago.” She had been in the conversion class that Beth and I took before the boy was born. It looks like she’s not that much into Judaism anymore.
The comedy class presents me with a dilemma. The next class is Monday. If I go to class, I miss Neilah. If I go to Neilah, I miss out on the class. Given the strained relationship I have with shul these days, I think I’m going to class.