Humber College Comedy: Writing and Performance

The Humber Clown Program was founded in 1999, at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Courses include stand-up, improvisation, scriptwriting, sketch comedy, and business aspects of the profession. The program features many mainstage class shows, a weekly Humber student show at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club and an organized showcase at Second City, Toronto for scouts, directors and agents with students included on the basis of merit.

History

It was preceded in 1997 by an annual one-week intensive, created by Joe Kertes, called "The Humber Comedy Workshop". Anne Beatts, Lorne Frohman, Joe Flaherty, George Shapiro, Carol Leifer, and Stephen Rosenfield were guests in this program, 1998.[1]

At various points, instructors have included Robin Duke,[2] and Paul O'Sullivan.

Lorne Michaels has credited this program for his top talents when it comes to Saturday Night Live

Alumni

• Marty Adams
• Rebecca Addelman
• Ashley Comeau
• Kurtis Conner
• Debra DiGiovanni
• Dini Dimakos
• Sam Easton
• Nathan Fielder
• Ajay Fry
• Richard LeBlanc
• Karl Ludwig
• Jeff McEnery
• Nikki Payne
• Renee Percy
• Norm Sousa, Never Ever Do This at Home

References

1. Brian Pascual, "Comedy college on campus", Humber Et Cetera, 16–22 April 1998, page 16.
2. Jef Catapang, "Cleaning up the act", Humber Et Cetera, 5 April 2007, page 21.

External links

• Humber College Comedy
• Humber Etcetera - the Humber College newsletter
• SUN Career Connection: Comedy students get the last laugh
• Woods, Robbie (2016-11-02). "Training the next generation of comedians, one gag at a time. Humber College's comedy program is proving that while you can't teach being funny, you can teach people how to get a laugh". Maclean's. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• Stoffman, Judy (2004-03-31). "College on TV just for laughs - Humber course draws Hollywood Show to feature student comics". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• Taylor, Bill (2001-07-25). "Dean turns comedy into a class(room) act". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• Terauds, John (2003-02-27). "Comedy skills are not elementary - Top funny people teach at Humber Students put on class show Saturday night". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• McShane, Larry (1999-05-08). "Don't Knock It. New School For Comics Will Teach Art of Making People Laugh". Philadelphia Daily News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• Brown, Louise (1999-04-22). "New courses in September Students will investigate fraud, learn to tickle the funny bone". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• Krauss, Clifford (2003-12-12). "Comedians in the Rough: Canada's Very Special School". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-20.
• https://www.straight.com/news/825711/humber-colleges-school-creative-and-performing-arts-offers-musical-smorgasbord-students
• https://web.archive.org/web/20151018025405/http://thescenemagazine.ca/humber-college-rejects-taste-failsauce/
• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/management/so-a-bay-street-executive-walks-into-a-comedy-club/article25091668/