Observation: How to be funny / Toronto
Off the cuff
Since the late 1950s, a comedy club has been spreading the gospel of making things up as you go along. Here’s a lesson in taking risks.
It’s a Saturday night in Toronto and I’m standing in a circle of 11 strangers in a spot-lit basement. To be clear, it’s the basement of a comedy club; I’ve come to an improvisation class at the underground training centre of The Second City comedy theatre. For someone whose attempts at comedy are usually more “funny funny” than “funny, ha ha”, it’s an unnerving prospect.
“The thing about improvisation is that it’s play,” says our tutor for the evening, a rapper-turned-comedian who goes by the stage name Phatt Al. “When we’re children, we’re allowed…
