Groundlings online classes are available to anyone

Groundlings’ online classes aim to find laughs amid shutdown, are available to anyone

Knock knock. Who’s there? Zoom. Zoom who?

Azooming people wouldn’t mind being funny even while staying at home, the Groundlings Theatre and School has started offering comedy classes live online on the popular Zoom videoconferencing platform. And they may just discover the next big name in comedy online. “There’s a future Groundling in one of these classes, I bet,” said Michael Churven, a company member and one of the online instructors. Los Angeles-based Groundlings, which opened in 1974, is an improvisation and sketch comedy theater that counts famous names such as Melissa McCarthy, Will Ferrell, Kathy Griffin, Chris Kattan, Maya Rudolph and others as alumni. The school offers in-house classes to aspiring comics that teach skills like writing monologues, developing characters and improv. When the novel coronavirus pandemic took hold in Southern California, the school had to close, but the laughs didn’t have to stop. “Pretty much immediately we were talking about how to keep everyone engaged because there was disappointment when we shut down the classes,” said Phyllis Katz, a founding member of the company and one of the online instructors. So with the popularity of Zoom, with which people are logging on in groups to hang out or even have virtual happy hours, they decided to take comedy to the virtual world, too. Katz and Churven say it’s been a hit and the classes have brightened people’s spirits. “People were saying, ‘I can’t think straight; I can’t get my mind off what’s going on; I’m depressed,’ and then next thing you know we’re writing, we’re exchanging ideas, we’re performing and we’re laughing, and that can only be a good thing,” Katz said. Some classes are open only to current students who have some experience, but there are others open to anyone interested in signing up, with new classes offered every week. The classes vary from teen improv to writing sketches to teaching people how to commit to character to one class called Zoomprov, which is designed to help people develop their podcast skills and on-camera auditions. “I’m loving it,” Churven said. “I’m loving to get to work with people from all over the country,” he added.

COURTESY OF THE GROUNDLINGS The Groundlings Theatre and School is offering online classes to teach comedy.