Students take a crack at a stand-up comedy

It's always good when the instructor at comedy class laughs. Janice Bannister enjoys a student's bit.

MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
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When Janice Bannister first got on stage eight years ago, she was terrified.
She had just graduated from a stand-up comedy course at Langara College and her first gig was a showcase for the grads at a restaurant on Commercial Drive.
She must have made an impression; the producer of a women’s comedy show invited her back to perform her set the next week. Again the butterflies tickled her tummy. But when she saw there was hardly anyone seated in the small cabaret, they almost flew up and out of her throat.
“There’s nobody here,” she whispered in a panic to the producer.
But she went on anyway, and hasn’t looked back. Now she’s showing the way to other hopeful comics.
After working the local scene for a couple of years, Bannister decided her funny bone was best cracked by teaching others to be funny. She studied the nuts and bolts of running her own business at Douglas College, launched Laughter Zone 101, and for six years, has been passing on her insight and experience to new generations of stand-up wannabes, the past two terms at a night course at New Westminster secondary school.
“People are too straight,” says Bannister. “Comedy is about stepping out of your comfort level.”

Trying to lighten it up
At 81 years old, Georgie Cole’s comfort level is well established.
The Burnaby resident says she’s always been confident and outspoken. She took public speaking courses when she was younger, but wants to add more levity to her volunteer duties as an emcee at seniors’ and church functions.
Which is why she’s in a classroom at New West secondary on a Monday evening with about a dozen other would-be comics from White Rock to Matsqui, laughing uproariously at some jokes, squirming uncomfortably at the raunchier bits and nervously reviewing her own lines scrawled onto 4-by-6 index cards.
“I’m not into smut,” says Cole.
On this night, halfway through the eight-week course, each student is to perform a five-minute set they’ve been writing and honing since the first class. Comedy is hard work.
“It’s tough to get the jokes short and snappy,” Cole says. “I feel like I need a preamble to explain them.”
An experienced comic can write 10 bits to get two good ones, explains Bannister. “Editing is very important. For every 20 minutes of blah blah blah, you might get five minutes of ha ha ha.”
She coaches her students to draw from their own lives and observations to build their bits, then add a twist at the end.
“The hardest thing to learn is you don’t need to make stuff up,” says Bannister. “Truth makes the best comedy.”
Want fries with that?
Greg Fawcett’s real life job is acting, he tells the class at the opening of his five-minute set.
“You’re probably asking yourself where you’ve seen me before,” he tells his audience, sensing their quizzical looks as they try to place his face. “I’ve done TV shows, bit parts in some movies. I’ve served you a latté at Starbucks.”
Fawcett says comedy is a “new muscle” for him to exercise, different from acting in a controlled environment like a soundstage.
“Here you’re dealing with an audience, there’s pressure to deliver,” says Fawcett. “It’s a different anxiety.”
Bannister says people sign up for her classes for all sorts of reasons. Some want to get more comfortable on stage; learn how to lighten the tone at business meetings; explore a life-long fascination with comedy; cross stand-up off their “bucket list.”

‘You can be whoever you want to be’

Zoe Clemens, 77, is tapping into her inner performer. She says she’s been entertaining people since she was two years old. She’s been a clown, done showcases at the Confederation Seniors Centre in North Burnaby, and currently belongs to a seniors’ cabaret group in North Vancouver.
“When you’re on stage, you can be whoever you want to be,” says Clemens, who’s taking Bannister’s class for a second time.
She always carries a notepad, jotting down observations and ideas as they come to her. Much of her material comes from her childhood on the Prairies.
“Everyday stuff is the funniest,” says Clemens. “You never know what’s going to make people laugh.”
Making the audience feel good
Which is just what Bannister tells her students as she deconstructs their sets through the second half of the session, and then sends them on their way to further tighten their material for the next week’s class.
“People just want to feel good,” says Bannister. “When you’re up on that stage, the audience is just thanking themselves they’re not up there.”
Just as she did, graduates of Bannister’s class will perform at a special showcase at Lafflines on March 10.
For more information, go to www.laughterzone101.com.