Who takes SFCC workshops? Everybody and anybody who wants to be funny or funnier attend our workshops. We train public speakers who want to bring more humor to their presentations, salespeople who want more effective and genuine interaction with their client base, housewives, Mr. Moms, engineers and accountants who want to fulfill their dream of getting up on a stage and making people laugh, professional comedians who want to explore new techniques for writing, rehearsing and creating, and beginning comedians who want to learn the basics of comedy and audience rapport. We also are very popular with trainers and corporate clients that need media training for their lifeless executives. Can a person learn how to be funny or funnier? Absolutely, if they want to be! Some (comedy coaches with no technique or comedians praying they have a "special" talent not attainable by others) believe that being funny is a "gift" one is born with and cannot be taught. Those with developed comedic talent have done so as a defense mechanism as a response to their environment. They have learned to make comic distinctions that those with no 'sense of humor' have not needed. In reality, achieving "funny" and performing stand-up comedy are skills taught and learned in this lifetime. We will speed up the process and cut years off your learning curve. (If a comedy teacher tells you that a person can not be taught to be funny then they are admitting that they have no technique to give you. It is an admission that they can only going give you one more opinion of what they think is funny. A teacher with the opinion that funny can't be taught is much like an out of shape guy telling you that no one can run a four minute mile because he can't; you can't describe a place you've never been. We've been creating funny people since 1999 and we stand by all of our claims.) What is different about SFCC comedy workshops? We encourage you to value your own voice and your own instincts when bringing life experiences to the stage. Your opinion of what is funny is as valid as ours. If you get laughs, you are correct and there are no other rules. A great teacher will not edit your act, your jokes or critique you. A great teacher will lay all available tools for accessing laughs at your feet and allow you to use the ones that suit you. In this environment, you will learn to make your own distinctions and find your version of what is funny from you to an audience. Our process facilitates you in developing your own unique comedic voice, which is why no two students from the SFCC ever sound the same. What is the benefit of group versus one-on-one training? Group workshops have the benefit of offering networking opportunities. The ability to succeed in stand-up is based upon a number of variables, the most important being your ability to interact and network with people. The larger the network, the more work. The more work, the longer the career. It's no mistake that 70% of the working comedians in the SF Bay Area have attended SFCC workshops and that our reputation among working comedians is excellent. Groups of comedians offer multiple points of view on your act. Your job is to make many people laugh and this training begins the process of you learning to get laughs from all walks of life. To work with one instructor with no group feedback means that you will possibly learn to make one person laugh who will also be the same person cashing your check. One on One teachers laugh at their students because the student is doing the jokes that the teacher thought were funny to begin with. But, who else is laughing? The risk of working with only one comedy coach with no technique puts you at risk that you may  become a "cookie cutter" clone like comic that sounds like the teacher. If you let the teacher make decisions about your act or write jokes for you then you will adopt her or his sense of humor and writing techniques; this effectively takes away your ability to develop your own style by making your own distinctions about what gets laughs. And if any comedy coach tells you that being a stand up is just about writing a lot of material and memorizing it they are setting you back years in a business that is dominated by great performers and not great joke writers. In our beginner classes, we focus on your natural sense of humor and bringing audiences closer rather than waste your time sending you in wrong direction by transforming you into an actor reciting memorized lines written for you by a comedy coach who may have only achieved open mic level status as a performer. Comedy trainers who offer one-on-one "opinion-based"  or self described "experience based" instruction attempt to perpetuate the illusion that they have a special knowledge about what is "funny." They do not, they are just one more opinion! We'd suggest if you are going to get an opinion on your act, get many of them. That is why our advanced classes with our many paid working comedians are the best comedy think tanks in all of American Stand Up comedy. I once met a self described 'experience' based comedy coach. He claimed to give help based upon his years of experience of what make audiences laugh (By definition, if the teacher makes choices for a comedian based upon what people have laughed at in the past, the teacher creates an army of unoriginal (hack) comedians) Instruction like this has no value, disconnects you from your own sense of humor, makes you reliant upon the instructor and will set your ability to function on your own back years. Any good open miker has the ability to tag and write jokes but very few have the misguided ego to attempt to open a business based on this 'talent'. The biggest key to great comedy teaching is to take away all the internal blocks in a performer that keeps them from being themselves onstage. The first big journey as a performer is being comfortable in front of strangers and acting and reacting in a natural conversational style. Once there, you alone decide what you want to talk about and how to get laughs with YOUR sense of humor. Your first steps as a comedian should be taken alone without the interference of comedy coaches or comedy writers who simply take your money and keep you from discovering how to get laughs on your own. Remember, good stand up is specific to and from each performer; each comedian must decide for themselves which techniques from them create the most laughter and it's why in a group environment you are able to begin the journey of finding your own unique point of view without interference from any outside source. And if the mantra is stage time, stage time, stage time then you will find the SFCC Clubhouse provides more stage time per week (3 performances guaranteed with 3 other possible) for our new comedians than any club in the Bay Area: Roosters, Punch, Cobbs, Improv, Tommy Ts... Are SFCC Comedians the best new comedians in the Bay Area? Yes!!! Our students are the regular pool of opening and middle acts (Robert Schimmel, Brett Butler, Darell Hammond, Mark Curry, Daymon Wayans, Bill Bellamy, Alonzo Bodden, Richard Lewis, Eddie Griffin, Brian Regan, Jake Johanssen, Mo'nique, Bob Saget, Craig Ferguson, Bob Marley ...)for the Improv chain in Northern Cal and consistently win more local new talent contests (2003, 2005,2006, 2007 Winner and 2004, 2007 2nd place Rooster T Feathers competition, 2006 2nd Place 50 Mason/San Francisco Comedy Club and the 2003, 2004 and 2005 San Jose Improv "Battle of the Bay" competition and 2006 San Jose Improv New Talent Contest Champions, 2007 Clubhouse Champion, 2nd Place SF International) than all independents or those receiving training from other comedy teachers, comedy club classes, university, jr college in all Nor Cal combined. Unaffiliated comedians have trouble breaking from the Bay Area comedy scene and working nationally based upon the unique (atypical) trappings of Bay Area audiences, below average comedy coaches, bad career advice and exposure to poorly run rooms that can create poor performance habits that will negatively affect acts for years. Our staff with successful national and international comedy careers will help steer you clear of the many mistakes and bad habits perpetuated by the independent SF comedy herd. In fact, we are the only comedy school in America with a teaching staff of comedian/teachers that are still relevant and still being booked nationally and internationally! Where is all the SFCC comedy action? San Francisco Comedy College offers classes in two permanent Northern California locations (San Francisco and Sunnyvale) However, we do one of seminars and workshops all over the world. Should I take the free intro? Absolutely! We believe that you are entitled to complete information about what we teach and how you will benefit before you sign up. Call us! Toll Free...Pick up the phone... what are you waiting for????? 1 877 SF LAUGH/1 877 735 2844 or 415 921 2051       What should I look for in comedy instruction? Articles on evaluating stand up comedy instructors from Greg Dean - Author of 'Step by Step to Stand Up Comedy' owner/operator of the longest running Stand Up Comedy School in America: An Assessment of Stand-Up Comedy Instructors - Part One An Assessment of Stand-Up Comedy Instructors - Part Two   1. Free Intro Always get a free consultation or a free introductory class. Teachers that ask for money up front or ask you to work only during a certain time frame are unethical. 2. Your instructor in front of a crowd Watch your potential instructor work a crowd as it will answer a lot more questions than their press. Watch them teach and watch them perform; these are two different skill sets. However, claims that a teacher works only 'private' comedy gigs is an admission that they probably don't work at all. Ask potential instructors where you might see them before you take a class. You can see Kurtis Matthews at many gigs around the Bay Area, an SFCC free intro, Saturday nights in the 'Pro Showcase' at the SFCC Clubhouse or Nationally Touring with Comedy Addiction Tour and Joe Klocek performs worldwide and is a fixture at Cobbs and the Punchline in San Francisco. 3. Money Back Guarantee Question instructors that don't stand firmly behind their work. Money upfront in this business is unethical. If not satisfied with any of our sessions we'll gladly give your money back. 4. Instructor Resume There are a number of want to be "comedy" teachers that are writers, monologists, speakers, columnists, academicians, friends of famous comedians, students, failed real estate hacks, open mikers and booking agents. If your teacher hasn't headlined clubs, worked the road, and have an inner working knowledge of the current stand up comedy scene in all of America then you could be wasting much time and money. An instructor can only describe the road that they have been on and you can't teach what you don't have! Demand the performance resume of anyone that claims they can teach. It's your guarantee that the instructor might possess knowledge that you can use. Kurtis' teaching resume spans nine years and his performance career twenty three. Some say "Those who can't, teach" but what does one say about those that do both well? Kurtis' Resume 5. Comprehensive Career Support Does your instructor offer direct access to stage time? Can they help you with a problem that you may encounter 7 - 15 years into the business? If a teacher didn't have a lengthy stand up comedy career (vs short comedy and long teaching) they can't help you with unique problems that may crawl up in year 5, year 10 and so on. 6. Network Does the instruction provide you access to real comedy clubs and positive working comedians who are progressing in their careers? The SFCC comedy network will provide you with 5 to 10 times more stage time that you would not receive by working with teachers who work independently or have some indefinable self proclaimed connection with the comedy industry. We offer more stage time and paid work at real comedy clubs, independent gigs and private bookings ever offered by a comedy school in the United States and more than any club in Northern California. 7. Emphasis on Performance Will your instructor get you in front of people? Can they put you onstage at legitimate comedy clubs or have do they only offer stage time at their yoga studio, dingy cafe, or the back or their house? Stand-up comedy is an art form done in front of people and the ability to be funny in front of people is the essence of stand-up comedy. Poor instruction will put emphasis on writing material which may help you become a decent comedy writer but will not help one in progressing with their quest to become a powerful performer. Killer funny material and effective laugh points in a show are best created on stage. The comedian makes the material not the other way around. Most of the time, "Comedy is what happens between the punch lines". So, to focus on material only early in a career is to set your growth back years. 8. Integrity Does your instructor offer access to people that will vouch for their talent? Do they claim their events always sell out when they never have? Do they offer a 'comedy system' and only want to separate you from your money without hands on instruction? Do they sit in the back of the room and spew out empty comments about how to hold the mic? Do your instructors allow their work to speak for itself and allow you to find them or do they molest you as you come off stage at open mics? Finally, if your instructor is not a full time comedian, a full time comedy instructor or both, it is prima facie evidence that you are about to be scammed. Get referrals and ask working comedians for recommendations. We welcome and encourage you to do your research before you attend classes here. 9. Location and infrastructure Does your instructor have a legitimate safe public space to teach comedy or are they running a side business out of the back of their house? Location and the ability to succeed as a business speaks to the 'success' and quality of the program being offered. Come tour our facilities at our workshop and comedy club spaces in Union Square SF or Rooster T Feathers in Sunnyvale. 10. National network and exposure Do your instructors have a reputation in the business that would allow them to help you get booked nationally when you are ready? Does the school or instructor offer field trips to NYC, Hollywood, Chicago, Aspen, Improv festivals and points beyond? Do industry players like HBO and "Late Night with David Lettermen" come to your instructor to showcase talent? 11. Verifiable References from ex students If your instructor will not or can not provide verifiable contact info for students who they claim to have coached in the past or use ones' acting credits to somehow validate their ability to teach stand up comedy -- they are most likely frauds, morons or both. Intuition will tell you that most comics had a bad experience with the teacher or got nothing of value from them if their name is not readily available as a reference or on the instructors website next to the accomplishment.  Comedians that value instruction they received from a teacher provide links to their instructors and/or put them on their resume. 12. Bookings When the comedian is ready does the organization provide paying gigs and job placement for their students? We can and we do! Rich Stimbra and SFCC Entertainment is always looking for new talent and draws first and foremost from the SFCC talent pool. SFCC Entertainment has a large network of private, club and corporate gigs; feel free contact him at our main number! 415 921 2051 Is the Bay Area a good place to start your comedy career? Yes! SF much like Boston, Seattle and Chicago are great 'B' level comedy towns to hone comedic skills on your way to LA or NYC. Of course, if your goal is to stay in the Bay Area you can do that and have a nice career. As of Jan 08, there is a glut of weak comedians in the Bay Area, many of whom will have trouble finding work outside of Northern Cal. If you are decent talent working with us, you can find work most every night of the week and you will find the most at the Clubhouse in SF. Good stage time accelerate your growth like nothing else Don't I just need stage time to become a comedian? You can stand in water forever and never become a fish. Certainly, you can learn much being in many different situations on stage. However, if you are not forcing yourself to grow when you are out there and not taking advice from people that have been there, stage time alone will do nothing for you. There are many bad gigs all over America where you can learn bad habits as a comedian. Sadly, these habits will not help you get on TV or move into the higher ranks of comedy. So, bad stage time is detrimental and abusive to many performers. Many funny people quit too early in their careers as they take the wrong gig, on the wrong night and have no mentor to bounce their experience off... you can't good guidance on your own or from open mic level comedian who have never been out of their own little comedy markets. What else? All active students receive: (1) membership in SFCC online e-groups. (2) advance invitations and discounts to SFCC events and field trips (3) added stage time based upon seniority (4) make-up classes in San Francisco and Sunnyvale (5) graduation from the San Francisco Comedy College Clubhouse, Cobbs, or Rooster T Feathers (6) workout stage time at our primary and SFCC Entertainment affiliate rooms Another great thing about the SF Comedy College is that it's a safe place to experiment and be bad. Truthfully, the only way any comedian can become good is by being terrible at first. We'll teach you how to have fun while taking your baby steps and you will learn to suck in grand fashion for a little while. In any given term, the Comedy College in the Bay Area and our sister schools in Hollywood and Scottsdale have over 200 current students, and we're constantly adding to the ranks of successful alumni who work movies, radio, television, clubs and colleges across America. We are the only comedy instruction in Northern California that was chosen by the World famous Improv chain and Rooster T Feathers to develop comedians for their clubs in the South Bay, the SFCC Clubhouse was called "Best Comedy Club in San Francisco" by the (6/19/05) San Francisco Chronicle and we are the only comedy school in America that auditioned a talent pool for the HBO Aspen festival as well as hosted an audition show for "Late Night with David Letterman"! All that and a money back guarantee that you will be funnier!!!! University in New York and Toronto.