theres no way comedy school is a real thing, right?
There's actual "comedy schools" out there, a lot of people have likely heard of The Second City, Upright Citizens Brigade, The Groundlings, etc. many of which commonly serve as "schools" for shows like SNL and such. Most of these top tier ones teach you multiple angles, not just acting, but also writing, working in groups, budgeting (underrated!), etc. At the best ones they're really really competitive and even people like Will Ferrell have struggled to get through.
There's also plenty of lower tier "comedy schools" (
especially in LA and NYC) that you basically just pay for to help round out your resume as an actor so you can say "oh yeah I have comedy experience" at auditions. Then below that you can find stuff like improv classes in almost any major city. But unless you actually go and pursue comedy career wise these two tiers are pretty meaningless other than the connections you make. (That first tier, if you can complete it, almost assuredly gets you somewhere. Even if you never rise above say, a staff writer.) Dave Chappelle did study theatre arts in
high school, but for comedy he just went out to open mic nights and did that for years upon years. Which is a much more traditional stand up career path.
PlanetSmasher does not "work" in comedy that I know of, by his own posts in another thread he said he basically has worked off-stage in theatre (and some film) for 15 years. I have a feeling that he paid to go to that middle tier school as a resume builder but he, like most of ResetERA, thinks it makes him expert rather than the actual real world experience of Chappelle, Norm MacDonald, Bill Burr and others he's criticizing in that thread for "not getting" comedy. He certainly doesn't do anything
intentionally comedic on the forum. Compare to, say, Fat4All who at least tries again and again and again and again...
