Our Comedy Class has been selected to be on “Canada’s 150th Birthday Celebration National Web Site!!!” I’m so honored. If you want, here’s the link. Check it out please and share the link if you can. The title of the story is, “Courage to laugh.” We’re the first story.

http://canada150in150.ca/browse-stories/community

I’ve been teaching Stand Up Comedy for 23 years. All the classes have been amazing, the different dynamic of each class, the learning curves, the growth I’ve managed to get on my end and the blessing of sharing everything I know with my students. My next class begins Monday August 21 at Yuk Yuks Edmonton. If you’re interested E MAIL ME: paulsveen@shaw.ca

I’ve said this before but. . .I always thought there was a “AHA!” moment in Stand Up. Just, one day, the clouds would separate and the comedy God’s would give me a tablet with all the ‘Comedy Commandments.’ Never happened! Breakthroughs happen because we worked for them. In no real order, here are some of the steps forward I have gleaned over the years:Story is the boss, tell my truth, tell my story, my theme and market brand are in my stories, tell the stories that embarrass me and reveal me. Write a premise out and then look for a story FROM YOUR LIFE that has this idea. Tag the story and share the story as a set/frame (I’m was a bed wetter. I used to wake up in a wet bed so many times my mom had to get a special industrial space age rubber sheet so I wouldn’t destroy the mattress. My childhood urine was like Alien Acid. It made wood rust! I wet the bed so much that my mom couldn’t keep up with the laundry. I used to wake up with wet long johns and put them on a bicycle wheel and spin it until they were dry and then wear them to school. That was weird. Looking back I think comedians wet the bed as a child because it helps us with shitting the bed latter as Comedians,

Being honest and asking what “you really feel” about a premise and starting there, with person stories and dark emotions and taboo points is how we find REAL punchlines. It’s work but this is where the rubber hits the road, ‘pun intended.’ I remember a decade ago, a young woman in my class who always had a hard time being herself in front of the class. We worked on it for 4 weeks out of the five week class. On the last day she began crying. I knelt beside her desk as others comforted her. She began telling us a story of living in a million dollar house and she and her sisters hadn’t ate in days. Her dad was using the home as a way to promote himself and his kids were starving. She began to compose herself and said, “I haven’t told anyone this, my friends, outside family members, no one! Only you in this class know this but she said it felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders. She shared her story on stage to a full house and received a standing ovation. She later told me that her studies improved and her social life and it also gave her the courage to confront her dad.

We need to be ourselves no matter what. It’s how we find our strengths and we can’t find them by being what others want us to be. When you follow you strengths/joy. . .you will always put yourself where you’re supposed to be!

You can see me on YOU Tube and on Face Book. If you’re looking for a comedian for your Christmas Party or Event want to be a part of my next Comedy Class or would like my Humor Workshop at your Business, E MAIL ME: paulsveen@shaw.ca