Comedy with Andy Taylor (and some musical theater work with his wife Alette)

Andy Taylor taught the students comedic techniques during week #4. I wish I had been able to spend more time in his classroom. His lessons focused on timing, use of deadpan, playing off other cast member's strengths, "reading" an audience, and injecting a bit of the unexpected into a performance.

In this exercise, students were given jokes to read to the class, to practice their timing and the use of sound effects and inflection. When it was Jenna's turn, she asked the question, "well, what do you do when you think the joke you're supposed to tell just isn't funny?" This turned into a hilarious improv lesson where just practicing the non-funny joke turned into a funny joke in and of itself. I had to put my camera down at one point because I was laughing.

Jenna makes an offhand remark to her teacher...in any other class this might have warranted a detention...

In this class...not so much....Andy stopped, turned to Jenna and said, "Now THAT'S funny!"


Then gave her the big high five...


This then turned into a lesson on delivering these types of jokes, interpreting the joke, and reading your audience in order to get the best reaction as possible. Andy also talked about what to do when seemingly funny material fails, and referenced the late Johnny Carson as a master of this. In his nightly monologue, some jokes just inherently weren't as funny delivered as they looked on paper. Carson always had a snappy comeback, often in a self-denigrating way, to save the moment. This was good to remember...



FYI--Andy's shirt is a print by the late Rudy Autio, an amazing artist from Missoula who passed away in recent years. His work in printmaking and ceramics is known around the world.

Part of Andy's classroom time was taught by his wife, Alette, who helped the students run through various musical theater dance routines (such as the "Telephone Song" from Bye Bye Birdie, and "Dancing Queen" from Mama Mia. Alette has a TON of energy, and her enthusiasm for dance was amazing.


The day I photographed Alette, she was teaching the students the routine for "Dancing Queen". It was great!


This is Andy and Alette's daughter, Lucy, who was just a riot. She patiently sat with me on the dance studio floor while her mother worked and I took photographs. She even commandeered my camera for a few shots and finally looked at me, holding this huge camera and lens and said, "Wow...that's a big camera...do you know how to use it?" She was just too sweet. And she LOVES to perform. It was hard for her to rein in her dancing shoes as well as she begged her mother to let her join in...she eventually sneaked in at the last minute. I just LOVE this image. Future Next Step Prepper, I think!


Thanks Andy for your insight and wisdom into the art of comedy!

And thanks to Alette for her great instruction in dance for musical theater, and for Lucy and Ruby, who often stole the show! You are both amazing people, and you have a beautiful family.