By Kevin Jiang

On Tuesday, Nov. 26, the Stand Up Comedy Club held its first meeting in the GP stage. The club invited alumnus Dan Ahdoot—a successful comedian—to share his experience and insights with club members. Ahdoot is currently a recurring character in Disney XD’s show Kickin It and has made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Ahdoot shared advice with the club on how to succeed as a professional comedian.  Focusing on stage presence, Ahdoot elaborated on the importance of staying calm after receiving a bad reaction from the audience. Ahdoot believes that bad reactions are “all part of the learning process,” and can help make a comedian stronger. In addition, Ahdoot stressed the importance of each student learning to find stories in his or her own life through mind maps.
“I think this club is a great idea. It’s definitely a very unique way to introduce students to the art of comedy, which they would not have the ability to experience otherwise,” Ahdoot said.
This successful meeting wouldn’t have been possible without the effort of club president sophomore Noah Harouche. Harouche attended a stand up comedy summer course at The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City and fell in love with comedy. Harouche was inspired to form the club to expose other students to comedy and share his passion with South. Harouche hopes to hold a show similar to Fashion Show and International Night where members of the club can perform in front of a school crowd.
The club’s main objective is to introduce students to stand up comedy and help them discover the “comedic” moments in their own personal lives. Each week, Harouche plans to assign a topic to discuss during the following meeting. Club members will be given the opportunity to develop a joke related to the topic and perform it at the next meeting.
“We are really trying to spread fun in South, and hopefully lessen students’ stress through comedy. Although right now most of the club’s members are from Theatre South, as time goes on, I hope more people will join the club and share the fun with us,” Harouche said.
Meeting every Tuesday after school, The Stand Up Comedy Club hopes to host more guest speakers in the future.