CARE TO SHARE THE JOKE? : It’s OK to Laugh in These Classes . . . In Fact, Such Improvisation Is Encouraged

If your kids think lunch and recess are the only part of school worth smiling about, imagine how they’d grin if Cherie Kerr sat in the principal’s chair.

The director of the Orange County Crazies comedy troupe, Kerr thinks humor, specifically improvisational comedy, should get as much attention from school administrators as readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic.

Certainly, improv classes would garner a lot more laughs than, say, basic trigonometry, but it’s more than that. Kerr maintains that children who are given formal training in comedy can enhance concentration, problem-solving and interpersonal skills they can use throughout their lives.

She plans to demonstrate that in two improvisational workshop series at Orange Coast College: “Fun and Gains” for children 8 to 13 and “Spontaneous Comedy” for youths 14 to 18. The sessions began June 28, but students will be accepted late and will be given makeup classes; the program continues through July 14.

Participants will learn improvisational technique through exercises and onstage interaction with their peers and possibly members of the Crazies troupe. In addition to helping youngsters develop their own sense of comedy and timing, the classes can also sharpen students’ ability to think on their feet, Kerr said.

“A lot of what we do in these classes is mental aerobics,” she said during a recent phone interview from the Crazies’ Santa Ana headquarters.

“If you think about it, there isn’t a day in our lives that everything comes out the way we planned it; almost everything in life is improvised,” she said. “If you have greater mental agility, you can be more spontaneous (and) more creative in your problem-solving.”

Kerr cited an exercise she commonly uses in her classes: from a bowl, students draw slips of paper--each with a different, unrelated word on it--then build a routine about a fictitious company using the words.

“They’ll come up with something like ‘X-Ray Topless Tennis Shoe Company’ and they have to explain to a caller on the phone what their company is and why that person should buy their product,” Kerr said.

“The kids just go off into the wild blue yonder. The end result is something funny and very creative because there are no limits to it.”

Kerr said she is convinced that a young person who studies improv will be better equipped for any career as an adult. Her own start in improv came at the ripe age of 4.

“My older sister looked just like Shirley Temple; everybody fussed over her,” she recalled. “My parents--my mom was a dancer, and my dad is a musician--told me that one night, my sister started to do her cute little dance bit and out of nowhere, I took off on this nonstop stand-up routine; I was impersonating their friends and everything.

“They couldn’t leave; I even made them late for their gig.”

Although she may have only planned to steal the spotlight temporarily, Kerr’s comic explosion as a child was just the beginning. With only a few years’ hiatus during junior high and part of high school (“We had moved to a new area, and I was afraid my peers wouldn’t think comedy was so cool,” she said), and occasional career detours into journalism and copy writing, Kerr said she has been learning, performing, writing or producing comedy ever since.

A founding member of the popular L.A. comedy troupe the Groundlings, she established the Crazies in Orange County in 1989 and continues to serve as its head writer and artistic director. Through the Crazies and on her own, she has led classes for more than 20 years in improv comedy for adults, including a 10-year-old series designed to teach business executives to “be more human” and workshops for aspiring professional comics. She has also worked with children through schools and community groups around Southern California. In the near future, she said, she hopes to establish an improv performance troupe for children and youths, as well as a program for senior citizens.

During the course of her career, Kerr said, she has worked with such successful comics as Lorraine Newman and Phil Hartman but added that she’s been most inspired by the effect comedy has had on the lives of her own students.

“I remember one kid I worked with--he’s a theater major now--who was definitely on his way to self-destructing before 18,” said Kerr. “He wasn’t interested in anything, not sports, not schoolwork . . . but he was kind of a (wise guy).

“I started to pull it out of him and put him in parts that play to his character . . . and he just ran with it. Comedy really turned him around.”

What: Improvisational comedy workshops for kids.

When: “Fun and Gains” for ages 8 to 13 meets Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 10:20 a.m. through July 14. “Spontaneous Comedy” for ages 14 to 18 meets Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 to 11:50 a.m. through July 14.

Where: Business Education Building, Orange Coast College, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. “Fun and Gains” is held in Room 101A; “Spontaneous Comedy” is in Room 102.

Whereabouts: From the San Diego (405) Freeway, exit at Fairview Road and drive south.

Wherewithal: $45 per series.

Where to call: (714) 432-5880.