Blind Tiger Comedy’s stand up comedy classes in Vancouver are perfect for beginners and more experienced performers alike. You do not need to have performance, writing or acting experience. If you do, well, you’ll have opportunities to use those skills. But everyone will be united around a single experience: learning how to share what they find funny with the world.
Our Stand Up 1 courses are led by some of the best professional comedians in the city who are also skilled teachers. They will guide you from the idea phase all the way through writing, rehearsing and eventually your very first show. You’ll make friends, be offered a welcoming space to experiment, and laugh your way to a very funny stand up setlist of your own.
And if that show makes your stomach feel a certain way, don’t worry! By the time you get to your showcase, you will have developed, refined, and rehearsed to the point that you can enjoy one of the best experiences in life: getting laughs from a live audience.
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What You’ll Learn in Stand Up Class
Stand Up 1 is so fun and approachable that it will more often feel like a great hang with (new) friends than it will a proper class. And yet? There will be tons of learning. You and your classmates will dig into how to:
– Write original jokes and find your comedic voice;
– Connect your unique perspective with audiences of all types;
– Understand the structure of a joke: premise, setup, punchline;
– Work on timing, delivery and stage presence;
– Perform your new jokes in a relaxed, confident way; and
– Use customized feedback from your teacher
At the end of the course, you’ll have a tested, tight stand up set of your own that you can stroll right into the rest of the Vancouver stand up scene and our higher level classes with.
What to Expect
The majority of our Stand Up 1 classes are structured as eight-week courses with 2.5 hour meetings each week, leading to a show after your seventh or eighth class. There are the occasional Stand Up 1 intensives where the course is complete in five weeks for folks who have a tighter schedule.
For a lot of folks, the notion of “expecting” the show is a big barrier to joining the class. Here’s a few things to keep in mind: you will have already practiced your set several times, received strong and supportive feedback on every detail of it, and even have rehearsed how to move the stool and hold the mic. You will be blanketed in helpful tips and a warm group of fellow students who are learning with you.
In that context, our students love their final show experience. The crowds absolutely love our shows, and there is simply nothing like getting a group of adults to laugh at a joke you wrote about your dog, the bus ride you take every day, your gender expression – whatever makes you laugh.
All of our classes take place in the lower mainland, primarily in Vancouver at one of our partner studios: for example 120 Princess Avenue, China Cloud Studio, Carousel Studios on Granville Island. You can see more about these venues on our venues page.
We offer classes at all times of the week, in different parts of the city, and are always adding more (we announce a new batch of 4-6 stand up 1 classes every three months). You can see the full list, and read more about the curriculum of Stand Up 1, on our classes page through the nice red button here:
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Who Teaches Your Stand Up 1 Class in Vancouver
It is our passionate belief that comedy should be taught by comedians who are actively working in the comedy scene (not, say, folks who last performed years ago). Not only that, but every one of our faculty are distinguished leaders in their field – we dare you to find a more fun, established group of comedians teaching in Canada.
Our stand up team is no exception, with teachers who you will recognize from CBC Comedy, Just For Laughs, Vancouver Pride, all sorts of TV screens, and almost any kind of comedy show you can imagine.
In addition to their skills as comedians, we take seriously that teaching is an art unto itself – every one of our teachers is carefully trained and arrives ready to support you and your classmates in your learning, your riffing and your time on stage.
How to Get Started
Registering for a class with us super easy.
1. Find the class that fits your schedule.
2. Click Register Now and you’ll head to our Eventbrite page.
3. We’ll be in touch within two business days of you grabbing your Eventbrite ticket so that you can check out and sign our Anti-Harassment Policy and Comedy Class Guidelines.
4. You’ll get a friendly welcome email 1-3 days before your class with all the fine details.
find my classScholarships & Inclusion
We take inclusion very seriously at Blind Tiger! Comedy has been an unsafe space for lots of folks for many years, and one-third of our mission is to actively welcome folks who are under-represented in comedy. So if any part of your identity, your access needs, or your finances are barriers to your participation in a comedy class, we would love for you to check out our inclusion page.
We have scholarships in every single class we run and the only thing we don’t like is when someone decides not to reach out about getting involved. We have a very easy five-question, quick-as-hell scholarship form to fill out and then we get in touch with some options for you. So c’mon in, the water is fine, and we’d love to have you!
One last thing. Maybe you’re reading of all this and thinking: I actually think I want to try improv? We’ve got that too, you can read more about it here.
