Meet Cary Odes of The Stand-Up Workshop in Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cary Odes.

Cary, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started out in comedy in Chicago, first with a sketch group and then on my own. My friend Joe and I accidentally got asked to join the workshops at Second City by director Del Close. We are both still living by the insights he taught us. I got into stand-up because I wanted to see if my jokes were good enough to sell to other people. I never thought I’d do it myself. But it was SO much fun and a lot of things fell together very quickly. I was working 9 shows a week and was headlining in Detroit and other places within a year. Then I got a chance to audition in Los Angeles for a new TV show. They flew me out and I was made a regular at the Comedy Store the next night. So my parents dreams of me becoming a dentist was smashed!

I did a slew of TV appearances and toured the country for over a decade. Then I got the chance to stay in town and entertain audiences at live TV shows. I was one of the lucky guys doing that a few times a week for another decade or so. All the time I was still performing at clubs, but I got pulled into some very fun work doing comedy at workshops and gatherings of writers and artists. So I’ve been lucky to be able to perform for some very interesting audiences.

Then in the early part of this century, a woman who was running workshops asked me to teach her classes for her. I tried it out and loved the experience. I worked for Judy Carter for 7 years, teaching all her classes until she closed that down. So a little over 6 years ago I started out on my own. The classes grew slowly as I learned how to market and run the business. But the students have been exceptional and they are really ones selling it to others. I just answer the phone. I’ve never really advertised, and now we have a steady flow of funny people.

I work really hard to make sure everyone has an amazing experience and that the really learn the skills they need. I’m not just a cheerleader for mediocre jokes, I make sure they have an act that I would be proud to do myself.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Everything in the beginning was hard. I had to create a website, and I knew NOTHING about that. I didn’t have a mailing list or any ideas how to find new students. I never used Mailchimp, or put of a Facebook page for my classes. And all of those things required pictures and copy. After I’d run a few classes I started to have the resources I needed. I take professional quality stills of each of my student’s performances while they’re onstage on top of giving them HD video. So now I have an amazing trove of images to choose from for my mailings.

I already knew how to teach, that I was sure of, but the business was all a lot of learning. Luckily one of my students was a master at marketing and he critiqued each of my fliers. It took him a long time to drum the basics into my head. I thank him every day. Now I can knock out the things I need in minutes instead of hours.

I’m lucky to have a very long relationship with the Improv, where we do all our showcases. They have been one constant I didn’t have to struggle for.

There was a time in the beginning that I had to pray people would call for classes. Now there is are people coming from all sorts of unexpected places. I’ve had a student call from Sweden. Another come to work with me all the way from China.

Please tell us about The Stand-Up Workshop.
The Stand-Up Workshop teaches anyone to create and perform a killer set of comedy in 7 weeks, culminating with a showcase at the Hollywood Improv.

I’ve never thought of how my style of teaching compares to others, since I don’t take classes from anyone else, (though a few teachers have taken classes with me.) I set out to teach the kind of comedy I would like to see, which is smart, insightful, honest, and brave. I teach students that every word counts and that every image you create can be powerful and memorable. Just putting together a series of unrelated jokes is not the same as looking deep into your life and pulling out the most intriguing things yours struggling with and laying that out for the crowd. You can create a character that will stand out and be noticed.

What I’ve learned from students who’ve sampled other classes in town is that no one else is doing it like we are. Most classes are just cheer-leading the students to make them feel good, and then their family laughs with them at a show and they’re done. But after my showcases, the mangers at the Improv consistently tell me that we put on the best shows they’ve seen, and I think they can be as good as some of the regular shows at some clubs. That makes me feel proud, to know that I’ve given students training that can help then in the world of real comedy. I’ve kept in touch with many of my students, some of whom are now working professionally in the clubs. They tell me they still use the 5-minute set we crafted as their closing bit, because it’s such a well-crafted piece of strong material.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite memories as a kid was being funny with my friend Joe. He was insanely funny, and I always wanted to be as funny as he was. We played with making funny audio tapes on my dad’s reel to reel tape deck in our basement. He did an improv rant that went on for 5 minutes and I was just in the background laughing like an idiot. Later on, I realized how rare this was and decided to write down everything funny we did after that. That become the basis for a lot of great material.

Pricing:

• 7 week class plus showcase and HD video – $399
• Private one hour sessions in person or Skype – $120
• Out of Town Package 5 online sessions and travelling to LA for showcase -$650 (not including travel)

Contact Info:

• Website: thestandupworkshop.com
• Phone: 310-383-5246
• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/105805009501975/

Image Credit:
Photos by Cary Odes and Peter Marr

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