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For These ISU Students, Homework is a Joke

Len Matthews
/
Flickr

In high school, Nick Seymour never saw himself doing stand-up, but once when he got the opportunity to take a class in comedy at Iowa State, he figured it'd be a fun way to spend a semester.

"At the beginning, I didn’t know there’d be a performance associated with it. The teacher shocked us all the first day with that information. Everyone freaked out for awhile."

That teacher is Gavin Jerome, a stand-up comic who retired from performance to teach. He says that though the benefits of stand-up to education are not immediately obvious to most, he's seen it play out with dozens of students. 

“It’s about learning how to write, learning how to think on your feet, learning public speaking skills, learning self-confidence,” says Gavin Jerome. “You grow so much as a performer, and if you can make somebody laugh in a room that’s daring you to make them laugh, you can do anything academically you want.” 

In this Talk of Iowa interview, host Charity Nebbe talks with Seymour and Gavin Jerome about Comedy College and the student comedy club it spawned.

Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa