Pro joke smiths give school benefit boost
SUNSET PARK It’s not the Improv, but the annual Comedy Night at John Adams Middle School will hopefully be good enough.
In an effort to raise money for technology improvement initiatives at the middle school, the Parent Teacher Association is making its needs a laughing matter by staging its third annual Comedy Night on campus.
Five professional comedians — JAMS parent and event organizer Janine Hayes, Sarah Tiana, Christina Tazitsky, Courtney Cronin and Dan Smith — will perform pro bono, allowing the PTA to benefit 100 percent from ticket sales in efforts to secure liquid crystal display projectors and Smart Boards for classrooms.
Each of the comedians have performed in famous Los Angeles venues, such as the Laugh Factory, the Improv and The Comedy Store, as well as appeared on Comedy Central network shows. Some have even entertained the troops overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Comedy Night is held twice a year to fundraise for John Adams Middle School and Will Rogers Learning Community. Organizers are hoping that the event will sell out by tonight, netting the school at least $7,000.
“It’s really a magical evening,” said Hayes, who enlisted the help of her comedian friends. “You get to laugh for over an hour and walk out of there feeling awesome.”
The proceeds from the event should help first-year Principal Martha Shaw promote her efforts to improve technology in the classroom and enhance the learning experience for students.
“One of my goals is to improve kids’ access to technology,” Shaw said on Wednesday. “We have two computer labs, but we have 1,100 kids, so it’s hard to get them into labs often enough for teachers to use it as a teaching tool.”
At present, all the math classes at John Adams utilize the Smart Boards — interactive white boards — and the LCD projectors. The two tools come in handy during math instruction because it allows the teacher to prepare their math lesson on their laptop and project them onto a touch screen Smart Board.
Smart Boards combine the elements of a white board and a computer. The computer desktop is projected and applications can be controlled by touching the Smart Board directly.
Unlike chalkboards or white boards, where teachers can easily run out of room in the process of teaching a math problem, the Smart Board provides an infinite amount of space, said Glenn Sato, a sixth grade math teacher at JAMS.
“I can go on forever,” Sato said. But the best thing about the Smart Board is it provides a source of interaction between the students and the teachers. Students are invited to come up to the class and solve a problem using the Smart Board.
“Technology is definitely playing a much larger role in the classroom,” Sato said on Wednesday. “Most of the kids had experience with it in the previous grade. The number of kids (adept at technology) increases every year.”
Though organizers hope to raise up to $7,000, previous Comedy Nights have only attracted about 200 people. If the show sells out its 700 tickets, Shaw estimates the school will be able to purchase six LCD projectors, “I always knew since I was a kid that I would do stand up,” said Hayes, who has recently appeared on “America’s Funniest Mom” on
Hayes, who has performed stand up for four years now, grew up listening to Steve Martin comedy tapes as a child and aspired to do the same one day. Now, she is putting her craft to use as organizer for the school fundraising effort, luring some of her colleagues to sign on to the bill.
A producer and writer for several television dating shows, including “The 5th Wheel” and “Blind Date,” Smith started his career in comedy 13 years ago while still a student at Northeastern University. His first on-stage performance was at Nick’s Comedy Stop in the Theater District in Boston.
He’s performed in almost every major Los Angeles venue imaginable and has appeared on “Premium Blend” on Comedy Central.
“I love doing shows for charity or for a worthy organization,” Smith said on Wednesday. “If a friend comes to me and asks if I want to be a part of it, I will rarely say no.”
Fellow comedian and self-proclaimed “redneck,” Tiana, started in the field four years ago in Los Angeles, performing in the Comedy Store and a show every Tuesday night at Lucky Strike in Hollywood.
She is currently writing a pilot for a television show entitled the “Baseball Bunch,” a Saturday morning show for children.
“I do a lot of southern jokes,” the Georgia native said on Thursday. “It’s a lot of edgier material of being white trash, a redneck kind of thing because I am one.”
Comedy Night will be held at the John Adams Middle School Auditorium from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. at 2425 16th St. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 23, 2007. Read the original PDF.