Inside The New School’s Comedy Club Club
At The New School’s Wollman Hall, you can hear self-induced chuckles from a distance floating from the up-and-coming The New School’s Comedy Club Club, a club that specializes in comedy typically seen at comedy clubs. Currently run by Andrew L. Miller, first-year liberal arts major at the Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts student, the group is fighting its way into the comedy industry and making its name known any way it can. Without any official major in comedy at the University, Miller has reclaimed his middle initial to stand for “laugh” with the revamp of this club.
The real excitement comes from the hidden gem of the comedy club, its faculty advisor Ellen Cleghorne – an NYU Doctorate, New School Professor, and the first Black woman to get a contract with SNL. “The most important thing is building a community. Find your tribe, and you will grow with your tribe. What this cohort is doing is really finding their tribe and making their dreams a reality,” Cleghorne said. She has been graciously mentoring the group and is in awe of their determination; “[Comedy] is hard work. You have to be willing to do the work and to be honest.”
The club was initially founded during the 2021-2022 school year by Nick Caroll, a 2022 New School graduate who has since moved to California to pursue comedy production and writing. “I originally heard about the club through Cleghorne. I took her You’re So Funny: Comedy and the Performance of Self class last semester, and she sent us a link if anyone wanted to be an officer for the club.” Miller said. The club was halted during the strike and was left vacant, but with a need for humor in the community, Miller filed the proper paperwork and got the ball rolling this semester as the current club president. “Let’s just make this as big as we possibly can. We’re here, and there are people that want to do this. Everyone wants to be famous,” Miller explained.
The club is slowly growing each day with the help of its colorful social media advertising. “Instagram has been very vital. I think we’ve gotten a great 400 followers in less than a week,” Cooper Traluch, the vice president and first-year screen studies student at Lang, said. Posting multiple times a day, whether it’s to promote a future meeting or share a moment from their improv sessions, the club’s Instagram has done an exceptional job and conveying their joie de’ vivre.
Cleghorne has seen the origin of this club and its current revamp. “Last year, I was teaching You’re So Funny and my students had an opportunity to write and perform at the end. They really wanted to perform more … and I said what you need is your own comedy club,” she explained. The club meets weekly, sometimes daily, to workshop their skills and catch up to comedy greats. “We’re going to start doing improv on Friday nights. James Koroni is gonna be leading. He’s got a lot of experience from the pit,” Miller said. Koroni is just one of the many industry insiders, like Aaron Augenblick and Michael Shoemaker, that the club members have been able to meet through Cleghorne’s connections.
The club has had a vibrant approach towards inclusivity that is notable throughout their Instagram. Throughout the month of February, the club has been paying homage to black comedy, kicking off with a screening of Eddie Murphy’s “Coming To America” in Wollman Hall, a movie picked specifically by Ellen Cleghorne. “There has never been a real Pan-African discourse in film, until ‘Coming to America.’ There was no place for us to express our love for Africa through a love story and a rom-com,” Cleghorne said.
The club has also been adamant about uplifting underrepresented women in comedy. Every Wednesday they have a women’s only writers workshop run by third-year Culture and Media Lang student, Nicole Desmond. Desmond had previously worked at The Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, notable comedy theaters, and quickly realized her need for powerful voices in female comedy. “I feel like the women’s writer’s room is only the beginning. It’s so important to let everyone get their ideas on the table. Everybody deserves an opportunity to share their experience,” Desmond said.
The joy that comes from comedy is best seen through the way this group runs its weekly meetings. The group convenes similarly to an interactive workshop that creatively invigorates the mind. Most of the work the comedy club is doing right now is leading up to the recording of their first late-night show, “New At Night.”
“I definitely want to fill up Tishman [Auditorium] as much as we can,” Miller said. Dates and tickets have yet to be announced, but can be expected soon as they gear up to record live before the semester ends.
This small group is preparing for the work ahead and looking to succeed. “There is power in collaboration which allows for us to make something bigger than any individual person might be able to do on their own, but also can assist an individuals’ development in their own writing and work by looking at things from other perspectives,” Miller said. The club looks forward to expanding and creating a humor magazine and projects that include all parts of the university. Cleghorne believes in the future of young comedians, especially those at The New School. “My students are just amazing, they don’t complain, they just go out there and do the work and they inspire me,” she said.
If you’re interested in participating in The New School’s Comedy Club Club, check out their Instagram page for upcoming meetings and events.