Comedy classes are helping companies find safe spaces for frank, even awkward conversations
is the La Scala of laughs. In its 60-year history the vast comedy club on Chicago’s North Side has, by night, hosted acts by Joan Rivers, John Candy, Bill Murray and other giants of the genre. By day it offers wannabe funny folk workshops on how to make others giggle. Contemporary greats like Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are alumni. So, increasingly, are managers, marketers and a host of other corporate types.
Firms have used comedy as a way to hone their employees’ soft skills for some time. Their number is growing, reports Kelly Leonard, the club’s boss of “applied improvisation”. Its comics have worked with Twitter, Google and Facebook to find ways for brainy but tongue-tied software engineers to interact more easily with less tech-minded colleagues in sales or strategy.
Marketers and advertisers, for their part, are tapping comics for fresh ideas. The Second City’s corporate arm worked on a marketing campaign with Legget & Pratt, a Missouri-based maker of mattress springs. Farmers Insurance, a big underwriter, enlisted the club’s comedians to help produce a training video that staff would willingly watch.
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