About Stand Up and Learn

Stand Up & Learn (formerly ProjACK Comedy) is an educational program comprised of a series of lessons using video and interactive worksheets to engage students in creative writing, communication, and critical thinking as well as team and confidence building.  Stand Up & Learn is the first stand-up comedy program developed for high school students, with an emphasis on writing comedic stories and bits.  The program is currently being implemented at Nantucket High School, The Gateway School in New York City, the Deveraux Glenholme School in Washington, Connecticut, and at the Cape Cod Conservatory.

Created and hosted by professional comedian Kevin Flynn, with the help of nationally known author and educator Michael DiSpezio and award-winning producer A. Dean Bell, the instructional videos teach students to analyze everything from the psychology of humor in What’s So Funny? (lesson #3), to the subtleties of pace and timing in Telling Stories (lesson #18). The course topics offer students the opportunity to practice an assortment of communication skills essential both on and off stage. Each of Stand Up and Learn’s twenty lessons reinforces the elements of comedy as they relate to real life. Some skills include:

  • LEARN about the psychology of humor, and what makes something funny
  • APPLY creative writing skills to comedy
  • EXPLORE the art of story telling
  • ANALYZE performance clips to understand what makes effective comedy
  • WORK in cooperative team environments
  • CREATE original material from personal experiences and distilled from current events
  • PERFORM an original routine in front of an audience
  • LEARN to deal with hecklers

Lessons Include:

  • The setup and the Punch
  • Formulas… Kind of
  • Telling stories
  • Current events
  • Laughs per Minute
  • organizing Your Routine
  • Memorizing Your Act
  • Stepping onstage

Board of Directors

Tim Braine, President
Kevin Flynn, Co-Founder, Executive Director
Sarah Alger, Vice President
Bruce Miller, Treasurer
Franklin Levy, Secretary
Kate Brosnan
John Buckey
Donick Cary
William Ferrall
Jill Karp
Lynda Levy
Chris Mazzilli
Karen Rainwater
Judy Seinfeld
Dan Wolf