They come from all walks of the working world to learn stand-up comedy.

But to date, no one’s given up their day job. Comedy can be a tough gig.

Just ask the police inspectors, chartered accountants, engineers, financial advisers, company CEOs and entrepreneurs – all mopping their sweaty brows under the hot spotlight at the Cheers Project (www.cheersproject.com).

“I’d say that about 70 per cent of the people, when they get here, aren’t funny,” says Derek Wilken, who founded the Calgary-based company in 1995. “About 20 per cent are funny, and about 10 per cent think they’re funny.”

Larry MacDougal, Business Edge
The three-member comedy team of Susan Veale, left, Ebony Walker and John Simmons share the spotlight – and the yuks – at The Cheers Project.

The eight-week stand-up course is one of many facets of the Calgary-based business that offers keynote speeches, workshops, online training and help for people with disabilities to build confidence and self-esteem.

Wilken and his wife, Melanie Grace, have literally taken their business act from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, and regularly teach companies and organizations in Edmonton, Red Deer and Calgary.

This month, on Tuesday nights, business is even closer to home. In fact, it’s in the basement of the couple’s southwest Calgary home, where they’ve established a comedy club training centre replete with stage, speakers, spotlight and couches.

It’s where they teach many corporate leaders, who in truth are learning to improve their speaking skills and add humour to their presentations.

Few expect to be the next Jerry Seinfeld.

As part of the course, they are taught to overcome stage fright, how to handle a microphone, build a routine and how to appreciate the sunny side of life. “They come here to learn to be funnier,” says Grace.

“And it’s such fun to see them develop and tap into that side of themselves.”

At the end of each course, the dozen or so participants hold a show at the Blackfoot Inn. The crowd averages 300 people, mostly family, friends and professional associates. No hecklers allowed.

“Some people do it and they are thrilled,” says Grace. “They get a videotape of their performance and they never go on stage again . . . it was just something they always wanted to do. Other people are keeners. They can’t get enough. They do all the amateur nights at Yuk Yuk’s, they get booked all over the place and their free time is almost like a second career.”

Bruce Lee falls into the latter group. Since graduating from the course 20 months ago, Lee has performed his comedy routine more than 20 times, has landed paying jobs and cheerfully contributes to fund-raising events.

Not to be outdone as the only joker in the family, his mom, Margo, is another Cheers Project graduate. She’s a spry 82 and performed recently at a San Diego conference.

Lee, 52, is president of Calgary-based Custom Learning Systems Group, a firm that specializes in customer satisfaction and staff retention with a primary focus in health care.

“As a training company, one of the things we do is help speakers,” says Lee. “If they want to deal with stage fright, learn to put material together, to have impact, we tell them that stand-up comedy is a great way to fast-track (their skills).”

The course has made Lee more creative with ideas, and he tends to be more aggressive in making anything he does more fun.

“At our company, our trainers try to make our presentation humorous to get people into a mood . . . when you get people laughing with you, or at you, you get the endorphins going and the audience is put in a greater state to learn. So that’s always beneficial.”

But it’s not just business professionals that humour helps, says Grace.

The same techniques of stand-up comedy are taught to people with a wide range of physical, mental and developmental disabilities.

For example, the Epilepsy Association of Calgary uses the program.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people with epilepsy are unemployed or underemployed,” she says. “They have self-confidence issues, social isolation. It (stand-up comedy) tends to be a little more on the therapeutic side, helping people cope.

“We’ve found that if you talk about your problem in jokes, then people learn, but don’t feel like they are being beat over the head with it. So they’ll listen. It’s edutainment – educating and entertaining.”

Like the professional business group, the epilepsy foundation holds a show at the Blackfoot Inn.

The evening serves as a fund-raiser, creates awareness, is therapeutic – and, of course, fun.

One interesting byproduct is that people taking the course realize that they are not alone in their suffering, adds Grace.

“They begin to empathize with others, and they become more tolerant.”

Grace knows firsthand the therapy that humour provides. It helped her in a difficult period when she’d lost her job, fiancé and mother. With a background in psychology and education, she teamed up with Wilken in 1998, and now “analyses why his jokes are funny, or not.”

Wilken explains that his own career was formed out of adversity. In the early 1980s, he owned an oilfield business that collapsed when the price of oil plummeted.

He became a stand-up comic, and has never looked back.

The idea behind the business is to help people laugh their way to fun, good health and success by awakening their “inner nut,” he says.

Whether it’s a bank teller dealing with an irate customer, or a middle manager balancing the needs of a boss above and his staff below, humour helps companies large and small.

Wilken adds that one of the great benefits about teaching working professionals stand-up comedy is that they’re the ones who can bring humour directly back to their company.

Leaders have the power to instil a more light-hearted culture. And besides, who isn’t going to laugh at their jokes?