What's the number one rule of comedy? Marc Yaffee says it's to “know your audience.”
Considering his line of work before becoming a full-time stand-up comic, he was possibly doing his old audiences a favor as he developed his current craft.
"My comedy truly manifested itself on a professional level when I started teaching traffic school classes and drivers education courses,” he explains. “I tried to make the material as entertaining as possible and my students seem to appreciate my humor. Or, maybe they just pretended to in order to pass the class."
Yaffee, who will be performing 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, May 25, at Potawatomi Hotel & Casino's Northern Lights Theater, had a feeling he could tickle funny bones long before he used his gift to make driving instruction amusing, but he suppressed it for some time. “I remember my first comedy skit was actually in fourth grade,” he recalls of the education his adoptive Mexican and Jewish parents gave him. He adds, “However there weren’t a lot of opportunities to express my humor in a strict Catholic school environment.”
Even amid that parochial pedagogy, he was able to glean humor from pop culture. “I grew up in the golden age of television with a lot of amazing sitcoms like All in the Family and Sanford and Son. That kept my love of comedy and good writing a constant into my adult life,” he says.
Yaffee also believes TV is one reason the crowds he plays for can appreciate his routines, which are often based on culture clashes (some inspired by his ethnic makeup). “Media expose people to so many other ethnic groups and cultures, I think people are able to understand and appreciate ethnic humor more easily now than in the past. Plus, I try to paint a good word picture, so an audience can relate even if they may not have personal connections to my subject matter.”
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“I don’t stray too far from my basic jokes,” Yaffee continues, “but like any comedian, I always try to adjust for my audience. For example, if I’m at a reservation hundreds of miles from a major airport, I’m not gonna do much airline material.”
Regardless of the audience and topic, though, he keeps his material family friendly. Or at a PG-13 rating level, anyway. On delivering a set that doesn't bombard an audience with profanity, Yaffee offers, “I think working clean just suits my personality. I have dropped a few F-bombs before, but in most cases, there’s no need to do that, and it’s not really something I would do off stage.”
Neither does his material rely on political or other cultural factionalism that can divide people in already often divisive times. “I think, given the current political and social climate, bringing different people together feels like the right direction to me. If I can make some social and political points that I feel need to be said without denigrating or bashing certain groups, then I’ve done my job.”
And though it doesn't have to be part of his job description, Yaffee generously offers guidance to up and coming comics, perhaps especially those who share his Indigenous background, “I have been fortunate to be an inspiration to some Native comedians out there. Mostly by the fact that they can see someone of their ethnic background working in front of audiences and earning a living doing it. I’ve not been a direct mentor to any Native comedians, but I’ve always tried to freely give my advice and my support when possible.”
Here's a bit of Yaffee from earlier this year wherein he takes on white supremacism. Hollywood's continued ethnic miscasting and sketchy touring accommodations:
Milwaukee’s Mojo Dojo is Now Ampersand
Just as Marc Yaffee once educated motorists and now assists fellow comedians on the rise, Milwaukee's own Mojo Dojo Comedy has not only taught many people improvisational comedy and produced a wide variety of improv-based shows, but also trained people to become more effective communicators and productive employees with the same sorts of skills they can learn to be funnier.
With the breadth of what they do in mind, Mojo Dojo has changed their name to Ampersand Theater Company. And from the verbiage of the press release announcing the switch, the new moniker is a sensical one.
From that release: “An ampersand is a logogram representing the conjunction ‘and.’ The ampersand represents unbridled potential. The fundamental building block of improvisation is YES AND: affirm what’s offered to you, then add something to it. When a group of people work together to build a scene this way, the possibilities become infinite.”
Mojo/Ampersand are hosting a “Student Showcase,” at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, at Urban Harvest Brewing Company, 1024 S. Fifth St. For more information visit ampersandtheater.com.
