Cascade High’s funny teacher for a good cause

Let’s just say I never had a teacher as cool as Mr. Michaelis. You can find comedy clips of Cory Michaelis online. At a Tacoma club, he’s joking about awkward dating moments. At a Cascade High School talent show, he’s wearing a fedora and dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”

Amid bursts of laughter, you can see just how funny he is. Michaelis will soon bring lots of laughs to the scene of his day job. Tuesday evening, the teacher will join students and others performing stand-up at an “AVID Comedy Night” at Cascade. The 7 p.m. event is a fund-raiser for AVID, a college-readiness class at the school.

Michaelis, who teaches history and AVID at Cascade, organized a similar event in 2012. Brian Moote is the scheduled headliner of this year’s comedy night. Featured on the Click 98.9 FM “Mornings with Jackie, Marco and Moote” show, the radio personality has also been on MTV’s “Money From Strangers” and Nickelodeon’s “NickMom Night Out”.

Michaelis, 34, has nurtured his own show-business career for years. In November, the teacher was among the top five finishers in the Seattle International Comedy Competition. The contest featured 33 comedians — “cut down from more than 700 applicants,” Michaelis said — performing over 26 days at 18 venues, from Bellingham to Spokane. The final competition was Nov. 30 at Seattle’s Comedy Underground.

“I made the finals. I didn’t win,” said Michaelis, who also recently auditioned for the NBC show “America’s Got Talent” and received a call back the same day.

Over spring break, Michaelis will leave his Cascade classroom for a week-long gig at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Fans of “Everybody Loves Raymond” will recall Garrett as the hulking brother of Ray Romano’s character on the CBS comedy.

“It’s one of the best clubs in the country,” Michaelis said. Garrett hosts part-time at his Vegas club and invites other comedians in to fill his big shoes. “I’m hosting. It’s exciting to be doing that,” said Michaelis, who also hosts free Wednesday night comedy shows at Tulalip Resort Casino.

His mother and other family members plan to join him over spring break in Las Vegas, he said. Cindy Michaelis, his mom, is a paraeducator at Everett’s Hawthorne Elementary School.

Comedy is his aspiration and avocation, but Michaelis is devoted to his students and to AVID. A global nonprofit program, Advancement Via Individual Determination is a class that helps college-bound students. “Generally, AVID helps students who are the first in their families to go to college,” he said. “They are possibly low-income, and many are students of color.”

Participating students attend AVID classes every day, all four years of high school. “We work hard to get them to be the best possible high school students they can be, and try to get them involved on campus,” Michaelis said.

The program includes weekly tutoring sessions and an emphasis on note-taking.

Money raised at Tuesday’s comedy show will help pay expenses for AVID field trips to college campuses. The benefit will also help buy supplies and fund SAT and ACT exam preparation.

“If kids need a pencil, I’ve got it for them. A spiral notebook or binder, I’ve got it for them,” Michaelis said. It’s important to learn responsibility, but Michaelis said he and other AVID teachers work to remove any barriers to learning. “My first AVID group graduated in 2013 and have gone on to do well. One comes in and tutors once a week,” he said.

Cascade’s other AVID teachers are Erin Acheson, Jodi Worthington and Bev Nyberg. “We want to get them on stage, too,” Michaelis said.

At least three of his students plan to get up on stage and do some jokes Tuesday. “I’m trying to coach them up. It takes so much nerve, I can’t imagine,” said Michaelis, a Cascade graduate.

How hard is it to find humor in this era of ISIS brutality, the threat of Ebola virus and other horrible news? And although Michaelis said most comedians oppose any sort of censorship, he has the challenge of finding jokes appropriate for high school kids.

“In general, you get more work if you can keep it relatively clean,” he said. Michaelis leans toward “a lot of silly, absurd observations,” along with common experiences that ring true with a crowd.

“Stealing anyone’s material is the worst thing you can do in comedy. The way to handle that is to talk about our lives,” he said. “The hope for me is always to get people to think.”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Comedy at Cascade

Cascade High School will host “AVID Comedy Night,” a fund-raiser for AVID, a college-preparation program, at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Cascade’s cafeteria. Performing will be Brian Moote, from 98.9 Click FM, Cascade teacher and comedian Cory Michaelis, and Cascade staff and students. Cost is $5 with student ID, $7 without. The school is at 801 E. Casino Road, Everett.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.