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.
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