From classroom to stand-up comedy, teachers take to the stage

Chicago Tribune

19-02-2025

From the English teacher who recites a poem to help memorize prepositions to the science teacher's monologue about the importance of conservation, teachers are often the first performers we encounter in life.
So maybe it's no surprise that some of them have made the move to the stage.
After all, says Andrea Forcum, teaching a class and performing stand-up comedy both have the same goal. 'We're all just trying to get everyone in the room on the same wavelength, and helping everyone see the point of view that we're looking through.'
This month, Forcum, a former high school teacher and currently a professor at Indiana State University, is joining forces with two other teachers, Gaspare Randazzo and Philip Lindsay, for a show titled 'The Teacher's Lounge' at the Chicago Improv in Schaumburg. Randazzo is a New York-based comic; when not performing, he teaches history at a high school on Staten Island. Lindsay, a special education teacher from Arizona, is known for his recurring segment 'What the Kids are Saying' on NBC's 'Today with Jenna and Friends' and his viral TikTok teacher content. The trio have gotten to know each other through being 'in the same online teacher comedy space,' Forcum says, for several years.
Forcum has amassed more than 600,000 followers on her Instagram and TikTok accounts with her teacher-focused content, but 'The Teacher's Lounge' will be her first in-person comedy show. She said she is looking forward to having a live audience.
'It's honestly so fun getting to share the kinds of struggles and challenges we deal with as educators in a comedic space where other people just kind of get it,' she said.
All three comics have connections to the area. Forcum says Chicago is one of the biggest demographics among her followers, Lindsay has family in the city and Randazzo has performed here several times before.
But this trio won't be the first group of educators to take to Chicago stages. The shows 'Teachers Gone Bad,' 'Bored Teachers' and 'Chicago's Funniest Teachers' have either recently appeared on or are coming soon to Chicago stages. Forcum says it's easy to understand why a teacher would make the jump from classroom to comedy.
'Trauma breeds comedy,' she says with a laugh. With a national education system in flux, students still adapting to the years of COVID-style remote learning, and the ever-growing emphasis on technology in the classroom, Forcum says working through her hardships helps 'make the profession livable.'
Chicago comic Mike Atcherson understands this as well. Atcherson is a cast member of the Lincoln Lodge's comedy showcase and has performed across the city at Laugh Factory, The Comedy Bar, and The Hideout. After having worked customer service jobs for years to support his comedy career, in 2023 he became a behavior therapist to help students on the autism spectrum prepare to enter classrooms — work that's bolstered by his time on stage. He says that performing for as long as he has helps him to be fearless when faced with whatever challenge a student must confront. Both his audiences and his students 'are just looking to have a good time. Nobody wants to have a bad day at school or work.'
Atcherson says he much prefers his time with his students to other day jobs he's taken. He works with the Action Behavior Centers service provider and says that through his work he'll 'have an effect on someone's life in the future.' And while he does occasionally draw stories from his day for his material, to his students, however, he's just 'Mr. Mike.'
'They'll never see me performing,' he laughs.
He knows he can count on these stories to connect with an audience, saying he often has fellow teachers approach him after shows to tell him how much his sets meant to them.
Atcherson and Forcum have that in common.
Audiences, Forcum says, want to support teachers, understand the work they do, and empathize with their daily struggles.
'Even if you're not a teacher yourself, you've had a teacher and you've seen the impact of teachers,' Forcum says.
As she prepares to take the stage as a comic for the first time in front of a live audience, Forcum says, she's not nervous. After all, as Randazzo and Lindsay reminded her, 'You can't bomb worse than you do in front of your students already!'
Ryan Trimble is a freelance writer.