9 minute read
Teacher with jokes
LEARN TO LAUGH
A MIDDLE SCHOOL SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHER
AND STAND-UP COMEDIAN
Story by CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB
Photography by JESSICA TURNER
K.C. MACK IS ON THE FAST
TRACK to stardom. One of six teacher-comedians on the Bored Teachers Comedy Tour, he’s bringing slightly irreverent sidesplitting humor to stressed-out educators in live audiences and online. The special education instructor at Lake Highlands Junior High says no matter how famous he becomes, he’ll never leave the classroom. After all, that’s where he finds his best material.
Like any worthwhile comedian, Mack’s jokes reflect real issues including a shortage of teachers (“we’re losing a lot of teachers, it’s true, but the ones we want to leave won’t leave”), a lack of nurturing from the “powers that be” (“Analogy time. When you plant seeds in gravel and don’t water them enough, all you grow is weeds, and not the good kind.”) and holding students accountable for misbehavior (“I bribed a chubby kid with a Snickers to tell me everything he knew”). As he puts it, “I keep them laughing so we aren’t crying.”
He spoke with the Advocate during Teacher Appreciation Week about his performances in and out of the classroom.
DO YOU FEEL APPRECIATED?
(Lengthy sigh.) Yes? Yes, I do.
HOW DID YOU WIND UP BEING A MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHER?
I started in Lake Highlands back in 2018, working in the Richardson ISD XPlore after-school program. I’d been touring, doing stand-up comedy part time, and a good friend in RISD introduced me. I liked teaching, so I became a GED and English as a Second Language instructor there in Lake Highlands while I also pursued my comedy career. One of the things I’d do with the kids was make videos, so we always liked doing that. But my tour was cut short because of the pandemic. By the time inperson school resumed this past school year, I was teaching special education at Lake Highlands Junior High. And I’ve signed a contract to continue next year.
WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A STUDENT?
Let’s just say, karma is real. Yeah, I was a bad child. When I got to college — finished up at Abilene Christian University after a couple of years in community college — I was always the go-to guy for things like hosting, speaking, emceeing events. It was actually a teacher who said I should do stand up. I was like, really? I know I am regularperson funny, but not professional funny. But she encouraged me, helped me build my first website and really was responsible for getting me in that mindset of going after the stand-up career.
WHAT COMEDIANS INSPIRED YOU WHEN YOU WERE GROWING UP?
I love Jamie Foxx, Bernie Mac and Martin Lawrence. And Richard Pryor and other greats. The teachercomedian Eddie B, of course. And then Seinfeld and anyone who did observational comedy.
WHO IS YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE?
Teachers and their regular-person friends. Because what happens is teachers force their husbands to come to the show, but they’ll end up coming up to me like, “oh my gosh, I’m not a teacher. But man. Yeah. I love the show.” The material
YOU HAVE A CATCHPHRASE THAT YOU SAY IN MOST OF THE VIDEOS, RIGHT?
Yes, so, here’s the thing, I use a lot of satire and I say “I hate it here.” I sometimes have to explain myself. I don’t mean I hate it at the school or in this profession. It’s a turn of phrase that refers to this headspace I’m in, the reflexive response to a momentary frustration. I am in the drive thru and get the wrong order, so I hate it here. My fries are too salty — hate it here. It’s a reaction to this speck of time. And it’s a joke.
COMICS CALL OUT REAL PROBLEMS AND ISSUES — WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST ONES YOU ARE SEEING?
Comedy is tragedy. Things like the teacher and sub shortage, kids fighting, the impact of gas prices on the income of a teacher who has to drive every day — all things we laugh about in order to keep from crying. It’s funny because it’s true, you know? You’re talking about the elephant in the room.
WHAT’S YOUR PROCESS?
It’s different for the tour than for the videos, but the material comes to me in different ways, but being in the school every day, there is always something, a story to tell or the roots of one. The content comes at you every day. I embellish for comedic effect. But it stems from real incidents that happened. I never liked to force it. So if I don’t drop a video one week, that’s why. They are so much funnier when they come to me organically. I love these videos because they write themselves.
HOW DID THE PANDEMIC CHANGE YOUR TRAJECTORY?
Yeah the cancellation of my personal tour was a hit. But that sent me back to teaching, and the classroom is where I find my best material. I was planning back then to leave teaching and go fulltime comedy, but now I know I will never leave teaching. That’s the gold lesson I learned from COVID was not to ever take teaching for granted. Leaving teaching is something no matter how successful this thing gets, I am not leaving the kids. I’m in it for the long run.
YOU JOKE ABOUT THE KIDS, BUT IT’S OBVIOUS YOU REALLY LOVE THEM.
It’s funny because even though the catchphrase is “I hate it here,” sometimes at the end of the videos I want to say I love it here. I love these kids so much. They’re like my little brothers, my adopted sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, like family.
CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT THE COMEDY TOUR AND WHAT ELSE IS COMING?
Bored Teachers is a platform for content creators who are also educators. It’s informative and insightful with a humor component, funny memes and videos. I became a creator with them in 2018. There were talks back then about a tour with the top influencers on the platform. So once things started getting back to normal and things were opening back up, they assembled the team — like The Avengers, you know, the best our nation has to offer in teacher comedy. We started the tour over March spring break. And then we went up to New York City and just had a show at the Palladium in Times Square. It was very exciting. Very fun. And we will be here in Dallas June 17. And then we are going international. We will go to Australia and Canada. I love this because it gives me an opportunity to take it from the classroom to the stage.
Also in the works, I am writing and producing a movie. We’re in preproduction and we’ve signed Brandon T. Jackson to star in it. He’s in Tropic Thunder and Big Momma’s House.
See teasers for K.C. Mack’s movie at summerbreakmovie.com. The Bored Teacher Comedy Tour hits Dallas June 17 at the the AT&T Performing Arts Center.
The 50th anniversary of a big moment in gay rights passed recently.
The New York Times acknowledged Dr. John Fryer, the psychiatrist who took the stage at convention of the American Psychiatric Association at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas on May 2, 1972, and said “I am a homosexual. I am a psychiatrist.”
Fryer was wearing the disguise of an oversized tuxedo, a rubber mask and wig, and he introduced himself as “Dr. Henry Nobody.”
From the newspaper: The 10-minute speech, delivered 50 years ago May 2, was a tipping point in the history of gay rights. The following year, the A.P.A. announced that it would reverse its nearly century-old position, declaring that homosexuality was not a mental disorder.
The story describes how activist Barbara Gittings convinced Fryer to speak on the topic, as well as how his life and career were hindered by discrimination.
He was fired from a residency at the University of Pennsylvania and had to complete it over many years at a state-run psychiatric hospital, the only place that would accept him.
After that, he remained quasi closeted and never had a close romantic relationship, the newspaper reports. Those who knew him say he rarely talked about the speech.
The Kentucky native was recognized in his home state of Pennsylvania before his death in 2003, and This American Life told his story in 2002.
Fryer did eventually find professional success, gaining tenure at Temple University and helping to pioneer hospice care. But he never became part of the gay movement, and he always felt that his career was not what it could’ve been if not for discrimination, the newspaper reports.
As he told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania: “I did this one isolated event, which changed my life, which helped change the culture in my profession, and I disappeared.”
Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography courtesy of the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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SUB SOLD SOLD Year-To-Date Year-To-Date Avg Days on Avg. Sales Avg. Sales AREA APR ‘21 APR ‘22 Sales ‘22 Sales ‘21 Market YTD Price YTD ‘21 Price YTD ‘20 1 5 1 7 16 12 $473,857.00 $389,062.00 2 9 9 26 35 16 $390,267.00 $302,790.00 3 6 7 27 28 21 $356,526.00 $313,879.00 4 26 16 71 81 24 $302,471.00 $227,811.00 5 7 8 29 27 32 $372,886.00 $363,269.00 6 4 2 6 13 37 $686,757.00 $534,357.00 7 4 2 7 12 37 $686,757.00 $534,357.00 8 7 8 25 24 21 $637,986.00 $557,038.00 9 3 3 5 14 20 $554,550.00 $551,386.00 10 15 5 16 31 36 $567,000.00 $545,406.00 11 1 1 3 5 5 $831,833.00 $785,410.00 12 4 0 5 9 4 $783,400.00 $606,656.00 13 15 10 33 45 24 $508,404.00 $454,686.00 14 4 1 12 8 13 $622,950.00 $482,375.00 15 11 5 18 29 21 $586,333.00 $461,092.00 TOTAL 121 78 290 377 323 $8,361,977.00 $7,109,574.00 AVG 8.06 5.20 19.33 25.13 21.53 $557,465.13 $473,971.16
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*Statistics are compiled by Ebby Halliday Realtors, and are derived from Dallas Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Numbers are believed to be reliable, but are not guaranteed. The Advocate and Ebby Halliday Realtors are not responsible for the accuracy of the information.
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