What Does it Take to Make a Kid Funny?

At Studio LOL they've had children who are painfully shy, hardly able to speak a word to strangers. They've seen them open up in a span of a few weeks.

The staff has seen children with short attention spans suddenly focus. They've seen students with poor grades improve their test scores. They've seen wild-acting disruptive clowns calm down quite a bit.

Laughter is the best medicine, assures Katherine Kraus, the owner of the comedy school for kids on Ventura Boulevard. In the storefront window, there's a small stage, brightly-colored walls and lots of young talent.

"We're not trying to create class clowns or smart alecks, that's not what we want to do," Kraus said. "But how do you channel that energy in children who are considered class clowns? We try to show them how to do it."

Their method of teaching is to remain playful. They don't want to teach children a slew of hilarious jokes through rote memory.

"We make it playful, we try to have them create their own style, their own jokes and develop their own sense of humor," said improv instructor Ryan Chase.

Through humor the have found how to calm children with Attention Deficit Disorder or behavior issues. They've also taught children how to do well on auditions at the local studio, especially for the upcoming primetime season.

"Probably about 85 percent are here just for fun," Kraus said. "Some are in the business, or they want to break into show business, but most of them want to just come in to learn how to laugh and make others laugh."

Kraus added, "This is not something you get to learn in school."

Chase said, "Teens and children love to improv and they  learn the sketch comedy routines through games that we play. They learn spontaneity, working together as a team, concentration, creativity and confidence."

One of the games they play is based on the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? And, they learn how to answer questions effectively.

The students learn how to study characters that they meet in every day life, and students carry a "comedy journal" that will help them gather their everyday observations and turn it into something funny.

But how do children learn how to tell jokes without bathroom humor coming into the picture, since that is what they see so often in TV shows and movies anyway?

"That's a challenge because they hear those things all the time, but we try to show them that they can do improv without pooh-pooh or booger jokes, and that the smart jokes are really cool," Kraus said.

They watch excerpts of The Cosby Show, which many of them have never seen, and they are all cracking up.

Chase said, "We have some basic rules about working teacher on a team, being brave and make grandma happy by keeping it clean."

Kraus said, "The kids get that this is an environment where they can feel safe and try anything out."

What they are doing at a young age is instill confidence that has become one of the biggest fears among adults: the fear of speaking in public.

"Adults spend their whole life suppressing this fear of public speaking, and it's a very genuine and common theme," Kraus said. "We are giving them confidence at 4 years old."

Chase added, "Some children are very serious, and some need to be encouraged to be funny. Some are inhibited about speaking at all, some said they won't do it if they have too big of an audience."

But, possibly, the funny superstar could come out of these classes.

Here's a Studio LOL Challenge:

You the readers can provide a PROFESSION, a SITUATION and an ANIMAL in the comment area below, and the students at Studio LOL will act out an improv especially for Studio City Patch.

So, send in your ideas below.