Traffic violators sit at desks, sipping coffee and orange juice. The comedian steps up to the dry-erase board at the front of the room and greets everyone while students review their citations. All comics come out to L.A. to do television and film, and they find that traffic school's not a bad gig. In addition to teaching classes at the Improv Traffic School, Sweeney has appeared on Comedy Central and has performed live at clubs such as Hornblower's in Ventura. I got out of stand-up for a while, and when I started to get back into it, all my friends were great.
Comedians get exposure and money, and people get to have a good time.
Plenty of producers, directors and industry people have to attend traffic school, so it's a good way to make contacts. After serving as an assistant district attorney in New York for two years, Kasper gave up on the legal world and headed west to do stand-up. They both teach about six traffic-school classes a month for the Improv Traffic School. Stand-up ain't what it used to be. Things have definitely changed since the big comedy boom in the 1980s.