By Matt Levy [Medium]
Comedy careers don’t begin in geometry class. It’s just not a funny place — theorems and angles don’t inspire laughter. Somehow, one comedy career was kicked into high gear in a geometry classroom when comedian Joe Naughton was a sophomore in high school and his teacher, Nettie Amaruso, told him if she tutored him his last semester, she would pass him. Naughton knew a good deal when he heard one and agreed to the terms. Amaruso’s final test had three questions. Naughton got the first question right; he missed the second one. As for the third and final question, Joe answered correctly but Amaruso told him “Your paperwork makes no sense.” So, she added a caveat to the deal. Amaruso would pass Naughton if he promised to never, ever take another math class in his life.
She told him, “Go off and make speeches, stand in front of an audience!” Amaruso then … [read full article here]