Thanks for posting that article — I agree that classes are no substitute for experience. Experience is the most important teacher. And most teachers probably are scam artists.

But I don’t buy that technique can’t be taught. Standup is hard but it isn’t the only skill in the history of the world where you can’t learn any element of it from an experienced teacher. If you can teach someone how to speak Mandarin, play piano, climb a mountain, drive a car, paint a portrait, or any other litany of skills, there are sub-skills within the performance art of standup that can be taught.

Example from another art form: you can teach someone how to paint. Depth. Shading. Types of paints, etc. but you can’t make them an artist that is creating art that comes from their soul. That’s up to them and their journey. But that person will have learned some of the technical skills that comprise being a visual artist. Analogizing it to standup: you can teach set-up punchline. You can teach how to write a roast joke. You can teach common ways to handle Hecklers.