Annual Whitfield Lecture Features Actor and Comedy Writer

11/21/2017

Nick Kocher, an Emmy-nominated comedy writer and actor, spoke to Collegiate’s Upper School students during assembly this morning as this year’s Whitfield Lecturer. The Whitfield Lecture series, generously made possible by former Cougar parents Maha and Bryan Whitfield, has brought poets, singers, journalists and novelists to campus to talk about their professions for more than 10 years.

Mr. Kocher appeared in Joss Whedon's 2012 adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing and the final season of How I Met Your Mother, and has written for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He is currently a staff writer on Saturday Night Live.

Before he addressed the entire Upper School, Mr. Kocher held a Master Class session with 27 Upper School students, who submitted one- to two-page comedy sketches to be a part of the session.

“So much of good comedy is what is personal to you,” Mr. Kocher told the students.

He asked the class what types of things they found funny and walked them through how he would turn their amusing stories into possible comedy sketches. He stressed that students write about what's funny to them and if they want to pursue a career in comedy, not to wait for someone else to make it happen.

“Just start doing it in whatever capacity you can,” Mr. Kocher said. “But it needs to make you laugh. Don’t write to make other people laugh.”

Later in the day, Mr. Kocher also sat in on Upper School English teacher Vlastik Svab’s Satire class.

During the assembly, which Mr. Whitfield attended, Upper School English teacher Josh Katz introduced Mr. Kocher by showing one of the SNL skits he co-wrote, Broderick & Ganz. Before taking questions from students in the audience, Mr. Katz and Mr. Kocher chatted about his career and how he knew he wanted to follow his current path.

“I got good at making fun of myself. And all of these people laughing replaced the love of my parents,” he joked.

In all seriousness, Mr. Kocher said comedy was something he felt drawn to despite the uncertainty of the profession.

“I knew if I didn’t pursue it I’d regret it.” he said.

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