As USC professor, Wayne Brady brings improv comedy expertise to class

El Belilty isn’t surprised by much. As a theater major with an acting emphasis in the USC School of Dramatic Arts, Belilty comes from a world of rehearsed lines and memorized scripts. Which is why the thought of improvisation was terrifying.

In order to graduate, Belilty is required to take the School of Dramatic Arts’ “Camera and Improvisation” course. As Belilty’s first foray into improv, an art form that is all about reacting to the unknown, the first day of class served as the perfect lesson. There was no instructor listed for the course, so when the students walked into their first class of the semester, they encountered a major surprise: Wayne Brady was their teacher.

“I had my very private fangirl moment, because I didn’t want to freak him out,” joked Belilty, who uses they/them pronouns. “It was really shocking to walk in and see Wayne Brady teaching.”

Brady is best known for his longstanding role on improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, his theater work in The Wiz and Kinky Boots, and as the host of Let’s Make a Deal. However, he has been an educator for arguably longer than his entertainment career: He began teaching improv classes in his late teens. Now, the Emmy Award winner has stepped into the realm of academia and hopes to share his years of experience with his students while also learning from their unique journeys.

“I love teaching. I think the arts is one of the only fields where the more you can impart the information you know, the better it’ll make you,” Brady said. “When you see other people implement the things you’re talking about, it inspires you, and then you get on stage and you do it. It’s this really amazing cycle.”

Wayne Brady at USC: A life of performance and teaching

This course is different from any of the traditional improv classes Brady has previously taught, as it has a strong emphasis on acting, with improvisation being secondary.

“This whole curriculum is to give them a working actor’s perspective on auditioning, on breaking down a script, and using improvisation to build out their characters,” Brady said. “It’s different, because this is all to help them work [in the industry].”

Brady understands the needs of the young actors under his tutelage because he has been in their shoes. Having started doing improv in Florida when he was barely younger than most of the students he teaches today, Brady also taught classes at the SAK Comedy Lab in Orlando, Fla., and vividly remembers the awkwardness of teaching something that he had barely started doing.

“Even then, I realized that I was good at the science of play, the science of improvisation,” he said.

Brady leveraged that knack for “play” into a successful career in entertainment. In addition to his 21-season run on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, he also hosted The Wayne Brady Show and Fox’s Don’t Forget the Lyrics! Brady also had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother, as well as appearances on The Masked Singer, Chappelle’s Show and Dancing with the Stars. He is also a member of Freestyle Love Supreme, an improvisational comedic hip-hop group that has collaborated with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda.

“I told them the first day of class, ‘I’m talking to future professionals, so I’m going to treat you as such,’” Brady said. “I’m telling them things specifically that — after 35 years in show business — I know will work.”

The call to academia and advising the next generation

For Brady, the journey to teaching the “Camera and Improvisation” course started with a missed connection.

Last year, the School of Dramatic Arts invited Brady to speak at its commencement, but due to his commitment to The Wiz on Broadway, he was unable to attend. When Brady asked how he could make it up to the school, administrators asked if he’d teach a master class on campus. “I jumped at the chance to come and give a master class, and it was a resounding success,” Brady said. “It was so much fun that I started the conversations with the department about what if — pie in the sky — I came here and taught a [semester-long] class?”

In January, he started teaching as a faculty member at USC — unbeknownst to his students until the first day of class. Belilty and Brady both laugh about the experience today.

“I walked in, and was like, ‘Why does he look familiar? What is going on?’” Belility said. “Then it all dawned on me, and I just said, ‘Oh my gosh, this is actually insane.’”

For other students, there was a clear sense of fandom in the class, which Brady said had to be worked through. While he appreciates that many of his students are also fans of his work, he is glad that as students settled into the course after a few weeks, he went from Wayne Brady to Professor Brady, to — as he prefers it — just Wayne.

“The first class I tried to put all that out of the way, because I don’t want their experience to be affected,” Brady said. “As soon as I walk onto this campus and in that classroom, I’m being of service. I’m here to be of service to your education.”

For students like Belilty, walking into class to see an Emmy winner as your instructor is why they chose USC.

“It’s a uniquely USC experience,” Belilty said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to learn from Wayne. He is super insightful and funny and so good at what he does — it is really enlivening and inspiring to be in his class.”

For Brady, being a part of that experience for students is why there is no other place he’d rather teach.

“I’m such a fan of the USC [dramatic arts] department that I want to, at some point, go back to school, and I want to do it here,” Brady said. “So, to come to USC and be on the faculty — what an amazing introduction into the world here.”