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It's Tuesday night and I'm at a funeral. Whose funeral? I have no idea.

A woman I've never seen in my life is gripping me around the waist as she mimes hysterical crying. I attempt to comfort her while avoiding the flailing arms of someone else, who throws herself over the space we are assuming is the coffin. Welcome to acting class as taught by "ranney."

"ranney " is a stand-up comedian, actor, and slam poet native to Florida who is on hiatus from the glitzy life of gigs at venues like the Apollo and performing wildly successful comedy troupe acts like The Bomb-itty of Errors all over the world.

For now, he's decided to take some time to teach Tampa's up-and-coming comedic talents.  The youngest of nine children (and the only boy not to become a minister), "ranney" knows how to create a familial atmosphere in his classroom that provides both the comfort and the brutal honesty needed for constructive advancement of the craft.

After gaining some perspective by becoming a student for one of his two hour sessions on improvisational acting at the Patel Conservatory, I sat down for a drink with the man himself to talk about his upcoming workshop for stand-up comedians, which meet on July 12 and July 19.

So, before we get started, I need to know.  Why don't you capitalize your name?  It really bothers me!

(Laughs)  [That was given to me by] George Randolph. He ran the theater program at Polk Community College (now Polk Stage College) from pretty much the early 1970s up to just a few years ago when he retired. I was there as a student in '87 and '88. I worked with him as a performer, writer, musician, choreographer, director, and several other capacities for the theater sporadically in a span of about 10 years.

The name --  It was for several reasons. One, because he thought I did so much in the performing arts at an exceptional level, he came up with the idea of giving myself different names for different credits, separating them from onstage and offstage. At first it was just Ranney Lawrence onstage and R. M. Lawrence offstage. Then, in response to a very personal and emotional happening in my career behind the scenes (that I'm still not ready to share with most of the public), George began lowercasing and putting my name in quotes to credit me as a performer as a reminder that the performer is just a part of who I am and never to take myself too seriously.  As eccentric and odd as it may seem at first glance, the whole thing is to keep me humble. Believe me, it does. I never forget it.

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You know, all of these [referencing also performance name Mr. FunnyBlackMan] are given. The Illuminatus was given to me by a close friend called Ize Ofrika, who we lost in 2004. We were very close as spoken word artists, and he dubbed me that one night at the Improv right over here in Ybor.

So, how similar will your comedy workshop be to the acting class I just sat in on?

Oh, very different. The most similar thing is that it will be very interactive, but with my stand-up comedians, there will be a lot of workshop exercises to be done as individuals to prep them on how to write.  I’m always saying to young comedians that at best, they’re going to be at the mic  for a total of 30 to 45 minutes at the weekend, so what do you do for the rest of the week?  It’s about making sure that you spend your time cultivating your ideas and it’s different for different people.  George Carlin would type every word up the way he wanted to perform it, and that’s exactly what you’d see.  Richard Pryor would write an outline on Monday and by the time he  got to Saturday night, it would become an entire event that he built on his feet.

If someone is toying with the idea of maybe pursuing stand-up comedy, what qualities would you have that person look for within themselves before deciding to take the plunge and register for your workshop?

Well, aside from a sense of humor, if someone has a passion for comedy, and that doesn’t necessarily mean wanting to pursue a career, it can help with just the basic ability to speak. I often have students who do a lot of public speaking as representatives of companies or lawyers or preachers and I tell them the same thing. However you want to use it, it’s up to you, but know that I’m training stand-up comedians.

How hands on to you intend to be with the material your students produce?

I’m a very hands-on teacher when it comes to helping my students finding the best way to develop their material, but with material itself, I keep my hands off.

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Well the real question there is, “Where do I go with this material?”  So, I will help them build it, and when they get to that fork in the road, we all have our lines.  Even those of us who consider ourselves edgy comedians still have our perimeters, that place we’re not going to go. Often it’s not until it’s finished that you’ll know whether or not you can pull something off, and you’ll know. I can’t know better than the comedian what’s best, which is why I’m hands off with the material.

Where are you more hands on in the teaching process?

In the sense of persona, personality, and finding your technique. I like to get in there and tell the comedians whether or not I feel like they’re being truthful and honest with themselves. I had this young guy in one of my classes a few years ago with a great bit, but he couldn’t figure out where to go with it. Now, I saw about ten different directions he could’ve taken this thing, and it’s a perfect example of me being glad I never mentioned any of them, because once he found his way …  he’s a surrealist. I have surreal material, but I’m not a surrealist. When he came up with his punch line, it was nothing I would’ve ever come up with. It just shifted the entire bit into a different direction and it much better suited his material.  I could’ve given him a punch line that would’ve gotten laughs, but I never could’ve found for him what he came up with on his own, which was the honest representation of who he was as a comedian.

I also feel like every young comedian who comes into a class right now wants to be, for example, Dane Cook. Well, that’s great, but we’ve already got one of those. It’s going to be hard to get work at a venue where you’re imitating someone and they can always just go book the real thing. You have to figure out who you are as a comedian.

You did a lot of work in the UK and Ireland, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Did you find that British comedy and the British audience’s take on comedy affected your approach?

That’s a hard question to answer because I think it was me arriving on that scene at a time when I was already heading in a certain direction, so I’m not sure if that’s … um … the Chicken or the Egg (laughs). That's a little plug, there.

I’m actually going to say yes. I can tell you that one thing I noticed that was huge to me as somewhat of a stand-up comedy historian, I was so aware that when I saw the UK comedy scene in 2002 and 2003, it was in my opinion, and I mean this in a very positive way, where [the USA comedy scene] was in the 1960’s. Their comedy scene was at such a heightened sense of consciousness …

Which comedians specifically?

Daniel Kitson, Reginald B. Hunter, who is actually from Georgia, but started his career over there so he is a UK comedian, Dara O’Brien, Paddy Courtney, Des Bishop, who is Irish American but moved to Ireland when he came of age, Jimoen … I could go on and on.  I was just so aware in 2002. I thought, “Wow, this is what I read about, but was too young to experience.” There was this palpable energy saying that these people were more than just one-liners. They had something to say.

What are you doing with your workshop that you think is different from the average stand-up comedy seminar?

Well, they always say you can’t teach stand-up comedy, but I disagree. You can’t teach funny. You can certainly teach stand-up. The class is going to be focused on writing and performing with a heavy emphasis on weeding out, professionalism, and how to carry yourself. It is incredibly important that if you’re going to be an edgy comedian or an alternative comedian that you save it for the stage. Don’t be a dick in the lobby. Bill Hicks wasn’t a problem in the comedy club. He waited in the corner, quietly, and didn’t rant until he got on stage. We are also going to talk about how to build a comedy set, which is advanced and not something you’d find in an average workshop.

What type of exercise would you have a potential student do at home to see if this is the type of thing he or she is cut out for?

Cut up a newspaper and put all the pieces in a hat. Set a timer and turn on a recorder. Don’t try to be funny, but talk consistently about every topic you pull out of the hat as a launching point. Keep at it for at least an hour. You’re going to find out what you really care about. You’re going to realize that there are certain subjects that you thought you cared about and could talk about for hours that you really don’t. It is draining, but it’s going to force you to confront who you really are.

Interested in giving it a go? Sign up for the workshop through the Patel Conservatory. The class is $110 and will run for two hours on July 12 and July 19.