CLEVELAND — The Class Clown Comedy workshop has been teaching kids how to stand up and stand out in front of a crowd for six years.

“They learn the basics of stand-up comedy you know, how to, like, all the way from how to adjust a microphone to writing a set up and punch line, and you know working a stage and all sorts of different things,” said Steve Guy, executive director of the Cleveland Comedy Festival.

But this year, like many other things, it’s gone virtually due to coronavirus restrictions. Guy said it was important for the Class Clown Comedy Workshop to continue to give kids an outlet during this pandemic.

“Kids, who maybe feel like they don't get the opportunity to get heard, and what better way to be heard than with a microphone in your hand right,” Guy said.

Cait Hogan is the director of the Class Clown Comedy workshop, and said the weekly classes allow kids and teens to shed light on the coronavirus and other serious issues they experience, from their own perspective.

“If they wanted to talk about things they're going through them. I mean, there are kids who are sexually assaulted, there are kids who experience racism, there are kids who experience sexism, transphobia,” Hogan said. “You know any kind of trauma, kids are going through it and then they're going to school, so they need an outlet.”

Hogan said the shared experiences brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have made comedy more relatable and inclusive to voices young and old.

“Yes, you deserve a voice you deserve a space and when we come to during a pandemic , where now comedy is shifting. No one's getting left out,” Hogan said.