Funny girl: Smithville teacher takes stage as stand-up comic

The petite young woman stands at the front of a room, trying to make people laugh. But it’s a tough crowd, and she knows she has to be really good at what she does to elicit laughter.

You might think Brooke Naumoff is performing stand-up comedy, but actually, she’s teaching English to a roomful of teenagers. In her eighth year at Smithville High School, she takes her profession seriously.

“And I love to hear my students laugh,” she said.

But wait. Naumoff really does perform stand-up comedy. In her second month at the mic, she’s making crowds roar, recently advancing to the amateur finals at The Funny Stop in Cuyahoga Falls. She also has appeared at The Matinee and Club Quantum, both in Akron.

The daughter of John and Cindy Madding of Marshallville, Naumoff has always enjoyed entertaining. She participated in drama during middle school and in her church’s drama team ministry. As a Smithville High student, she wore over-sized sunglasses and a feather boa on Career Day because she wanted to become an actor.

“Brooke views life with humor, and she’s always been one for an audience,” John Madding said. “As a little girl, she would put on plays and dances for my wife and me, sometimes dressing up her little brother too. It was always ‘watch me, watch me.’”

After committing to attend college in California, Naumoff changed her mind, not wanting to be that far from family. So after graduating in 2007, she majored in English at Liberty University in Virginia and at the University of Akron, then earned her master’s in teaching at Liberty.

But she never gave up her dream of performing. During summers off, she trained at The Second City, from which she also took online comedy-writing classes and completed an improv-intensive course in Chicago.

Naumoff also has focused on more serious matters, exchanging vows in 2012 with high school boyfriend Ted Naumoff. The couple lives outside Orrville with their 4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

But Naumoff finds time to study her craft, listening to podcasts about comedy, reading comedians’ books, and watching their interviews, movies and specials. She also is taking online improv classes through The Groundlings, a Los Angeles comedy school for which she had to audition and whose alumni include Will Ferrell and Melissa McCarthy.

Naumoff’s English education comes in handy with writing her stand-up routines. She makes notes of things she finds funny, mostly involving making fun of herself for the silly things she claims to do, then sits down and tries to form them into a narrative.

“I can write a five-minute set in 30 minutes to an hour, but the redrafting takes some time,” Naumoff said.

Naumoff's husband serves as her first audience. “He’s great. He’ll play a laugh track on his phone, then give me notes on how I can improve,” she said.

“I enjoy it,” Ted Naumoff said. “Brooke has always been funny. She’s naturally quirky.”

After rewriting, Brooke Naumoff’s final rehearsal takes place in front of Ted and the children with their living room fireplace as the stage backdrop.

“At this point my daughter can finish my jokes if I hesitate,” she said.

She counts on her family’s support during her actual shows as well.

“Ted is my ultimate hype man," she said. "He will drive anywhere for an 8:30 show in the middle of the week to listen to jokes he’s already heard. My brother provides feedback. My parents share ideas. It’s become a fun family thing.”

“I think Brooke needs this creative outlet,” Ted Naumoff said. “It’s good for her soul.”

Megan Scarbrough was initially surprised when her best friend since second grade said she was going on stage, but she told Naumoff she was made for this.

“She can come up with witty things on the fly," Scarbrough said. "Even as a child, she was always making people laugh.”

Asked what gives her the courage to put herself out there like this, Naumoff said talking every day in the classroom likely helps, although she said students really are the tougher crowd. But she’s never feared public speaking.

“When I’m on stage, I’m enjoying myself. I’m energized by the audience,” she said.

A bonus has been the friends Naumoff has made on the Northeast Ohio comedy circuit. “You run into the same people, and they’ve made me feel so welcome,” she said.

Her pursuit of her comedy goal is no laughing matter. While family is priority, she would love to ultimately earn a living by making people laugh. Her husband also is in it for the long haul.

“Wherever this might take her, we’d make it work,” Ted Naumoff said.

“Stand-up comedy was a bucket list thing,” Brooke Naumoff said. “It’s fun and challenging. I like laughing, and I love making others laugh.”

While the pandemic has decreased her on-stage opportunities, Naumoff was selected as one of 100 comedians worldwide to perform virtually at the New York Underground Comedy Festival in December. Tickets may be purchased at www.nyundergroundcomedy.com/. She also was invited to host at The Funny Stop on Dec. 16, and she has been interviewed as a new Cleveland-area comic for the podcast, Brown Petri Dish, episode 17, titled Brooke Naumoff.