The Wolaski Brothers | My Beginning in Corporate Comedy

written by: Todd Marcel Doram

- TD

For two high school class-clown wannabes, selling cars at a BMW dealership 10 to 12 hours per day 6 to 7 days per week wasn’t exactly the most ideal personality fit. But in 2006, just 2 short years after college, that’s where Jason Withee and Todd Doram found themselves. Filling the long hours with humor was an essential part of life on the Los Angeles car lot. Making our co-workers laugh beat back the stress of the job and pressure of making our monthly sales quota. This is the situation that began an informal but very real entry into becoming corporate comedians. Having a good sense of humor is something we should all enjoy. A few jokes with the fellas at a birthday party, breaking your buddy’s chops on the golf course, or ripping on your uncle with the cousins at a family gathering makes life fun. These are familiar jokes with fairly low stakes.

On the other hand, making a group of employees laugh in a setting where HR could be called—that’s a skill that requires adhering to a critical element of comedy…knowing your audience.The goal of corporate comedy is to get on board with what THE WHOLE AUDIENCE thinks is funny, not something niche with your one co-worker. So this was the challenge presented to Jason and me as we sought to make our sales team laugh at our weekly Wednesday morning sales meeting. Picture a 7am meeting led by our General Sales Manager and attended by the dealership's General Manager. The pressure of sales quotas came from BMW Corporate in Germany, down to BMW National in the U.S., down to the dealership’s General Manager, down to the General Sales Manager, and down to the Sales Team.

Does this sound like an atmosphere that’s ideal for “comedy”? That’s just the thing: an atmosphere that tense is the exact place corporate comedy can thrive, because comedy exists in tension. Premise sets the stage, the setup builds the tension, and the punchline cuts that tension with laughter. So with a perfect stage, Jason and I wrote 'The Wolaski Brothers' as a character-driven spoof on the stereotypical “Used Car Salesman” that we all think of when we think of this culturally esteemed profession. 

These “characters” gave Jason & Todd permission to air out some grievances that all the salespeople had with our customers, products, and even our bosses. So with a dealership-wide Halloween costume contest as our excuse to take over the meeting, we got our costumes, we had the audience, and all that was next was to deliver our well-rehearsed lines. It was satisfying to win the costume contest that year, but our real prize was the laughs of our co-workers and the launch of our new side hustle, Corporate Comedy.

Since then, we’ve taken our brand of humor beyond the dealership and onto bigger stages. Today, as seasoned Los Angeles & nationwide comedians, we specialize in delivering engaging, HR-friendly humor at corporate functions and private events. Whether it’s a high-pressure business meeting, a gala, or a corporate retreat, our performances bring the perfect balance of professional and entertaining. If you’re looking for a private event comedian to transform your gathering into an unforgettable experience, we’re ready to bring the laughs!