Joseph Thomas, CFSP

Joseph Thomas, CFSP is an instructor for Pierce Mortuary Colleges, fifth-generation funeral director and embalmer, preplanning and cemetery specialist, and first-generation humor writer and improviser. He studied Mortuary Science at John A. Gupton College in Nashville, Tennessee, earned his undergraduate degree in English at Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, Tennessee, then studied improv comedy at Improv Nashville in Nashville, Tennessee, completed the humor and satire writing program at the Second City Training Center in Chicago, Illinois and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Journalism and Strategic Media at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

He has spent a lifetime steeped in the southern mourning traditions that have inspired his occupational choices, his humor, and his writing which has appeared in The Weekly Humorist, Points in Case, The Commercial Appeal, The Daily Memphian, The Memphis Flyer and The Chicago Tribune as well as his own funeral humor blog, Mortified on Substack.

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Joseph currently lives the suburb life outside Memphis, Tennessee with his wife, kids, and dog and performs with local improv comedy troupe, The Bluff City Liars, there.