This course is still "under construction" and being polished into a shinier version. All of the information you need is already here, however. This enthralling "Welcome Letter" explains what's going on, and all the cool stuff that's still on the way.
Welcome to "Professional Humor Tricks for Writers, Speakers, and Other Misfits!" This course is designed for a wide range of writers and speakers. You'll discover that, contrary to popular belief, a "sense of humor" is not a magical gift that only special people have. It's a skill anyone can learn.
Can you really learn how to be a funnier person? Yes! In this lesson, we'll talk about why and how it's possible.
Some people wonder if studying humor, and learning comedy techniques, takes away the creativity. But no! Just like studying music theory will make you a better musician and composer, studying "comedic theory" will make you a stronger and more consistent humorist. The techniques you learn become your tools, your bag of tricks to draw from. You use those tools to ratchet up your creativity in the joke-writing and storytelling process, so that being funny becomes a lot easier.
Who is your favorite humor writer or comedian? Do you have a favorite movie, a TV show that consistently cracks you up? You can choose anybody you want to be your virtual mentor. Here's how to do that ... and how to thwart the dreaded Cubic Zirconium Conundrum.
Whether it's a published story, a scripted event, something you randomly blurt out, or an unexpected moment in your day, if something is funny, there's a single root cause.
More funny ideas flit through your brain on a daily basis than you realize, yet most of them vanish quickly. Here's how to fix that.
Welcome to our online Comedy Lab -- your place to test out what you've been learning and get some hands-on humor writing experience.
It's time to start learning from your favorite funny person.
Start dissecting all things funny and your humor skills will soar.
When you fish for ideas, you need to carry a net.
Throughout this course, I include short excerpts from my own humor columns as examples of various techniques. This free, downloadable e-book includes all of those columns in their entirety.
As you work through the lessons, you can refer back to this e-book and read the stories pertaining to each individual lesson. Enjoy the stories -- and also watch for the techniques I use as you read them!
You can't have a punch line without a set-up -- and different kinds of comedy call for different kinds of set-ups.
The One-Two Punch in Action: "Almost Live" and "Saturday Night Live" clips
A lot of potentially hilarious jokes fizzle -- not because they aren't funny, but because they're not structured in a funny way. In this lesson, we explore a simple way to solve that problem.
Now that we've learned the basic structure of individual jokes, we learn now to weave those jokes together into longer humor tales, essays, and presentations -- with an easy-to-master formula that's used by professional storytellers, sketch comedy and improv artists, TV sitcom and movie writers, and more.
The "Hero Up a Tree" Technique in Action: SNL's "Luvahs in the Hot Tub" sketch
The "Things Go Wrong" idea is the basic concept to humor, but describing how they go wrong can make the difference between whether or not you spark laughs.
It's time to tackle your first humor column for the Comedy Lab.
Learn how to hook your readers from the very beginning ... before they wander elsewhere.
Why you shouldn't always begin at the beginning -- and where to start instead.
How to stretch your humor and make it funnier.
Wrapping up your story is often the hardest part.
Squash some Silly Putty on your words and start stretching!
The Twelve Techniques: Your Bag of Tricks to Draw From When Writing Punch Lines
Parallels: The Fine Art of Incongruity
Parallels in Action: Eddy Izzard's Death Star Canteen (The Lego Edition)
Takes-of-Three and U-Turns: How to Yank Your Audience Where They Least Expect It
Bad Math: Why Some Numbers are Funnier than Others
The Fine Art of Telling Lies (Dave Barry's Not Making This Up?)
Twisted Interpretations: How to Get Your Readers Naked
Uh-Oh! (How to Build Comedic Tension)
For Better or Worse: Superiority, Inferiority and False Bravado
Superiority in Action: Glove and Boot's "Vertical Video Syndrome"
False Bravado in Action: Stephen Colbert vs. Google
Repetition and Callbacks: Lessons From the Soup Nazi
Repetition in Action: Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi" episode.
Don't Drown Your Jokes! - Why Fewer Words Mean More Laughs
Prune Your Words and Tighten Your Tales for Maximum Impact
Why You Should Always be Willing to Throw Away Your Best Joke
Timing is Everything: How to Use Comedic Pauses in Both Spoken and Written Humor
How to Scream: Crank Up the Volume in Your Punch Lines!
Survival Tips for Public Speakers: What to Do if Your Audience Doesn't Laugh
Where, Why, and How to Publish Your Humor
Dot-Comedy: Launching Your Humor Writing Career on the Internet
Publishing Your Humor in Newspapers and Magazines
How to Play the Odds and Get Published
Go Be Funny! This is Your Final Lesson but the Party is Just Getting Started!
Comedy Lab: Polish Your Final Draft
Pitch Your Story
Youve worked hard in this course and hopefully created some masterful humor. Now that youve completed the previous Comedy Lab exercise and polished up a final draft, its time to fling it into the world.
For this final exercise, give some thoughts to where you might publish that story. You might also come up with ideas for different versions you could eventually write and pitch to other publications.
Once youve given that some thought, share your ideas here and a sample pitch letter too if you like!
(And remember, Im always looking for submissions to Globejotting.com. I especially love travel humor but will consider other topics too. If youre interested, check out the Writers Guidelines.)
Great for Writing Public Speaking: Learn the Techniques Professional Humorists Use to Create Consistently Funny Comedy
How to Be Funny (with Sample Jokes) - wikiHow
How to Be Funny. Four Parts: You say: "Speak for yourself." If the timing is all wrong, don't mess with the joke. Or think of Calvin Coolidge himself;
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FunnierU.com | How to Write, Talk, & Think Funnier
How to Write, Talk, & Think Funnier. Home; My Account. Three comedy training videos featuring the faculty of FunnierU, George Campbell, Mark Mayfield, and Tim Gard.
How To Be Funny: 14 Tips to Write Funnier - Can I Get ...
How To Be Funny: 14 Tips to Write Funnier. and come up with something funny. So I think I stop now. That June Cleaver could speak Jive is something Ill
Thoughts On How To Be Funny | www.succeedsocially.com
Thoughts On How To Be Funny. I think I can be a funny enough guy that I'm not completely unjustified in writing about this topic.
How to Be Funny Without Telling Jokes: 11 Steps (with ...
How to Be Funny Without Telling Jokes. write it down. people will think that you can't think of anything funny to say yourself.
christian | Dare to Read, Think, Speak and Write
Dare to Read, Think, Speak and Write How history continues to affect our past and future. Home; About; Book Recommendations; founded on the Christian religion.
Comedy Writing: How To Be Funny : NPR
Comedy Writing: How To Be Funny. you don't mean to be funny when you say this was writers trying to think of the funniest candy
How to Be Funny and Make People Love Your Company
Watch how the characters on screen behave and move when they speak funny. Think Hugh Grant in all his funny chick flicks and About Us | Write for Us | Contact