This Humor Writing Class Will Knock Your Socks off

Trial and error, hack and hue - that is how most comedians create their material. If you are a writer you do not have this luxury. Comedian calls up and asks - did you hear what XXX just said on CNN? Write five jokes on that and fax it to me in an hour. Comedians write by accident, trial and error, at whim which is why most comedians take a year to create 10 minutes of material. Most comedians, roughly speaking, grow at the rate of about 10 minutes a year. At the end of a year, most comedians are at the open mike level. At the end of two years most comedians are at the showcase level and at the end of three years, most comedians are working as an MC/Opener; at the end of four years most comedians are middling (middle act) and at the end of five years most comedians are at the headliner basis. Not always a headliner at the Improv or the Punchline, the bigger clubs, they may be on one of the outer circuits. But that is a rough idea of the growth.

And the major reason for this is simply material. Performers do not know how to sit down and create material, number one and number two, they also feel it's not real, it's not organic unless it just happens. So what does happen is you've got performers who suddenly get on the phone trying to get material. I have two partners and as writers we write and sell material to Bobby Slaten, Michael Pritchard, Will Durst, Jerry Sobel, Kevin Meany, Jose Simoen, Ron Lucas, on and on and on... What happens is suddenly the Tonight Show calls them up and says, hey, we want to have you on air. We like your act but you know, we can only use three minutes of your material. The rest is too dirty to use, you need two more minutes.

The comedian rushes to the phone, "John, can you write some material for me. I've got a gig coming up and I need two or three minutes of material." You simply don't have the luxury of waiting six months to get that.

Writers sit down and write it on demand. Writers write in a week what most comedians take a year to develop. We are going to show you in this class how to sit down and do it on purpose.

I love this class. It's great. It will knock your socks off.

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