The Art of Humor in Your Writing Format: MP3 Download or USB Flash Drive These lectures were audio recorded at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshops between 2010 and 2018. Download the MP3 files today or have them shipped to you on a USB flash drive. Listen to these wonderful speakers recorded live. THIS PACKAGE INCLUDES ALL OF THESE PRESENTATIONS: Inspired: The Art of Writing with Humor and Heart T. Faye Griffin This lighthearted and highly interactive workshop is an entertaining primer on the rapidly growing genre of inspirational humor writing. Audio and visual materials will be employed to engage participants in fun and thought-provoking writing exercises, readings and gentle critiques. Sit-Down Comedy: Tweet Like a Stand Up and Kill It on Social Media Joel Madison Joel Madison wants to help you be funnier online. Are your tweets tired? Does your Facebook fall flat? In this hands-on session, you’ll learn the tricks of the joke-writing trade from a pro. Under Joel’s guidance, you’ll refine your comedic online voice by “punching-up” your own tweets and posts. Then you’ll create new posts from scratch. You’ll walk out with skills that will take your social media presence to the next level. Remember: you may not hear the spit-takes out in Internet-land, but that doesn’t mean they’re not happening. The F Word: Feminist Comic Writers Who Inspire Us Peter Marino How does outstanding feminist humor lead to better writing? In this workshop, you will focus on three iconic humorists — Nora Ephron, Fran Lebowitz and Tina Fey — and one writer’s writer, novelist Anne Lamott. Attendees will experiment with a writing exercise devised by Lamott, which is remarkable effective at unleashing creativity. The Comfortable Chair: Bringing Humor to the Personal Essay Dinty W. Moore Humor on the page is a delicate flower, and there is nothing quite so awkward as watching it wilt. This interactive workshop will explore the basics of using humor effectively in the personal essay, and in nonfiction writing generally, including the user of juxtaposition, irony, understatement and exaggeration. You will examine a few sterling examples and then pull out your pens and notebooks to try it for yourselves. We will laugh, too, along the way. For those bothered by delayed gratification, here’s a preview: The best humor sneaks up on you. It’s Okay to Laugh: How to Use Humor in the Dark Places Lauretta Hannon This workshop examines how to use humor when dealing with painful material. In this wildly interactive workshop, participants will do exercises such as six-word memoirs and then share them with the class. The session aims to open writers up to parts of their story they thought were better left unmentioned. There will be much cackling in this session and probably a few tears as well. Behind the Curtain: Maximizing Your Comedy Power Panel Nancy Berk, Judy Carter, Kathy Kinney, Wendy Liebman and Leighann Lord Whether you’re looking for the formula to kick-start your comedy writing or push you toward stand-up success, this panel of comedy experts will help guide you toward your next creative move. We’ll dig a little deeper with our EBWW comedy genius team to uncover strategies and secrets that have worked in a competitive industry notorious for being fun but fickle. Stand-Up Comedy Boot Camp Wendy Liebman Learn the basics of stand-up comedy and hone the four-minute set you’ll perform Saturday night at the workshop. Nationally known stand-up comic Wendy Liebman will share writing techniques to make your stories funnier — and ways to deliver them to get a laugh. The workshop is open to stand-up performers and anyone who wants to learn the techniques for writing and performing stand-up comedy. Come prepared to laugh and scribble down your own hilarious ideas. A dozen comedians will be selected in advance to perform at stand-up night. Wendy will choose an additional three from the hilarious writers she meets in the workshop. Write Funny Now! Elaine Ambrose Experience the serious work of humor writing. In this interactive session geared toward beginning writers, participants will learn how to use various types of humor to deliver humorous lines and grab readers. Participants will read a sampling of Erma Bombeck’s columns, discuss why certain lines are hilarious, share their own on-the-spot work and interact with others to improve their writing. Welcome to the Writers’ Room Joel Madison Writing scripted comedy is a dynamic, collaborative process. Re-writing scripted comedy is what a writers’ room is all about. This session will mirror the tasks and atmosphere of a professional rewrite room as you and your fellow attendees dig into a real sitcom script under the direction of industry veteran Joel Madison (“Roseanne,” “Fresh Prince,” “Undeclared”). You will have the opportunity to review and study pages of a real script in the weeks before the workshop and gather your thoughts on how to improve a few pages from your own comedy perspective. Then, in a group setting, pitch your new jokes, scenes and even entire story lines to Joel and your fellow attendees as everyone collaborates to hammer out a better, funnier version of the script. As Joel moderates this fun and lively session, he will also share his own hilarious anecdotes from the TV and movie trenches, giving you a true insider’s view of the scripted writing experience. Whether you want to jump in and pitch your own jokes or you simply want to see what a real comedy writers’ room is all about, this session will give you a perspective that you can’t get anywhere outside of Hollywood. Let’s Talk About Success: Best-Selling Secrets, Novel Ideas and Hit-Making Humor Panel Nancy Berk, Amy Ephron, Cathryn Michon, Cindy Ratzlaff and Alan Zweibel Imagine having coffee with four or five friends who happen to be acclaimed authors who want to help you write your own success story. Bring your “to go” coffee mug to this panel and soak up advice from the experts. From writing inspiration and productivity tips to promotional strategy and insights they never saw coming, you’ll benefit from the wisdom, history and candor of these unique writers. The Message of You: The Power and Humor of Your Story Judy Carter A seemingly ordinary day is filled with hidden stories that contain laughs, drama and a powerful message — all waiting to be uncovered and turned into comedy gold. In a fun, creative and interactive workshop, best-selling author and comedian Judy Carter will give you writing prompts that will show you how the stories from an ordinary day can turn into a TED talk, an essay or your memoir. Is There a Secret to Writing Funny? Alan Zweibel Erma Bombeck wrote, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.” Great humor writers — from Mark Twain to Tina Fey — have been adept at straddling those thin lines. Learn how to write funnier from one of the funniest writers in the country. Tapping into his wealth of experience as an award-winning television writer, screenwriter, playwright and novelist, Alan Zweibel will offer his secrets for writing humorous essays, sketches, stand-up routines, blogs and novels. Turning Your Problems Into Punchlines Judy Carter Judy Carter is the author of the Bible — no joke: The Comedy Bible. This book has become the guide for anyone wanting to write or perform comedy. She has coached some of today’s hottest comics as well as taught comedy and storytelling techniques in Russia, China, Sweden and the UK. In this session, based on her new book, The Message of You, Judy demonstrates how to turn our most humiliating experiences into comedy gold and gives an overview of comedy principles that can help anyone, even the humor-impaired, get laughs. She will cover acting out a story, how to get an audience to react and get laughs as soon as they come onstage, and demonstrate how comedy writers can see themselves and the world they live in as a stand-up comic does — that it’s all material. Take aways: *How to get an audience to love you in 17 seconds *Creating comedy from passion and authenticity *Be IN your story rather than TELL your story *Create funny authentic moments within a story Humor Writing: Punch Up Your Prose Dan Zevin Your friends think you’re funny, your family thinks you’re funny, and your sensibility is more Seinfeld than Sartre. So how come your writing sometimes winds up so dry? Hint: Your high school English teacher said that writing was solemn business. In this workshop, it’s payback time. You’ll be encouraged to look at the world the way nature intended: with your sense of humor. We’ll discuss personal essays, comic fiction and topical satire. And our in-class exercises (relax, no cardio) will help you find the funny in the characters, dialogue and situations you create. Whether your goal is to write a “Shouts and Murmurs” piece for The New Yorker, a list for McSweeney’s or a book-length humor collection, the first step is the same: take your sense of humor seriously. Editing for Bigger Laughs (Or Why I Wouldn't Want Two Vaginas) Anna Lefler To quote Samuel Johnson, “What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure.” This workshop session invites you to elevate your humor writing to a new level of excellence. No matter how freeform your creative process may be, writing that delights readers doesn’t just “happen.” Rather, it results from discipline, tried-and-true practices and a healthy dose of humility. This session will help attendees embrace these practices, with a focus on a critical aspect of the writing process: editing. From big-picture concepts to single commas, creating superior — and funny — content for any format requires rigorous honing, refining and polishing of the material. What’s the payoff for all that effort? The satisfaction of knowing that the work you are unleashing on the world is the most captivating it can be. Stand-Up Comedy Boot Camp Leighann Lord Learn the basics of stand-up comedy and hone the five-minute set you’ll perform Saturday night at the workshop. Leighann Lord’s humor has been seen on Lifetime’s Girls Night Out, ABC’s The View, Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen and The Original HBO Def Comedy All Star Jam. She wrote for the pilot of The Chris Rock Show, and she performs her special brand of comedy all over the world. Please come to the workshop with a basic outline of your five-minute set and a notebook for scribbling hilarious ideas. Chick Wit: Writing the Humorous Memoir Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella Everyone has a story to tell. How do writers cultivate the humor, honesty and courage essential for any story that captures the universal human experience? Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella have teamed up to bring their hilarious and witty perspective on the everyday life as mother and daughter in weekly essays in the Philadelphia Inquirer and four book collections. The writing duo will offer tips on weaving truth and story into personal essays that will make readers laugh out loud in recognition. Be Funny, Make Money Michele Wojciechowski Want to make more money writing humor? Want to make any money writing humor? Whether you're starting out or a seasoned pro, you can always use more cash. In this session, you will learn how to approach the usual suspects (local venues), approach the unusual suspects (national venues), and approach alien markets (right here on earth) that you may not be aware of. (Well, if we told you what they were, you wouldn't have to come to the session!) Travel Catastrophes for Fun and Profit Dave Fox Travel humorists don't dream of smooth journeys. When chaos strikes, our funniest stories are born. What should you do when you're charged by drunken rodents, poisoned while kissing your significant other or confronted by wildebeests who act all macho but snort like effeminate Muppets? Write! Discover why travel and humor make for a perfect marriage of genres. Learn how to spin your craziest mishaps into hilarious travel tales, and hone those tales for maximum laughs. The Six Million Dollar Humor Column: How to Write Bigger, Funnier and Faster Tracy Beckerman What makes something funny? Believe it or not, there is a science to humor, and although that sounds incredibly unfunny, these tried and true theories and techniques can make a big difference between a so-so humor column and a hilarious one. So what does it take to write a bigger, funnier and faster humor column? Syndicated humor columnist and author Tracy Beckerman tells you how to pump up your humor writing so you can sell more columns and make $6 million, or at least a few bucks more than you are now. How to Write Humor: A Subject I Know Absolutely Nothing About but Have Somehow Managed to Make More Than Minimum Wage Doing Jerry Zezima How to Write a Funny Book When the Boss Isn't Looking Steve Doocy Making Them Laugh on a Wednesday Morning Craig Wilson