Saturday Aug. 3rd, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
$95 members/$110 others Berkeley
Student Testimonials
CLASS CLOSED
Has anyone ever told you that you’re funny and that “You should write that stuff down?” No? Then maybe you shouldn’t take this class. But if the answer is “Yes,” or if you’re convinced you’re surrounded by mirthless numbskulls who wouldn’t recognize a punchline if it hit them in the ‘nads, then come on down!
Why do you want to write funny? For one thing, many editors claim that they’re looking for humor. Most of them are lying, but readers love to laugh, so if you can write humor well, you’ll always have an audience. Plus, it’s fun! You can entertain yourself instead of being one of those “tortured” writers for whom putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is like opening a vein.
In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn where to get funny ideas (I have the secret email address), how to inject humor into otherwise serious pieces, a half-dozen techniques for mining comic gold, and how to apply these tools whether you’re writing for a magazine, blog, or making a YouTube video. By the end of the day, you’ll be required by the FBI to register your rapier wit as a deadly weapon!**
**Or maybe not.
Stan Sinberg currently blogs for article-3.com and the “faux” news site www.newslo.com. He has been an award-winning humor columnist for the Marin Independent Journal and Pacific Sun, a satiric commentator on KFOG (“Take a Stan”), the co-creator of the hit musical-comedy revue “For Whom the Bridge Tolls,” a contributor to MAD, and a “reporter” for the now-defunct gonzo supermarket tabloid, Weekly World News (“Rapper Has Reverse Tourrette’s Syndrome: Every Time He Tries To Curse He Says Something Nice – And It’s Killing His Career.”) When he was still a child and told his mother he wanted to write comedy for a living, she said, “Don’t make me laugh.”