Chattoo, The Laughter Effect I. B. The Why and Potential of Comedy
In May (2017), Caty Borum Chattoo, co-director of the Center for Media and Social Impact at American University and a comedy fan, released “The Laughter E...
Tag: comedy
Tragedy Plus Time
In my analysis of Mike Birbiglia’s Thank God for Jokes, I included this blurb about how, in an off-hand way, Birbiglia mentions that “Comedy equals ...
Nathan Mills on Hasan Minhaj and Comedy Audiences
Talking about Hasan Minhaj’s new Netflix special, Homecoming King, Nathan Mills of The Joplin Globe has a lot going on, but I want to call attention to th...
Bill Maher’s On-Air Apologies
I make my Advanced Public Speaking students write and give a speech of apology for a public figure, so when we’re talking about comics giving apologies, w...
Spatial Theories
The basic idea of a space for ideas comes from Aristotle, who argues that we organize ideas spatially in our mind. We group like with like into genres, topics,...
Why You Should Ask an Academic
An article published last July in the Chronicle of Higher Education reappeared in my FB news feed the other day, and it says basically what I’ve been on a...
Getting on Stage
Perhaps the hardest part of stand-up for many people is actually getting on stage. Seinfeld’s joke about fear of public speaking versus death is legendar...
Why You Should Think Jokes Through
Comedy teacher, comic and writer Jerry Corley gives three reasons to develop your writing. They are: Writing Makes it Easier to Build Structure into your Materi...
Why Do the Work?
I hear critiques of comics, most recently of Louis CK, that “he seemed to be rambling,” through his first abortion joke. They don’t seem to r...
A Note on Spontaneity
I should preface my process by saying that writing is often unexamined. People think that jokes “just happen,” spontaneously. And they do – ...