The Joke’s On You: Secrets Behind Jokes and Joke Telling
Taught by Andrew Linderman
Andrew Linderman is a writer and storyteller based in Brooklyn, NY. He teaches writing and storytelling at General Assembly and is a story coach with the community education program at The Moth, a Macarthur award-winning non-profit dedicated to the craft of storytelling.
In addition to teaching, Andrew is the executive producer of Local Stories, a monthly storytelling series featuring many of New York’s best writers, performers and comedians. He is also the founder of the Story Source, a blog aimed at helping artists, business people and entrepreneurs tell compelling stories. For more information, visit www.andrewlinderman.com.
Do you ever wonder why some jokes flop and others are so wildly successful that they are imitated time and again? Who’s the best joke teller of all time? What does it take to tell a good joke?
If you’ve ever wrestled with these weighty questions or just wanted a good laugh, this is the class for you. In this 90-minute session, I’ll take you on an uproariously funny tour through the history of comedy. We’ll look at different theories about jokes and joke writing, watch clips of master joke tellers from the 1940’s to the present, and finally try writing a few jokes of our own. In the process, you learn everything you need to write, perform and fully appreciate jokes of all kinds.
Think of it as a survey course on how to tell a joke in front of an in-law at Thanksgiving or get a quick laugh at the next holiday party. Or just think of it as fun.
