Led by Simon Taylor, a Melbourne-born comedian, who by the age of 24 became a writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Since then, he has appeared on Just for Laughs and became the first ever Australian to perform stand-up on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. His latest comedy special was filmed at the Sydney Opera House, and Simon will be touring internationally before its release. He has also written a number of books, including One-Night Stand, which received critical praise for its humor and heart.

Get to know Simon in our Meet the Teaching Artist series.

Humor is one of the most overlooked skills in the literary world. In fiction, being able to craft a joke can elevate your characters, enhance dialogue, and enrich your world-building. Comedy is a powerful tool for getting and keeping your readers’ attention in non-fiction.

This course includes a series of easy-to-implement humor writing formulas, a systematic approach to writing humor on any topic, how to write in various voices, how to integrate humor into any medium, and how humor can effectively communicate complex ideas.

There are five lessons:

1. The first is on structure: identifying and understanding the basic joke formula.
2. The next lesson is on tools, which are the various linguistic techniques that create the joke. This course will give you a practical list that you can work off.
3. The third is about material, which involves using mind maps to make the writing process so much easier. Writing doesn’t have to be this abstract thing where you just sit and try to think things up, this will be a systematic guide.
4. The fourth is about comedy styles: which is really up to your creative choices.
5. And finally, we’ll talk about: practice and feedback. This will set you up to keep refining your comedy writing skills beyond this course.

COURSE OUTLINE:

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• By the end of this course, you will be able to 1) write a joke on any topic, 2) insert humor into any medium, and 3) make informed stylistic choices for comedy writing projects.
  

TESTIMONIALS:

Simon is one of the top comedy writers out there. - Jay Leno, The Tonight Show

He’s my go-to writer for any new project. Simon writers humor like an architect; creative and methodical in equal parts. - Justin Willman, Magic for Humans

No one is better at making humorous writing accessible than Simon. From his books, to his stand-up, to his TV work, he can work across any medium. - Josh Samuels, Story Pathways

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE: