Funny U: Humor Writing 101 with Roxanna Elden

Wednesdays, September 18 – October 23 (6 weeks)
7 – 9 p.m. | MDC Wolfson Campus, Downtown Miami

Writing for a standup stage, a sitcom writers’ room, or the humor section of the bookstore requires a specific set of skills. Many of these are teachable, learnable techniques, and any writer can benefit from studying the elements that make writing funny. This course will begin with a short overview of humor theories, then move onto more concrete tricks, such as joke structures used by standup comics, how to reverse-engineer your favorite funny writing, and how to make “comic timing” work on paper. The course will include in-class writing exercises plus instructor and peer feedback on ongoing projects. 

Roxanna Elden is the author of Adequate Yearly Progress: A Novel, See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers, and a children’s book, Rudy’s New Human. She has been featured on NPR as well as in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and more. Dave Barry wrote the cover blurb for her first book, saying, “You know how you’ve always thought
 that if you were a teacher, you’d go insane?
 Well, this very funny book proves 
that you would. But in a good way.” You can learn more about her work at RoxannaElden.com.