The Serious Guide to Joke Writing: How To Say Something Funny About Anything pdfdrive com

Acknowledgements
This book has been written over two years.
When I talk about ‘the class’ I actually mean a number of classes I have taught
over that time and I’m very grateful to all of the participants.
Amused  Moose  Comedy  Writing  classes  (2004,  2005,  2006)  were  my  early
guinea pigs along with the 2007 ‘Jokes Jokes Jokes’ class held in Hastings.
Paul F. Taylor, Ayad Andrews, Kim Dolman, Maureen Younger Isabelle Tonge,
Christine  Lawrence,  David  the  mystery  man  from  Hastings,  Paul  Westwood,
Kevin  Conn,  Sue  Lenier,  John  Kelly,  Bea  Lacey,  Steve  Savage,  Martin  Ansell,
Val  Lee,  Karl  Edrik  (RIP,  he’s  out  there  somewhere  enjoying  the  cosmic  joke)
and  Steve  Rose  from  my  two  2008  Joke  writing  Classes.  These  good  people
sparked the whole idea of a joke writing book.
Jennifer  Allen,  Danny  Banks,  Karl  Davison,  Anton  Hammond,  Kara  Jeffrey,
Bruce  Knight,  Bea  Lacey,  Val  Lee,  Sue  Lenier,  Clive  Osborne,  Kaye  Quinley
and Steve Savage from the 2008 Stand-up Course. They created the Strikes Joke-
web in Chapter 3.
Heather  Alexandra,  Martin  Ansell,  Simon  Cooper,  LouLou  Cousin,  Karl
Davison, Jean Kelley, Anton Hammond, Anita Jardine, Val Lee, Sidonie Mitchel
Wade,  Clive  Osbourne,  Suzi  Payton  and  Steve  Savage  from  the  2009
Intermediate Stand-up Class. They did the Art-Relationships Double Joke-web in
Chapter 5.
Thanks also to the 2008 Amused Moose, Edinburgh Comedy Writing Course as
well as the people who attended my workshop at the 2008 British Association of
Comedy  Writers  Conference  which  the  Carol  Vorderman  exercise  in  Writing
Jokes From Newspapers (Chapter 7) is based on.
I’d like to give a particular mention to...
Elisa Roche from the Daily Express who kindly gave me permission to use her
article  ‘It’s  sum  task  to  find  a  new  Carol’  in  Writing  Jokes  From  Newspapers
(Chapter 7).
Paul Westwood, Sue Lenier and John Kelly (2008 Joke writing Class) who wrote
nearly all the jokes in Redefinitions - How Did The Class Do (Chapter 1).
LouLou Cousin and Jean Kelley (2009 Intermediate Stand-up course) who gave
me permission to use their homework and wrote the bulk of the jokes in Hadron
Joke Collider - How Did The Class Do (Chapter 5).

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Piers  Campbell  (Amused  Moose  Comedy  Writing  Course)  who  wrote  the
Mohican story in one of my early classes and I have used it as an example ever
since. It appears in Chapter 1.
Bea  Lacey  (2008  Joke  Writing  Course)  for  showing  me  that  the  Surrealist
Inquisition was a viable method of joke writing and for some people it’s where
it’s at!
Ayad Andrews and Sue Lenier who wrote various jokes featured in several How
Did the Class Do sections. Ayad also read the mostly terrible early drafts of this
book and gave me encouragement anyway.
Angie  McAvoy  from  whose  writing  method  I  developed  the  Stream-of-
Consciousness exercises.
Andrew  Jobbins  who  experimented  on  jokes  with  me  in  the  late  nineties  and
with whom I discovered that jokes exist in the ether.
Hils Jago for knowing I could teach joke writing before I knew it myself.
Simon  Dowd  who  is  the  comic  who  used  to  write  toppers  for  my  sketches
(Chapter  8),  and  whose  Friday  afternoon  phone  calls  (Chapter  13)  made  me
reassess  what  comedy  was  all  about.  He  gave  me  endless  support  writing  this
book.
Rachel  Spring  and  John  Kelly  who,  along  with  Paul  Westwood  (already
mentioned above), proof read this book at different stages.
The  Illiterati.  My  local  creative  writing  group  who  allowed  me  to  read  them
sections of this book (sometimes over and over again).
Andrea Samuelson for endless support and ‘power chats’.
Sue Middleton for being so supportive always.
Dan Evans, whose comments on my manuscript were so insightful that this book
is better for him having read it.
Joe Gregory for redrawing my cartoons so wonderfully.
Steve Amos and SATC for kick-starting my comedy courses in Hastings.
Finally,  I  am  very  grateful  to  Tim  Vine,  Jason  John  Whitehead  and  Tiernan
Dooyab  for  letting  me  use  their  beautifully  crafted  jokes  as  examples  in  this
book.

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