Lesson titles 1-35, on-going professional Lessons from Jim Richardson's Stand-Up Comedy Workshop.

Workshop Lessons 1-35: Descriptions
Fundamentals, Intermediate and Advanced:
Grouped in Four-Five Lesson Blocks described fully on that block's web page

Table of contents for this web page's short Lesson descriptions are linked to full Lesson descriptions:
The Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy, Lesson block 1-4
Intermediate Techniques for Writing and Performing, Lesson block 5-8
Improvisation, Working the crowd, Taking advantage of Hecklers, Informal Roasts and Formal Roasts, Lesson block 9-12
Writing: Theory and Practice with Group-Written Scripts, Lesson block 13-16
Advanced Writing: Theory and Practice with Group Written Scripts Using Complex Premise Routines, Lesson block 17-20
Complex Premise Routines (continued), Lesson block 21-25
Choreographing the Joke, Lesson block 26-29
Organized Comedy's "Graduate School:" assumes you have set scripts that are ready to be fleshed out with Theater Techniques, Lesson block 30-34
Organized Comedy's "Post Graduate School," Lesson block 35 and on-going — Monthly meetings
Pre-requisites:
*Indicates no pre-requisites for Lessons 1-3, 5, 8 and 26-29.
**, ***, and **** indicate that a course does have pre-requisites.
Fees, Discounts and Bonus offers

The Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy, Lesson block 1-4:

Introduction: these first 4 of my 35 lessons get you off on the right foot.
Both beginning stand-up comics looking for a leg up and seasoned professionals wanting to get-back-to-basics begin at the beginning.
. . . more info.
1) *How to Tell a Joke on a Stand-Up Comedy Stage, During a Speech and in the Work Place, 3 hours
•Nuts and bolts of all joke-telling.
•Jokes, effectively delivered, go a long way to reduce tensions and further communications between a stand-up comic and his audience.
•The same principle applies to effective interactions between management, staff and clients.
Or any relationship between friends and family members, teacher and student, player and coach, etc. ...more info.

2) *How to Write a Joke: the 7 basic joke, 3 hours
•Workshop contains a system for writing jokes that works, whether you feel funny or not.
•Learn the seven basic joke forms. ...more info.

3) *Narrative Character: your persona, 3 hours
•How to naturally exploit your humorous side. ...more info.

4) ****Editing Your Comedy or Serious Speech into an Act, 3 hours
Both the serious and funny parts of your speech need to be tightly edited, just like a top-flight stand-up comedy routine:
•Ordering bits within the comedy act or speech for greater audience response: get bigger laughs and longer applause!
•Number and quality of laughs need in stand-up comedy vs. in a speech.
•Polishing: punch it up, or edit out! ...more info.

Lesson 1-4 registration.

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Intermediate Techniques for Writing and Performing, Lesson block 5-8:

5) *Delivery: vocal tricks that sell your ideas, 3 hours
Vocal techniques to enhance how you say things, phrasing, pacing and
developing a distinctive vocal signature. ...more info.

6) **Topical Monologue, 11 joke formats, 3 hours
Jokes based on today's news.
How to meet the requirements of these 11 joke formats using the seven basic joke forms you learned in Lesson Two. ...more info.

7) ****Social Commentary, 7 joke formats, 3 hours
Learn: the classic wit's 3 axioms for corrective comedy.
7 joke formats you can put in your act or speech tonight! ...more info.

8) *Making the Audience Like You a Lot, 3 hours
How to see yourself as others see you in order to find your own unique character.
Once they know who you are, it is much easier for your audience to respond eagerly ...more info.

Lesson 5-8 registration.

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Improvisation, Working the crowd, Taking advantage of Hecklers, Informal Roasts and Formal Roasts, Lesson block 9-12:

9) **, ***Improvisation: Thinking on Your Feet 3 hours
•How to escape mental lock-jaw, and have something funny or sincere to say no matter what the audience shouts at you:
•4 tips to make sure you never enter a battle of wits totally unarmed
•7 games to sharpen your spontaneous skills so you can get your come-backs out without skipping a beat.
•Exercise in how to avoid distractions so you can get what you want right now!

10) ****Working the crowd and wading into the audience, plus: Taking advantage of Hecklers —6 joke formats, 3 hours
•How to remain in control of the crowd:
•Taking advantage of hecklers.
Note: it is expected that students will have been performing enough before real audiences by now to have been heckled on several occasions.
Yes: even business keynote speakers and seminar leaders of break-out session at corporate conventions get heckled with anything from inane questions to actually helpful suggestions.
FYI:
It is much easier to teach someone who has been heckled than it is for you to just imagine what the experience would be like.
. . . No wallflowers at this dance!
Students are encourage to bring video clips of yourselves being heckled, whether you or the heckler won that encounter.
Technical assistance will be provided that will enable you to get any video file you have from your performances onto your Desktop; this, so you can stream it to the rest of the class.
If you can cue the video clip up to the place in the timecode where you do get heckled, then you will be able to play the video clip to us from that exact point onwards.
•Learn how to recover and continue your act or speech.

11) ****Informal Roasts: 21 joke formats,3 hours
•Going on the attack
•Defending against attacks

12) ****Formal roast: unspoken rules to keep it moving,3 hours
•Learn how to toast everyone on the dais, both the star (a.k.a guest of honor) being celebrated and your fellow dinner guests (a.k.a. roasters).
And get away with it.
Even the roastees will laugh!
•Properly setting up microphones, tables and lecturn on the podium.
•What to ask the host or hostess if you are requested to set up either an informal or formal roast for a birthday party, anniversary, retirement dinner, etc.
•World-class examples.
•Class performs a 30-minute formal roast which is then evaluated for effectiveness

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Writing: Theory and Practice with Group-Written Scripts, Lesson block 13-16

13) ****Simple Premise Routine—ideal, 3 hours
How to use all the joke forms and joke formats learned through Lessons 1-12 to:
•Writing longer bits that drive home a single point

14) ****Simple Premise Routine--classical tirade, 3 hours:
•Steps to develop your own routines: increase your writing speed five-fold!
•Class-written classic tirade routine premise routine

15) ****Selling Yourself during interviews by newspapers, radio and TV, 3 hours
•Part I: theory, examples
•How to distill your anecdotes into powerful sound bites.

16) ****Selling Yourself during interviews by newspapers, radio and TV, 3 hours
•Part II: drills
•Field trip: to plug a gig, class will be interviewed by a professional newspaper reporter and/or radio DJ or TV host

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Advanced Writing: Theory and Practice with Group Written Scripts
Using Complex Premise Routines, Lesson block 17-20

Write bits that make elaborate use of all the writing and performing techniques which you have learned through Lessons 1-16 to reinforce comedic structure.
How to develop 9 different types of complex premise routine.

Careers are character-driven.
Anything in your act that does not reveal character is a waste of stage time!
Your main persona vs. your minor characters.
Includes handout: "Script Formatting for Solo Performance"

17) ****Media Parody Routine, 3 hours
How to most artistically create impressions of famous real people and fictional characters seen in the media
Sound effects

18) ****Observation Routine, 3 hours
Minutia taken to absurdity

19) ****Two-character skits: one-liner format, 3 hours
Straight man & funny man

20) ****Two-character skits: story format--how to create funny characters, 3 hours
Role changes

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Complex Premise Routines (continued), Lesson block 21-25

21) ****Relationship Satire Routine, 3 hours
Character motives
Look and sound like two different characters
Build
Reversal of the situation: correct the targeted error

22) ****Wit Routine, 3 hours
Obstacle, consequence, attack
Name the fool by his foible
Strategic action
Slip that gets the wit into a contest with the fool

23) ****Humor Routine, 3 hours
Eccentric characters
Loveable foible vs. uncomfortable situation
Ironic escape, create pathos, costume jokes, entering funny

24) ****Three-Dimensional Premise, 3 hours
Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis

25) ****Two-Situation Premise, 3 hours
Free associating jokes

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Choreographing the Joke, Lesson block 26-29:

26-29) *Professional Stage Movement using techniques unique to the solo performer, 4 Lessons, 3 hours each . . . more info.

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Organized Comedy's
Graduate School:
Assumes you have set scripts that
Are ready to be fleshed out with
Theater Techniques, Lesson block 30-34

30) **, ***Acting for Stand-Up Comics and Business Speakers, Part I, 3 hours
Make your act consistent, not performance dependent.

31)**, ***Acting for Stand-Up Comics and Business Speakers, Part II, 3 hours

32-34) ****Narrative Character: your persona, 3 classes, 3 hours each

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Organized Comedy's
Post Graduate School
Lesson block 35 and on-going —
Monthly meetings:

35) **** on-going monthly International seminar for professionals only: stand-up comics, business keynote speakers, politicians, ventriloquists, and other solo acts.
Who have taken Lessons 1-34 and established professional credentials both in their technical mastery of these writing/performing techniques, and in their ability to gain regular paid gigs:
Business Side of Show Business, latest developments in the art and craft of stand-up comedy and humorous public speaking, relating performance to world events, etc., 3 hours once/month
•Know what the business realities are, and take all the shortcuts!
•How to make resumes, photos and audition DVDs that form your publicity packet.
•Plus, finding agents and managers.
Fees:
Lessons 35 and then, on-going meetings: for professionals only.
Monthly, for 3 hours, at $200/meeting.

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Pre-requisites:

Each 4-5 Lesson block has its own web page:
•After reading the short descriptions of each Lesson on this web page, for a fuller description of each Lesson, plus more about the applicable pre-requisites for that particular Lesson, please click the Lesson's blue ". . . more info." link.
•That link will take you to the exact line within the 4-5 Lesson bock's web page having information specific to that particular Lesson.
•To read more about the other Lessons within that block, just scroll up and down that 4-5 Lesson bock's web page.

Note: if you are still unclear about your eligibility for any of the above Lessons briefly described on this web page:
•Please feel free to ask Jim directly, e-mail: jim@jimrichardson.com, phone: 415-877-4424

What the asterisks (*, **, *** and ****) seen before each title on this web page mean:
*No pre-requisites: these Lessons can be taken stand-alone, even if you are yet to take Lessons 1-4 or any preceding Lessons.

**Pre-requisites include both:
•Lesson 2, "How to Write a Joke: the 7 basic joke forms" and
•Lesson 4, "Editing Your Comedy or Serious Speech into an Act"
Another way to satisfy the Lesson 2 and 4 pre-requisites:
•These joke forms are also described Jim's audio/workbook package, "How to Write a Joke: the 7 basic joke forms "
•Another version of editing less targeted to those pursuing a stand-up comedy career is described in Jim's audio/workbook package, "Editing Your Comedy or Serious Speech into an Act"
Details upon request.

*** Pre-requisites: Lesson 1, "How to Tell a Joke on a Stand-Up Comedy Stage, During a Speech and in the Work Place"
Another way to satisfy the Lesson 1 pre-requisite:
•These joke-telling techniques are also described in my audio/workbook package of the same title which also includes an annotated bibliography of recommended joke books.

**** Pre-requisites: all preceding Lessons and all their pre-requisites from Lesson One inclusive; i.e., completing only a Lesson that has no pre-requisites does not get you into subsequent Lessons if those Lessons have other pre-requisites from earlier Lessons.

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Fees:

Lessons 1-4 for $400, plus tax and shipping.
Minimum enrollment: 5 students.
Internet video conferencing or live, in-person Workshops, Lessons 1-4 with Jim Richardson —
Includes your copy of the bare-bones first 352-pages of Jim's 600 page audio/workbook package "The Fundamentals of Stand-Up Comedy" with no audio, but which fully covers Lessons One-Four.

Lessons 5-34 include additional workbooks and various hand-outs:
These are Intermediate and Advance Lessons offered in:
•Four-lesson blocks at $400/block: Lessons 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-20, 26-29.
•Five-lesson blocks at $500/block: Lessons 21-25, 30-34.
Plus, applicable tax (if California resident) and shipping costs.

Bonus offer 1:
My entire Home Study Program (HSP) of 1,200 pages of workbooks and other handouts, plus 21 hours of audio tape is the basic course material for my Workshop Lessons 1-34.
Cost: $1,000 plus applicable tax and at-cost shipping.
Benefit: you get a free hour of my one-on-one coaching & co-writing for every Lesson Block you purchase.
At $200/hour x 8 Lesson blocks, this is a $1,600 value!
An even better deal:
If you purchase all of Lessons 1-34 in advance, you can immediately:
•cash in all 8 hours of consulting with me for that $1,600 value!
•plus, get your free copy of my entire HSP for an additional $1,000 value!
Total value: $2,600!
Cost: $3,400, plus applicable tax and at-cost shipping your copy of my HSP.
Such a deal!
Additional Benefit:
You get a real leg up with my early help on your specific act.
For more information on my 2-pronged approach to training stand-up comics, business keynote speakers, politicians, ventriloquists and other solo acts, please read my FAQ page.
• Let's get cracking, full steam ahead today!

Bonus offer 2:
You can earn an additional free hour of my consulting ($200 value) for each friend you bring to my Organized Comedy program who both:
•mentions your name when they first register/pay their fees and
•takes all of my Stand-Up Comedy Workshop Lessons 1-4.
Even after you have completed Lessons 1-4, you can still earn this credit retroactively for anyone else you bring to my Workshop Lessons 1-4,
as you continue to progress through my Intermediate and Advanced Lessons.
Details upon request.

**Discounts for Pre-Paid Products & Services**
Packages:	Copper	Bronze	Silver	Gold	Platinum	Rhodium	Best Deal
4-5 Lesson block (12-15 class hours) with matching course materials	Yes
Home Study Program with free hour of coaching for every Lesson block pre-purchased		Yes	Yes				Yes
Lessons 1-34, with matching course materials			Yes				Yes
Free hour of coaching for every friend you bring to OC program who takes all of Lessons 1-4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
50 hours at $200/hour coaching at 10% discount				Yes
100 hours at $200/hour coaching: 20% discount					Yes
150 hours at $200/hour coaching: 33% discount						Yes	Yes
150 hours at $200/hour coaching: 33% discount, plus HSP & Lessons 1-34							Yes
Your investment:	$400-500	$1,000	$3,400	$9,000	$16,000	$20,000	$23,400
Savings = Greater Value:	$400-500	$2,600	$6,000	$10,000	$20,000	$30,000	$36,000

Page last updated: Sunday, May 5, 2013, 4:08 pm