Comedy Writing Workshop

Out of My Mind, Back in 5 Minutes

A Comedy-Writing Workshop

with award-winning comedy writer Leigh Anne Jasheway



Sat., July 31, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Lane Community College Downtown

1059 Willamette Street, Room 202



Has your comedic gray matter gone missing? Are you scared of your right brain? Have you forgotten what LOL really stands for (it’s not Lets Order Linguini)? Then this is the workshop for you.



Over the course of six hours (that’s only sixteen minutes in prefrontal cortex time, but a few years as measured by the frontal lobe), we’ll tackle some of the age-old comedy writing problems, including: How can I trust my brain to know what’s funny? How can I be funnier without looking like I’m trying? How can I feel more comfortable hanging out with my right brain? And how do I explain it to the left side? Do I really care what the readers want or am I just in this for me? How can I balance humor and fact? How can I make fun of people I know or are related to without them plotting revenge? How funny could I be if there were no limits? Can I make my multiple personalities work for me when writing comedy? How can I get the rest of my body involved in writing? How does this make me feel? Do I smell cake?



We’ll do writing exercises, improv work, and we may even sing, dance or pull out handcuffs and blindfolds. All the activities are meant to shake up your creativity and your sense of humor and let you boldly go where no brain has gone before (yes, there may be geeky references). All in all, the day will be scary, stupid, informative, and fun. You’ll leave with new ideas for using your natural sense of humor in everyday writing and new techniques for taking your writing from amusing to ROTFLMAO.



To sign up or request more info, e-mail Leigh Anne at lajfun@accidentalcomic.com. The workshop fee is $100.



Leigh Anne Jasheway-Bryant has sixteen published books, including Not Guilty by Reason of Menopause, Laugh Lines are Beautiful, Yoga for Your Funny Bone: Exercises to Strengthen Your Comedy Writing (a winner of the 2007 AATH Book Awards), and Bedtime Stories for Dogs. She currently writes a humor column for Dash Magazine and was a regular humor and inspiration writer for Family Circle for over eight years. Her writing has also been published in such magazines such as Better Homes & Gardens' Special Interest Publications, Diet & Fitness, DogFancy, Energy for Women, The Funny Times, Good Housekeeping, and Pink. Leigh Anne's first play, Are You There Yet, was produced in 2005 to sold-out audiences and she has a musical in production for 2010. Her writing awards include the 2003 Erma Bombeck Award for Humor Writing, the 2003 Humor in Food Writing Award, and runner up in the 2005 Mona Schreiber Award for Humorous Fiction. She has taught comedy writing and stand-up for Lane Community College for 16 years and now also teaches Comedy in Media at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.