Katherine | March 26, 2009
Exercising the imagination, learning how to see connections beyond the usual, is absolutely vital to both comedy and to effective problem solving.
At its very best comedy opens both our minds and hearts.
Exercise for the day: Take an object such as an egg whisk and name at least three other things it could be.
A prison for [...]
Katherine | March 24, 2009
I felt “nonsense” needed an exclamation mark here. I kept hearing a Britishy voice call out, “Codswallop! Nonsense!” It’s also one of my favourite comic elements and therefore actually deserves a comic double exclamation mark. Nonsense is absurd, surreal, or free-associative humour, for instance a talking cat wearing a saucer and teacup on his head. [...]
Katherine | March 20, 2009
Okay, I know this blog is still getting off the ground. But, I wanted to start a weekly exercise entry where we all get a chance to improve our comic skills and give each other a bit of a titter. So, if you decide to do this exercise three months hence and enter it as [...]
Katherine | March 20, 2009
I promise I like comedians and sitcoms that come from other countries than Ireland, like Ed Byrne…oh, hang-on um, Maeve Higgins…no, that’s not right. I know, the show Black Books, that’s based in London. All I can figure is that
this blog went up around St Pat’s day and he’s set the leprachauns on me, the [...]
Katherine | March 19, 2009
I come from a US background. In that country even the mildest obscenities in certain circles are looked down upon. I had to release any linguistic prudery when I decided to study for an English degree at university. Middle English authors in particular have quite saucy tongues. I also learned that many of the words [...]
Katherine | March 18, 2009
I thought I would take people through some of the dance steps of comedy:
* The One-Liner
* The Two-Step
* The Three-Step
* The Running Gag
Katherine | March 11, 2009
After putting many jokes and comic situations through my personal cyclotron of humour. I have come up with a list of what I feel are the most basic elements of comedy. Certainly, some of these overlap, but so long as they have distinct characteristics that are not always shared with another element, they went on the list. Here they are:
