Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Even Garbo Was Funny

It all started when I decided that I’m just not funny anymore. It goes in phases, sometimes I can see punch-lines happening around me, and sometimes I can’t. Twitter makes it obvious when I can’t, because I have nothing snappy to tweet. I’ve had a few gems lately, but I had to work for them.

Drastic action was called for, so I took the plunge. Many of Robert’s comedy writing books recommend writing between 20 -50 jokes on a single topic, every day for a month.

Now, I’ve never taken a writing class, let alone read a book on how to write. I’ve never done a writing exercise of any kind. That said, I write professionally. So I thought, how hard can this be?

You may laugh now. Really. The voices in my head won’t stop cackling at my expense. You might as well join them.

I’m on the third day, and I’m already stuck. Just finding topics is a nightmare. Day One was ten jokes about deviled eggs. Day two was twenty on bagels. Today, my snarky gym partner suggested “lawns” as a topic. I’m on #11 and so stuck I stopped to write this.

Don’t worry, I won’t post any of my efforts here. Why should we both suffer?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The architect had grand plans for the front of the house- a koi pond, topiary and columns, but the project ran out of money. As the architect packed up to go, the yard said "Oh, no! Don't leave me a lawn!"

(now that I've said that, I can get back to work)