How to Get Laughs: A Salon on Writing Humor and Satire with Talia Argondezzi

About the Event

Comedy writers seem to produce jokes out of thin air, but in this salon, humor and satire writer Talia Argondezzi will share some secrets about how to brainstorm funny ideas and create hilarious characters. Drawing on characters and settings you’re already familiar with, you’ll follow a series of guided prompts to develop several original premises and spin (at least!) one premise out into a comedic monologue. Using the humorous voice you invent, you can satirize a social justice issue you care about, parody a genre or cliché you find overdone, or simply explore a unique angle on the human condition.

Argondezzi will share the tricks she’s used to write dozens of humor pieces for McSweeney’s and The New Yorker. Her latest humor book, Bedtime Stories for Academics, uses beloved characters from mythology, classic literature, and fairy tales to satirize the demands of higher education.

Whether you want to break into satire, bring more humor into your fiction or memoir, or hear how a book actually gets made, this salon is a chance to learn from—and write alongside—a writer who does all three. Talia Argondezzi’s humor has appeared in The New Yorker and McSweeney’s, and her new book, Bedtime Stories for Academics, lands this month. Come ready to write.