The Challenge we have with perspective, is, it’s not about US, when we’re usually writing and this is a hard habit to break, to not talk about ourselves. Did I mention I have a NATIONAL TEACHING AWARD??? Any way, lets look at a few ways to master perspective in joke writing.
REMEMBER: Premise, is the question. Punchline, is the answer. This is joke writing One-o-One. We’re going to kick it up a notch and ask ourselves to DIG into who we really are. This is where the GOLD IS and this is where the EMOTION is. OUR MISTAKES.
I’m going to talk about a girl I had a crush on in grade five: Joyce Debarko. I bought her a box of chocolates with my allowance and she yelled;”hey everyone, square head bought me chocolates!” She proceeded to pass the box of candy out to every one in the room; when the box got back to me; it was empty. True story.
From my perspective 1) Why didn’t I eat the whole box of chocolates and turn into a sugar addict? Maybe Joyce would have felt sorry for me and at least become my sponsor? ( I tried the joke from her becoming the addict and felt it said less about me and was to disrespectful.)
2) From Joyce’s perspective: So I’m thinking, how come square head gave me a box of chocolates? Then it hit me, the box was square, just like his big square head. I wish he was round head; I like wagon wheels better.
3) From the teachers perspective. “Why did I tolerate bullying in my class. Pretty hard to get Joyce to get her stop calling him square head with my mouth full of chocolate!
4) From my best friends perspective: Yes, I was about to say stop calling my friend names, I went to say, but instead, I said, look, Chocolate caramel.
5) From my dad’s perspective:What do you mean she called you square head? You’re name is idiot.
I will use this set for next class. What I’ll do is write out the FRAME and look at each sentence. I’ll explore the way I felt about this story , the impact it had on my life and write JOKES/TAGS; from beginning, middle and end. I’ll allow the story to create the jokes. The way a set is supposed to be. Have fun. Remember I am an Author and Comedian. Please share my Book if you can, it’s on my website. If you need a speaker for your event, please talk to me about it. And last but not least; please share my Stand Up Writing Class.