Using Videos and Blog articles to provide free or low-cost comedy training

Learning Objective

• This article explains how blogs and videos offer free or low-cost comedy training that builds theatrical performance, joke writing, and comedy show business skills.

Teaching Comedy Show Business

Hi! I’m Chuck Roy, badass comedian and creator of Comedy101. This blog article explains one method of using YouTube videos for free or low-cost comedy training in higher education and private sector workshops.

Some of the learning videos that I create, such as “How to Write Jokes – The Reverse”, are private sector online education tools.

Other videos, such as Resume Tips for College Students, are created for the Community College of Denver where I teach Comedy and Introduction to the Entertainment Industry. These open education resources (OERs) are created by students.

• Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. (Source: UNESCO and Pennsylvania State University)

Watch this video, “How to Write a Joke – The Reverse” to see my first attempt at teaching comedy writing via YouTube

This video uses online learning techniques to teach comedy writing.

• The video explains a concept from the book Comedy Writing Secrets, by Mel Helitzer.
• Students can read the book, watch the video, or both.
• The book or the video challenge the learner to write jokes using the old switcheroo.
• Posting the joke in the video comments section provides feedback from strangers, almost like telling the joke to an audience. 

Flipped Classroom example of free or low-cost comedy training

My comedy classes and workshops used the flipped classroom, a style of teaching where the lectures are delivered by video, blog, podcast or other system to prepare for an activity.

For example, in one unit of the comedy class at the community college is about the Comedy Reverse. This past semester, an enthusiastic and funny student was enjoying the book and joke writing assignments. However, a busy course load, work study, and theatre productions caused him to be unable to read the book and write jokes in time for class.

So, he Googled ‘comedy reverse’ and discovered the video. In less than 10-minutes, he was able to start writing jokes using the switcheroo. He was able to choose between resources, manage his time, and learn the lesson because of the YouTube video.

What topics can be taught free or low-cost comedy training?

1. The first thing we can teach using OERs, including blog articles and YouTube Videos, is basic knowledge such as keyword definitions, comedy writing terminology, and show business guidelines. For example, this blog article is a private sector resource that can be quoted. However, the artwork is privately created, and therefore not a free resource for you to use in your commercial endeavors.
2. The next step in education is to make sure the learner understands the basic knowledge. This blog article applies a new design that allows the learner to self-check.
3. Scroll down to see the cool boxes with comedy writing and show business activities. Try the activities, click the buttons to experience active learning about comedy show business.
4. What has this blog article taught you about open education resources and comedy education? Challenging you to summarize your learning is something I can do in the classroom, through a blog article, in a social media post, or in a YouTube video.
5. By now, you may have ideas how to use open education resources in your field of expertise. Innovating your own ideas based on what you learned in this blog article is a great way to demonstrate mastery of the skills necessary to deliver, or participate, in open education resources.
6. After you share this article with friends, lets evaluate what we are collectively learning about comedy, arts entrepreneurship, and open education resources.

Here are 3 examples of free or low-cost comedy training with YouTube videos and blogs articles

Learning Activity

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