Workshop: Taking the Joke Out Of Your Head and Bringing it to the Stage

Workshop Description: This standup comedy workshop will provide you with the tools to take jokes out of your brain and bring them to the stage.
You'll learn about joke structure, writing tools, and elements of performance. Participants should bring 3-5 joke premises they may want to work on, and will go through several exercises to flesh out their joke while getting feedback from their classmates and instructor. At the end of the workshop, participants will leave this class with a joke written out and ready to perform on stage, with all of its elements to bring to their next show or open mic! Participants will also be given a brief introduction to developing a career as a touring stand-up and what that entails.

Workshop Length: 2 hours

What Should I Bring? Wear comfy clothes and closed-toe shoes fit for movement. Please bring a laptop or notebook and pen/pencil for taking notes. Bring a full water bottle.

Please read our and before signing up for a class or workshop.

About the Instructor: Shenuque Tissera (he/they) is a Sri Lankan American comedian born and raised on Staten Island. Their stand-up is infused with a passion for storytelling and an enrapturing stage presence. They are currently touring their debut stand-up special, Wait, What’s Sri Lanka?, a show for anyone who has ever felt invisible. They’ve graced the stage in Off-Broadway productions and contributed their writing talents to HBO Max. They’ve worked as a director for the Murmuration Theater Company and co-founded the award-winning podcast studio Many Sided Media, where you can regularly hear their voice acting on the show My First Dungeon. Audiences have said that Shenuque is like if Hasan Minhaj, Tiffany Haddish, and John Mulaney were in a polycule and didn’t let Shenuque in, so he modeled his comedy after all of them.