Judy Carter

Question 1

Pretty obvious that Judy Carter is going to have a big impact on me - tings my bell in a special way

Question 2

Start with my authentic truth and my emotionally charged issues - forget about being funny - just identify my most important issues relative to 7 profile topics and 4 attitudes - then go deep within top 3 emotionally charged topics, generating 15 macro-topics and 75 micro-topics - tons of topics nested within top 3 topics

Answer 2

PROFILE TOPICS
Job - retiree
Life stage - 72 years old
Relationships - wife, kids, grandkids…
Memberships - RHC, SIRS, TM, ACBL…
Upbringing - poverty, moving, sibling
Fish Out of Water - how different am I
Heritage - nationality, traditions
ATTITUDES
Hard
Weird
Scary
Stupid
MY TOPICS
1 - create mind maps for 7 topics
2 - should generate 7 x 5 = 35 items
3 - test each item with 4 attitudes
4 - Select top 3 emotional topics
5 - create 5 sub-topics x 3 items = 15
6 - create 5 micro-topics x 15 = 75
(lots of variety within 3 top issues)

Question 3

Clever - don’t try to be funny - just find the truth - get it straight - this enables me to identify and analyze my issues with full rationality - only after fling the straight work (setup) - then I can begin to identify how to make my unfunny issues, funny (creativity)

Answer 3

I like her saying - “when you try to be funny, you lose the truth” - this enables me to look at humor as a rational and logical human being and then do humor as a creativity exercise

Question 4

Clever - all the topic, sub-topics and micro-topics creates life association listing that serves as spring-board for comic creativity - more interesting than doing word association lists (boring)

Question 5

Clever - easy way to find comedy writing partner

Question 6

Clever - free Tuesday at noon class - investing herself in her brand and in our hearts in ways that were impossible prior to the internet - great way to create enthusiastic following for both her book and performances

Question 7

Clever - everything fits together like Russian nesting dolls

Question 8

Clever - she has found a simple way to channel authenticity into a structured thought process that can generate authentically funny humor

Answer 8

After much searching for understanding, this appears to be the mother lode of comedy training

Question 9

Clever way to “narrow” issues/topics into comedic “persona” to be more professional to avoid amateur mistake of being “too wide/too scattered” - solves a lot of problems - the narrowing involves identifying personal issues that have the greatest comedic emotional depth - lots of things to talk about - lots of variety - within a narrow topic area - really quite clever

Answer 9

Solves problem of creating persona that is understandable for audience - needs to be simple and clear but with emotional intensity and depth - it all fits together logically - the emotional depth is what keeps it all together - like atomic energy

Question 10

Clever approach to explaining structure as natural underlying quality of humor - all professionals use it - they are so good that you may not notice it - Chris Rock may be ranting and raving but the structure is there - maybe not explicitly called out in words but the attitude is signaled without explicit words - its acted out in some way that is obvious to the audience

Answer 10

Clever how she says - once you fully develop your comedic muscles you can stretch them out in interesting ways similar to a professional basketball playing doing an amazing layup - mere mortals can only watch with amazement - “ how did he do that?”

Question 11

Clever how she encourages us to use the best of our rational thinking ability to clearly think about our emotional issues so that we first achieve clarity of understanding before trying to make it funny - don’t worry - funny will come later - we have tools for that - right now we are to fully understand our issues in context to key topics and key comedic attitudes

Question 12

Clever - this not therapy - this is about making fun of manageable emotional issues - some topics are too hot - too uncomfortable for performer and audience - “laugh killers”

Question 13

Clever - general and impersonal is not funny - specific and personal is funny - 3 step topic identification process nails this perfectly - begin with top 3 emotional issues and go deep (macro and micro) - solves a lot of problems

Question 14

Clever - “acting out” - feels like she has identified the secret ingredient of comedy (today) - that spark of electricity that energizes a joke into being funny - perhaps it’s like magic dust - changes everything - this might be her truly unique contribution - everything else is super clever but not earth changing

Question 15

Clever - the intelligence of a joke is a reflection of the intelligence and clarity of thought that goes into the setup - not the punchline - the punchline writes itself - jokes usually fail, not because of the punchline, but because of the setup

Question 16

Target Testing - pet peeves that seem to have potential - isolate and do mind mapping to identify sub-topics and micro-topics for that topic to see how “deep” the topic is - if it’s deep and rich, well…

Answer 16

I LIKE THIS IDEA - mine