Think Weird: A Short Humor Writing Workshop

Think Weird: A Short Humor Writing Workshop with River Clegg

Class Description


Students will learn the basics of how to write the kind of short humor featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney's, and other outlets. These pieces begin with the author asking a single, absurd question about the world, and students will learn how to use this process of "thinking weird" to generate premises for their own writing. From there, discussion topics will include character development, joke structure, form experimentation, and story arc. After some writing exercises and group brainstorming, each student will leave with a topic and roadmap for writing their own piece, as well as instructions for how to submit it for publication.

Instructor: River Clegg

River Clegg is comedy writer who's lived in Brooklyn since 2011. He was a staff writer on Comedy Central's The Opposition w/ Jordan Klepper, and his writing has been featured in The New Yorker, The Onion, ClickHole, McSweeney's, CollegeHumor, and other outlets. A longtime host of the Creek and the Cave's late-night Bucket o' Buckets open mic, he gave that up years ago in the interest of sleep.

River went to Yale University, where he wrote for and helped edit its humor magazine, The Yale Record. He feels very lucky to have met so many funny people on campus that he got to work with later.

Full Session Schedule


Session Schedule*

  1. Dec 13, 2018, 7:00pm - 10:00pm
    at The Magnet Training Center
    (22 West 32nd Street, bet. Broadway and 5th Ave., 10th floor)
This class does not have a show/performance