On Friday, December 11, Nikki Palumbo hosted Oh Wow, TMI: Getting Super Personal to Write Comedy!
Some of the best places to mine for comedy are the most embarrassing and personal crevices of your life. Nikki, who is also a Girls Write Now mentor, will guide us on a deep dive into our anxieties and insecurities to find the funny!
Opening Lines
Write about a moment when you saw something happen to a person and you experienced secondhand embarrassment.
Prompt #1: Your Best Worst Moments
What’s the most embarrassing thing (you’re willing to share) that’s ever happened to you? Now try to imagine why, if you were watching it happen, it was hilarious.
Nikki’s Example
The worst: I peed my pants in kindergarten because I didn’t know how to pause my computer game…
The best: A 5-year-old was so invested in technology (and Mario Learns to Type), she ignored nature — which is a call you cannot decline…
How to turn that into a comedy piece: A list of successful people who have wet their pants, Top 10 Best Places to Have an Accident, just telling the story, etc.
Prompt #2: Boom! Boasted
Write a Roast for yourself in which you make fun of your best qualities!
Nikki’s example: Nikki is as confident as a dad driving without GPS.
Nikki Palumbo is a writer and comedian based in New York. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Reductress and McSweeney’s. She’s performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, YaaasFest Comedy Festival, North Carolina Comedy Festival, Women in Comedy Festival and Austin Sketch Festival.
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