Online Class: Talk Show Portfolio with Howard Johnson.

The Talk Show Portfolio class begins at 12pm on August 30th and runs for 8 weeks. The class meets once a week virtually on Saturdays from 12pm-3:00pm. 

Create a state-of-the-art talk show portfolio suitable for submission to literary agents, TV producers, and network executives.

No experience or prerequisite required for this class. Learn the skills required to write, and pitch material for TV, including late night joke packets, desk pieces, sketches, and more. Students will also receive industry advice about how to develop a plan to pitch their completed packet to actual agents in the industry. 

Class One:

Students learn to write jokes based on headlines.

Class Two:

Students then expand those headline jokes into two separate monologues: character and commentary.

Class Three:

Students create eight separate ‘desk piece pitches’ for a specific host.

Class Four:

Students write an SNL-type sketch, parodying either an existing talk show or the genre.

Class Five:

Students create eight separate ‘remote pitches’ for the host they’ve chosen.

Class Six:

Students create eight separate ‘miscellaneous pitches’ for the missing elements of their show.

Class Seven:

Students rewrite their portfolios, taking into account any and all constructive criticism.

Class Eight:

Students create a business plan that includes a specific letter to a specific agent.

About The Comedy Lab and the instructor. 

The Comedy Lab was created by Michael Clayton McCarthy twenty years ago and based at the iO theatres in Hollywood and Chicago. Kim “Howard” Johnson began teaching with Michael in 2013, and the two of them worked together happily until Michael became ill in 2018. At that time, Howard took over the full load of writing courses, which continues to this day. When the iO was forced to close in March 2020 due to the Coronavirus, Howard took all of the writing classes online. To his surprise, the writing program rapidly expanded, thanks to students from across the nation and around the world who had long wanted to study with The Comedy Lab. Thanks to the pandemic, students found they were able to pursue a comedy writing career from the comfort of their homes. 

Kim Howard Johnson is a founding member of the Baron’s Barracudas (the first house team of the ImprovOlympic–later the iO), co-wrote Truth in Comedy with Charna Halpern and Del Close, and wrote The Funniest One in the Room: the Lives and Legends of Del Close, the biography of his longtime friend. He began to teach writing when his good friend Michael McCarthy invited him to join the Comedy Lab writing classes at the iO Chicago. He is a longtime friend and associate of Monty Python, working on Monty Python’s Life of Brian in Tunisia, writing numerous books on Python, and serving as personal assistant to John Cleese. He is the only person to perform with the Baron’s Barracudas, his Monty Python friends at the Hollywood Bowl, legendary improvisational troupe The Committee, and written with comedy legend Jonathan Winters. He is excited to pass along what he has learned over the years to his students. 

“When you spend years sitting across a desk from comedy icon John Cleese, if you’re paying attention, you tend to learn a lot about comedy writing. And when you spent years studying with Del Close, you learn even more. But, I didn’t know how to best utilize my knowledge until my good friend Michael McCarthy offered me the opportunity to start teaching everything I have learned over the years.”