What's so funny!?

Many of you may have noticed that the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is about to commence. There are more than the usual number of comedians on tv, in print and on the radio. Of course, knowing what to see is never an easy task. Thankfully the people at the MICF have thought to put together a course so you can find out who is good to see, but more importantly why. If you’re not sure what the title of the course means, it’s derived from an EB White quote: “Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it.” Yes, I had to look it up.

I was delighted to see that the course co-ordinator is Dom Romeo. Dom has been writing about the comedy industry since the mid 90s and has a successful podcast and blog - Stand and Deliver – http://www.standanddeliver.blogs.com/

He presents this course to those that want to expand their comedy horizons and look at what we laugh at. I asked Dom why he put this comedy appreciation course together.

I was very lucky. Toby Sullivan, Associate Director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, approached me in late 2005 to devise a course that could interest fellow comedy lovers and incorporate a body of knowledge of comedy that had gone before as well as that which was more recent in addition to whatever would be going on in the Festival of 2006. And so I did, although that first year was a bit rough. The second year it ran, 2007, was much more polished. And this year it’ll go off!

I’ve signed up and will let you know how the course goes! Dom and I did a longer interview which I will be uploading in instalments. Stay tuned!

The course: Dissecting the Frog
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/season/2009/show/dissecting-the-frog-comedy-appreciation-course/