Comedy Writing Workshop Commentary

Jokes never happen by chance: they have a precise rhythm, a recognizable structure, and often take shape when we find the courage to laugh at ourselves. It was precisely with this awareness that we began the comedy writing workshop that we attended on Wednesday, December 3rd, together with our Italian teacher Elena Triantafillis.

The meeting, held in the hall of the Hotel Bologna in Mestre and organized by the Circolo Culturale Walter Tobagi, offered us the opportunity to come into direct contact with the world of professional comedy. Guiding us on this journey were Giovanna Donini and Andrea Midena, longtime authors and scriptwriters of the famous television show Zelig.

Over the course of the evening, we explored the fundamental principles of written humor and its performance. Donini and Midena showed us how laughter arises from subverting the audience's expectations: a process that is anything but random, requiring technique, precision, and a profound awareness of the listener's point of view. A very interesting topic they explained to us was the use of self-irony. Through an exercise, we had to introduce ourselves, and many of the descriptions from those presents were initially monotonous. The presentation we were asked to repeat at the end of the evening, after discussing various comedy topics, allowed us to discover how making people laugh is an art that is anything but instinctive.

Ample space was also devoted to the performative dimension of comedy, where the text meets the stage. Midena explained how, during rehearsals, actors like Claudio Bisio and Vanessa Incontrada frequently intervened in the scripts, creating new jokes through improvisation and creative exchanges with the authors. Writing comedy thus proved to be a living, dynamic, and collaborative process.

The evening concluded with great enthusiasm and satisfaction from everyone. In addition to introducing us to the world of auteur comedy, the workshop successfully conveyed creativity, entertainment, and cultural insight, offering a learning experience fully in tune with our educational vision and academic approach.