To the beginner, writing effective comedy can seem like a mysterious knack you need to be born with. But to Emmy award-winning comedy writer Gene Perret and professional comedy writer Linda Perret, comedy writing is a set of skills that anyone can study, improve, and master.The ?Comedy Writing Self-Taught? workbook?companion to the main book, "Comedy Writing Self-Taught" ?shows aspiring comedy writers how they can teach themselves the essential principles of comedy writing through comedy analysis and writing exercises.Together, the book and workbook cover the essential principles of writing stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, and TV situation comedy, and form a professional level training tool. Expressly designed for home self-study, ?Comedy Writing Self-Taught? teaches that the most effective way to learn is to create comedy yourself. Perret teaches how to analyse the work of professional comedians to learn the principles of comedy and presents a full set of writing exercises to hone one?s skills. A companion workbook provides even more comedy writing exercises, giving readers the equivalent of a master class in comedy. AUTHORS: Gene Perret taught himself to write comedy in the early 1960s by studying the technique and the writing style of the great comedians of the day, especially Bob Hope. This led to his writing comedy material for many nightclub performers, including Phyllis Diller and Slappy White. Linda Perret has been involved in various aspects of comedy writing since she sold her first professional joke in 1990. She has written comedy for Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, Yakov Smirnoff, Jimmie Walker and other stand-up comics.