Evan Segelke

Humor

Introduction

This year at freestyle we explored the power of humor. In English, we read Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut, The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde, and for Honors, we read Rhinoceros by Eugéne Ionesco. We were then given the freedom to create a humor project of our own choosing.

Comedic influences

As part of our humor proposal, we had to analyze two comedic influences that we found inspirational. My two influences are featured below:

Jenny Lawson

This is a portrait of Lawson featured on the cover over her most recent memoir

Mike Birbiglia

This is a photo Mike Birbiglia in one of his comedy specials

The humorists I was inspired by for this project were Jenny Lawson and Mike Birbiglia. Even though one is an author and the other is a stand-up comedian they both use a lot of similar strategies such as their use of anecdotal humor and witty remarks in their work. I really enjoy their black humor which addresses uncomfortable topics and their own personal traumas. Lawson in particular uses a lot of creative exaggeration when talking about her mental health issues which I’ve been inspired by.

Process

For my humor project, I wrote a comedic narrative focusing on my social anxiety. I took for the subject of my project, my sophomore year English class which was very intimidating and anxiety-provoking at the time. A common formula that Mr. Greco shared with us was “humor = pain + time”, and my project definitely followed that model. Then I recorded myself in my backyard ‘performing’ the material. I also ran into some challenges with sound but I fixed most of them to the best of my ability. The result is featured below:

Humor video

It’s hard for me to tell whether or not any of this video was actually funny because humor exists in the audience but I hope it’s enjoyable or insightful.