The Academy — The Comedy Masterclass
52 weeks to find your funny, build your voice and become dangerous on stage.
One course, not a pile of pages. Every week runs the same five moves: study, deconstruct, write, perform, review. The classroom is useful; the audience is the laboratory.
These aren't 52 lessons. They're 52 experiments.
Storytelling & presence
Dave Chappelle
Weeks completed
0 / 52
Next call
Nothing scheduled yet
Every Wednesday, 6:00pm Phoenix.
Sign in to log your weeks, submit material and take a spot on a call.
Sign inThe weekly rhythm
Five moves. Every week. For a year.
1 — Study
Watch on purpose. Specific comedians, specific reason.
2 — Deconstruct
Isolate one mechanism. Name it before you use it.
3 — Write
10–25 premises minimum. Quantity buys quality.
4 — Perform
Somewhere live. The classroom is useful; the audience is the laboratory.
5 — Review
Watch the tape. Log what the room did, not what you felt.
The scoreboard
Where you should be by week 52.
Premises captured
0 / 5,000
Jokes written
0 / 1,000
Sets dissected
0 / 250
Live performances
0 / 100
Recorded set reviews
0 / 50
Plus 25+ bits developed past three minutes, a killer five, a dependable fifteen, a strong thirty, and the architecture of your first hour.
The course
Seven acts. Fifty-two weeks.
- Week 1What is funny?Why do humans laugh at all?
- Week 2The anatomy of a jokeSetup, assumption, turn, punchline — where exactly does the laugh live?
- Week 3IncongruityWhat happens when reality violates expectation?
- Week 4SurpriseHow do you steer an audience somewhere so you can pull the floor away?
- Week 5TruthWhat does everybody recognise but nobody says out loud?
- Week 6SpecificityWhy does '2003 beige Chrysler Sebring' beat 'car'?
- Week 7ExaggerationHow far past reasonable can you go before you lose belief?
- Week 8Rule of threePattern, pattern, destruction — why does the brain fall for it every time?