The Comedian's Way workshop for Writers, Performers & Other Humans is the place to develop your authentic voice and deepest material for one-person shows, personal essays, books, scripts, blogs, or just to have a better attitude about life.

Each class starts with a Q & A and an inspirational rap from Beth about some aspect of the creative process. Here for your entertainment and edification is video of a recent talk about the 7 Questions Every Writer Should Ask Themself Before Sitting Down To Write.

Read more about the workshop on Beth's site and the Un-Cabaret website.

Class meets most Sundays from 1-4pm at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine St. LA 90038. For more info, call 323-717-4731 or e-mail us.

Any single class $60  
Any 4 classes $200

Audit (observe) any class for just $10
Audit 4 classes for $25

The Comedian's Way workshop for Writers, Performers & Other Humans is the place to develop your authentic voice and deepest material for one-person shows, personal essays, books, scripts, blogs, or just to have a better attitude about life.

There are written descriptions of the workshop on Beth's site and also here on the Un-Cabaret website, but here's a pretty coherent and entertaining video description of what exactly happens and what you can expect from the workshop.

What happens when a piece of material gets stale? How do you keep the audience - and yourself - interested?

Get some great advice about how to keep your material fresh, find the material that will stay fresh the longest, and tips on integrating this freshening practice into your creative process and your life in this inspiring rap from Beth Lapides at The Comedian's Way workshop.

Audit, register for a single class or get discounts on multiple classes. Upcoming classes: Sunday, Oct. 4 & 18, 1-4pm at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine St. LA 90038.

Click here for more info about The Comedian's Way workshop or call 323-993-3305.

btw, this video was taken with the new Flip UltraHD Camcorder. Yes, the HD takes a long time to process and upload video, but the resolution and color are way advanced, the camera now holds up to 2 hours of video (instead of the previous version's 1 hour capacity), the sound is a lot clearer and, most importantly, it has retained virtually all its cuteness.

Beth always starts our workshop sessions with a rap about creative process. Here she talks about finding the right context for your work - and how you have to translate a particular piece of material when you adapt it to a different medium or context.

She couldn't do the kind of personal intimate storytelling that she wanted to do in the mainstream comedy clubs and that's why we started Un-Cabaret to begin with.

Click here for more info about The Comedian's Way workshop.

In almost any Hollywood pitch meeting, some executive will inevitably ask you something like 'But what are the stakes'? Or 'Can we raise the stakes'?

Maybe that's why so many plots turn to someone having to save the world - or the whole universe! Those stakes are high enough, right?

In this illuminating clip from The Other Network Writers Room, 30 Rock Co-Exec Producer and Writer John Riggi talks about times when the stakes are too high and plot overshadows character. Many successful current comedies like 30 Rock and The Office, focus on microscopic plots, and great characters, and 30 Rock earned 22 Emmy nominations this year.

With comedy, I think the important thing to remember is that the stakes that are important to the character aren't necessarily global. And in fact, a character's out of proportion caring about their often-miniscule goal, is part of what makes it funny.

Larry Charles is the director behind Sascha Baron Cohen's "Borat" and now "Bruno". He also directed "Masked & Anonymous" with Bob Dylan and "Religulous" with Bill Maher, was a consulting producer and director on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Entourage" and showrunner and executive producer of "The Tick", "Mad About You" and "Dilbert". He also won multiple Emmys as a writer and producer for "Seinfeld", so apparently he knows what he's talking about.

In this excerpt from The Other Network Writers Room series, Larry talks about 'cracking the code' of "Seinfeld" with Larry David and "Borat" with Sascha Baron Cohen.

The full interview is loaded with other inspirational insights plus practical tips about writing comedy and how to get into the business. Get the mp3 digi-download of Larry's interview here - or get the entire Writers Room series (over 9 hours of great inside info from big-time comedy machers like Michael Patrick King, Seth MacFarlane, Alan Zweibel, etc.).

This clip is really fun, but it's also really instructive about stand-up and comedy writing in general. Patton Oswalt delivers a great personally motivated comedy bit about falling in love. Then the ever-vigilant Beth Lapides prompts him to dig a little deeper and he reveals more of the real story and finds comedy gold and a new end to his bit, which will become part of the piece the next time he performs it. Check out the annotated version of "A Nerd in Love" above for specific notes and benchmarks to see how you can make comedy even when things are going well in your personal life - and how much you can do in 3 minutes.

Beth talks to him using the 'back mic', the structural innovation that she created at Un-Cabaret. We set us a second microphone so she can talk to other comedians while they're onstage, to keep them in the moment, to keep the tone conversational, and to push deeper for more comedy. She can do the same for you at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop, but it's possible to do the same thing for yourself. If you're really on your toes.

Hear more Patton performances on the Un-Cabaret compilation CDs, "The Un & Only" and "the Good, the Bad and the Drugly" and on several episodes of the Un-Cabaret podcast on audible.com.

What are your writing and performance goals? What form and medium is best suited?

Beth defines the differences between standup, readings, essays, acting and one-person shows, using analogies from visual art and food prep.

Recorded at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop.

Define and accomplish your creative goals. Audit class on Saturdays, April 18 & 25 - only $10 per class. Next session: Sundays, May 3, 10, 17 (1-4pm) at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine LA 90038.

Editing is really hard - whether you're cutting, re-cutting, re-writing or just trimming. Here's some advice from the pros:

Comedian and author Moon Zappa talks about when to edit. Watch video.

Paul Doucette, drummer of Matchbox 20, has advice on what to do with your 'outs' after you've edited them - whether its music or words. Watch video.

Michael Patrick King, writer/director/executive producer of Sex and the City, tells you how to avoid including things that you'll have to cut later, and encourages you to write before you edit. Plus Beth's 'Couture/Read-to-Wear Theory" of editing. Watch video.

And here's two cents from comedy icon Buck Henry, who has appeared on the Daily Show and Saturday Night Live, co-created Get Smart, and wrote several movies including a little film you may have heard of called The Graduate. Watch video.