Comedic Expressions: Stand up Storytelling

Comedic Expressions: Stand-Up Storytelling is a performance-based residency that bridges stand-up comedy with cognitive flexibility, emotional literacy, and creative writing. The program centers on mastering dialectic truths—the understanding that two opposing realities, like love and hate, can exist at the exact same time.

Using structured prompts, students map out their own "Love/Hate" lists to deconstruct the contradictions in their everyday lives. By reading these lists out loud to the room, students immediately establish shared connection, normalize internal tension, and break through black-and-white thinking.

Rooted in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), and practical emotional regulation strategies, the curriculum uses a scaffolded writing process to refine these lists into focused stand-up sets and comedic monologues. Toward the end of the program, the experience culminates in a live performance showcase where students take the mic, practice radical vulnerability, and speak their truth into power with agency, wit, and confidence.

Key Educational Objectives & Student Outcomes

• Dialectical Thinking & Cognitive Flexibility: Process opposing emotions simultaneously, reducing binary thinking and expanding perspective.
• Shared Connection Through Voice: Read initial lists aloud to build immediate peer validation, active listening, and classroom trust.
• Applied SEL & Emotional Regulation: Channel frustration, anxiety, and daily dualities into structured, cathartic artistic expression.
• Radical Vulnerability & Self-Advocacy: Frame lived experiences and personal truths as creative assets, building confidence to speak truth into power.
• Comedic Craft & Narrative Pacing: Master observational writing, joke mechanics, timing, and setup-to-punchline structure.
• Culminating Live Showcase: Take the stage toward the end of the session to deliver live comedic monologues, building public speaking mastery and stage presence.