Announcing Comedy Book Club

And other prognostications for 2025...

Friends, 2024 is wrapping up. The dust of the dead past clings gently to our boots while the cries of our enemies fade into the distant badlands.

I think now is a great time to not only take stock of all we’ve written and accomplished in 2024 but also to look into the crystal ball and see what’s in store for 2025.

So, today’s post is about sharing what’s to come at Comedy Bizarre. And it’s about getting your feedback and questions.

I’ve opened up Substack comments to everyone on this post. (Comments are normally for paid subscribers.)

Here’s what upcoming in 2025…

1. Comedy Book Club

Starting in January, I'm launching an experiment: a Comedy Bizarre book club where we read and discuss one funny book per month.

As you know, reading funny stuff and asking, "why is that funny?" is a great way to improve your comedy brain. That’s why we’re here.

Additionally, I find it increasingly crucial, for health and wisdom, to escape the incessant chatter of a certain quadrant of the internet. Namely, the hyperactive-social-media-attention-engeering quadrant. Digging into quality long-form literature is a good way to resist The Latest Stupidity™.

In Comedy Book Club, I want us to read and discuss books ranging from straight-up comedic novels all the way to funny literary fiction.

Here’s what I propose: Let’s do “Comedy Book Club” as a three month experiment in January, February, and March. One book per month.

Book Club “meetings” will be on Substack posts. Discussion in the comments section. No pesky Zoom meetings.

I’d like to do two book club discussion posts per month initially. So, in January, post one (early Jan) covers the first half of a book, post two (late Jan) covers the second half of that book.

Here are the books I’d like to read and discuss with you.

January: Leave it to PSmith by P.G. Wodehouse

If you haven’t read Wodehouse, it’s time. Here’s what some “critics” have said…

“The greatest comic writer ever.” — Douglas Adams

“The gold standard of English wit.” — Christopher Hitchens

“Arguably the greatest writer of comic prose ever” - The New York Times

February: Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

March: Slouchers by Mike Sacks

Why these three? Well, these books are each funny in their own ways.

The Wodehouse novel is top-shelf British humor, and Wodehouse himself is a humorist nonpareil.

Bender’s book is inventive literary short stories with lots of weird humor.

And Sacks’s comedy novels are a twisted kind of genius.

Also, if you’re wondering, “How come ‘Slouchers’ says it’s written by E.L. Lessert?” the answer is that’s part of the gag. Slouchers is a novelization of a fake 90s grunge movie. The movie never existed. Sacks did a similar trick with some of his previous books, Stinker Lets Loose (about 70s trucker culture) and Passable in Pink (a parody of 80s teen prom com movies). I read and greatly enjoyed those books, but I have not read Slouchers yet.

And if you’re wondering, “how come all three books have kinda pea green covers,” then the answer is, “I don’t know.”

Anyway, that’s what’s on deck.

The first book club meeting will be open to all subscribers (free or paid), so everyone can participate and get a sense of things. Beyond that, Comedy Book Club will be for paid subscribers.

To join Comedy Book Club:

• Be sure you’re subscribed to Comedy Bizarre—if you’re not already.
  

• Get a copy of P.G. Wodehouse’s Leave it to PSmith. There are several versions, so your PSmith cover may or may not look like the image above.
  

• Read PSmith, and take note of anything you liked or didn’t like or any observations you have on Wodehouse.
  

• First book club “meeting” (Substack post) will be on Monday, January 13. So read the first half of the book by then and be ready to contribute, comment, debate, etc. The first Book Club post will be open to all subscribers (free or paid).
  

• The second book club post, covering the second half of PSmith, will be in late January.

2. New Humor Writing Groups in January

A writing group is the best way to improve your craft and edit your pieces into sharp and publishable shape.

If you subscribe to Comedy Bizarre Annually, you get a cool bonus: I will matchmake you into a great humor writing group of 5-6 fellow badass writers, based on your writing interests.

Writing groups are worth their weight in gold, and finding the right one is hard, so let me do the vetting for ya, friend.

This is a perk for paid annual subscribers. So if you want to join, be sure you have an annual subscription.

If you’re already an annual subscriber and you want a group in 2025, be sure to fill out the 2025 Writing Groups Google form by Dec. 31.

The form link is in the How to Self-Critique and Self-Edit Your Humor Writing post, behind the paywall (scroll all the way to the very end of the post).

3. Deep Dives

I’ve created a new section in the Comedy Bizarre site navigation called “Deep Dives.”

Deep Dives are the occasional long-form posts that will focus on a single topic related to comedy writing craft or the business side of writing. Each post will go into some depth on the topic du jour.

If you click the “Deep Dives” in the nav, you’ll see there are two posts there now:

• How to Self-Critique and Self-Edit Your Humor Writing

• How Much Do Humor Sites Really Pay?

More deep dives are coming in 2025.

I’m planning to write a two-part deep dive on how to market/promote yourself as a writer and how to grow your platform. (In my experience, too much marketing and platform-building advice for writers is annoyingly absolute and context-free.)

And I’ll do other deep dives on writing craft, including one on comedic escalation.

So, you can look forward to those posts in early 2025.

For now, the “Deep Dives” link is a shortcut to those types of posts.

Let me know what types of additional deep dives you want to see in 2025.

4. Writing Deconstructions and Rotating Features

I know that nitty-gritty deconstructions of humor writing (good and bad) are important and valuable to you. So I am planning to do more of those. There is one deconstruction so far: The Shittiest Humor Piece I Ever Wrote.

I’m planning to throw in at least a few deconstructions of Comedy Bizarre subscriber humor writing.

And the regular rotating weekly features will continue.

• Q&A: You ask, I answer.
  

• Short & specific weekly comedy writing tips & tricks. A couple examples:

  • “Riding the train to crazy town” - a tip on comedic escalation

  • “The elusive obvious” - a tip on joke writing
    

• Monthly writing challenges: A specific writing challenge, or writing prompt, to sink your teeth into, at the start of each month. The challenges so far:

  • November 2024: Write a comedic FAQ

  • December 2024: Play with social status in your next piece/story
    

• And a comment section that will grow in power and status.

Those “weekly features” will rotate in and out. Each week will be a little different.

5. Your Turn…

Here are my questions for you:

Will you be partake in Comedy Book Club?

Any feedback? What do you want to see here in 2025?

What questions do you want me to answer in future Q&A segments?

Finally… How’d 2024 go for you, writing-wise? Feel free to drop a link to something you published, in the comments section.