Jim
Richardson
One of America's Leading Stand-Up Comedy
and Presentation Coaches,
Jim Richardson
is one of America's leading humor, stand-up comedy and public speaking
coaches, with a background spanning nearly four decades in keynote
speaking, theater, public speaking, Stand-Up
Comedy Workshops and coaching speakers
and performers.
Jim
holds a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Carnegie-Mellon University, and a Bachelors Degree in English and Minor in
Television and Film Direction from San Francisco State
University. He was awarded The NDEA Fellowship in Playwriting at
Carnegie-Mellon University, and has conducted Ph.D. Studies and
Research at Carnegie-Mellon and Harvard Universities.
Jim Richardson not only talks the talk, but he
walks the walk, too, having given hundreds speeches, classes, seminars and
consulting sessions, creating over 1,200 pages of workbooks and 21 hours
of recorded audio for his coaching and instruction programs.
Jim has written over 200 stage, film and stand-up comedy reviews for the
San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle and other publications, produced comedy
shows at hundreds of professional comedy venues, and created the first
college-level, for-credit stand-up comedy course in America.
His private clients include award winning stand-up comedians, Emmy award
winning television personalities, actors, and leaders in fields such as
religion, law, politics and business.
From 1981 through 1983, Jim had the invaluable
experience of conducting weekend Comedy Marathon Contests for beginning
comedians. He organized and led a total of 48 of these
four-hour-long contests, one every six
weeks.
Each Comedy Marathon consisted of:
a) Four Mini-Contests: three
to five minutes each, on a specific topic: Improvisations;
Impressions; Topical Monologue; etc., with different topics
rotating each month;
b) a
main Five-Minute Monologue Contest consisting of ten judging
categories and with available points spread evenly between Writing and
Delivery.
To prepare them for all five contests, Jim's
students were required to create 18 minutes of new original material every
six weeks.
As judges for these competitions, Jim invited
top radio, television and print media professionals from San Francisco and
California's North Coast.
Comedians came from a wide area to compete,
but when the dust cleared, Jim Richardson's students won 47 out of
48 competitions, giving convincing proof that Jim's academic
approach to developing comics was faster, better, more efficient, and
ultimately more successful for the comics, than the traditional open mic
system. There was something special about Jim Richardson's coaching,
and as word spread professional comedians began hiring Jim as their
coach.
Here's what just a few of Jim's professional
clients and friends have to say:
"Jim, I've got to hand it to you: it
really works. What a feeling! I was able to hold one laugh for
25 seconds. Thank you.
-- Ross Shafer, Emmy-Award-Winning Entertainer, Television
Host of The Match Game, Fox TV's The Late
Show.
"It's about a lot
more than just writing jokes. Jim also helps you choreograph
them. He's what you want: not just a coach, but a scholar and
historian. Someone who really knows the
subject."
-- David Feldman,
Emmy-Award-Winning Writer, for HBO's Real Time With Bill
Maher, Dennis Miller Live, and HBO's Dennis
Miller Show.
"Jim Richardson's
comedy class helped me prepare and execute a comedy routine that won the
$100,000 grand prize in the comedy division of Ed McMahon's Star
Search."
-- Taylor Mason, Award-Winning
Comedian, ten times on NBC's The Today Show, Star of his own
television show, Taylor's Attic.
"Jim, I couldn't
have won the 1981 San Francisco and National Comedy Competitions broadcast
on Showtime cable TV without you!"
-- Ronn Lucas, Ventriloquist,
many times on The Tonight Show, Stared in his own
Disney Channel Special, a Las Vegas
regular.
"Jim wants you to
think only of being a headliner . . . It worked for me: I've
won contests and had appearances on national television. I'm now a
comedy headliner!"
-- Del Van Dyke, Comedian, It's Showtime at the
Apollo, MTV's Half Hour Comedy Hour, Showtime
Comedy Club Network, Black Entertainment Television's
Comedy Hour, Comic's View, ABC's George
Schlatter's Comedy Club, A&E's Good Time Cafe,
Winner of the 1986 Great Northern California Comedy Competition,
the 1987 Spokane Comedy Competition, the 1992 Alameda Comedy
Competition.
"Jim Richardson's website, www.jimrichardson.com, is loaded with tips,
tutorials, techniques, and tricks of the trade not only for comedians, but
for any public speaker who needs to give presentations that count.
I've been a professional presenter for years, and the six hours I've spent
with Jim Richardson's website (so far) has been one of the most valuable
learning experiences of my career."
-- Horace J. Digby, Writer, Filmmaker and Broadcast Host,
Winner of The Robert Benchley Society Award For Humor.
Jim's website teaches you: how to tell jokes, how
to write jokes, how to handle hecklers, how to use proper stage mechanics
to choreograph your presentation, how to give interviews, and much much
more, FREE, at www.jimrichardson.com.
Jim Richardson's coaching, consultations and
prepared teaching materials go way beyond the basics that others may
teach, to train you in professional arts such as: How to Write
"Tight" comedy; How to Keep it Original;
How to Develop Unique Characterization; How to Make Audiences
Like You (even more than they do now); How to Express Your
Personal View; How to make your presentation Topical; How to
Deliver Your Presentation; Physical Techniques for Getting Your
Points Across; How To Take the Stage; How to Make Your
Performance Local, Relevant and Intelligent; and How to
Perform With Variety of Format and Content; and even
more.
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