J. Thomas Mayfield is a comedian, writer, and actor living in Los Angeles. He has a degree in writing and producing television from Loyola Marymount University. His long and varied performance career includes musical theatre in Dallas, modern dance in Prague, children’s theatre in Charlotte, working for a magician in Baltimore, a residency in Nagaoka, Japan, stand up and improv comedy in New York City, and a nation-wide tour with his one-man show Everybody Lied to Me. He performs and teaches all over the country. To learn more about him online, go to JThomasMayfield.com, or look for @jthomasmayfield on Twitter and Instagram.
This session will be an opportunity to learn the basics of short-form comedy and sketch writing. First, participants will analyze examples from the greats—Saturday Night Live, Key and Peele, and Amy Schumer—and break down how they built their sketches. Then, with a simple and clear sketch structure, participants will learn how to teach sketch comedy writing to their students.