LITLIT Panel: The Art of Comedic Writing

The Los Angeles Review of Books presents The Art of Comedic Writing, an exploration of the craft of comedy and the stories that it can tell. In an age of nihilism, the demand for whimsy feels like it’s on the rise. From clowns to sitcoms, this conversation will explore the importance and challenge of this kind of writing and why it shouldn't be laughed off. Join comedic writers and performers Christina Catherine Martinez, Maddie Connors, Jibz Cameron (Dynasty Handbag), and Ashley Brooke Roberts as they discuss the power that giving in to laughter holds, in addition to what comedy as a practice and art form can reflect about the world around us.

Join us June 6 + 7 at LITLIT for this and other panels! Held at SCI-Arc, LITLIT: The Little Literary Fair, is a free festival celebrating the West Coast Literary Arts, presented by the Los Angeles Review of Books. Learn more about the presses, publishers, and the whole weekend here!

The Art of Comedic Writing will take place on Saturday, June 6, at 1 p.m. at the SCI-Arc Library. This panel is made possible with support from the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.

Jibz Cameron is a writer, performer, visual artist, and actor. She is most well known for her multimedia performance work as alter ego Dynasty Handbag, which has spanned over 20 years. Jibz is a 2022 Guggenheim fellow, a 2021 United States Artists Award recipient, and a 2020 Creative Capital Award grantee. Her film Weirdo Night, directed by Mariah Garnett, is an official 2021 Sundance Film Festival selection. She released her first comedy record, The Bored Identity, on Wacky Wacko records.

Maddie Connors is a comedian and writer based in Los Angeles who has written for The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W Magazine. She’s a writer for the Short Takes column at the Los Angeles Review of Books. She has an MFA in creative nonfiction from Bennington College. Her stand-up has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, and she has written for CollegeHumor and Reductress.

Christina Catherine Martinez is a writer, actor, art critic, and comedian in Los Angeles. She’s been named a “Comic to Watch” by Time Out Los Angeles and a “Comedian You Should Know” by Vulture/New York magazine. She writes for Frieze, Artforum, Bookforum, the Los Angeles Times, Texte zur Kunst, and also for television, including Women Wearing Shoulder Pads and The Eric Andre Show. She stars in the PBS documentary The Art of Clown and the short-form series Two Pink Doors on FX/Hulu. She is the recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and is the author of the essay collection Aesthetical Relations, published by Hesse Presse. Her experimental half-hour How to Bake a Cake in the Digital Age was named "A Comedy Special You Should Definitely Watch" by New York Magazine in 2024.

Ashley Brooke Roberts is a comedian, writer, and proud etcetera-er. She teaches 10-year-olds stand-up at Gotham Comedy Club throughout the year. She performs live versions of her newsletter Ashley Explains It All sporadically at Union Hall in Brooklyn, New York. For five years, she hosted a stand-up show every Thursday at the UCB East Village called Fresh Out! NY before the beloved venue closed. She currently writes for Ask Me Another on NPR.

This event is made possible with support of the Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Breakfast Club.