Speaking Topics
Now appearing through Zoom
BOOKING
Virtual: Dan Hudak
In-person (L.A.): Jeannine Frank, 310-666-9066
Charities/Political FREE: contact David directly
Talks are 1-2 hours and include hundreds of video clips, from Chaplin to
Chappelle, Keaton to Key & Peele, the Marx Brothers to Monty Python.
(Topics include adult language, images and ideas, and are generally not
appropriate for children. But hey, not all children are the same, right?
Like, yours are brilliant and preternaturally mature, so no problem.)
For General Audiences
(For more info, click images or blue text.
For a printable 1-page list of topics, click here.)
Comedy vs. The Apocalypse
How laughter helps us cope with calamity, manage
misery and deal with doom. (60/75/90m; trailer, video)
Yucks from Ancient Greece to yesterday afternoon.
(60/75/90m; video: “The Anthropology of Ha!” #1,2;
“Comedy vs. the Apocalypse” #1, at 2:35)
From silly (Henny Youngman’s one-liners)
to filthy (“The Aristocrats”), every joke
ever told shows how comedy works. (Trailer)
(60/75/90m; video: “How Comedy Works” #5,6)
Gilbert & Sullivan to Bo Burnham. (60/90/120m; trailer,
video) / “A true satire scholar” – Houston Chronicle
“Fantastic, fun, entertaining” – Grammy Museum
Also: “Political Musical Satire.”
Is there a connection between comedy and Jews?
What are you, meshuga? (60/75/90m; trailer)
Also: “Jewish Musical Satire.” (60/75/90m; trailer)
Could there be congruences between funny and fear,
gore and gags, slapstick and slaughter? Yes. (60/90/120m;
video) See David’s essay in “Horrific Humor”(excerpt).
Physical humor seems cruel… but is it?
How comedy uses and abuses the body.
(60m; video: “How Comedy Works” #4,5)
The relationship between comedy and the divine.
(Yes, there is one.) (60/90m; trailer, video)
See David’s essay “The F-Word” in “Faith: Essays
from Believers, Agnostics and Atheists”(excerpt).
The origins, purpose and meaning
of laughter. (60/90m; video: “The
Anthropology of Ha!” #3,4,5)
Artificial Intelligence and perception shift, dopamine and
deception; how your brain fathoms the funny. (60/90m;
trailer, video) (I don’t like to brag – he said braggily –
but here’s a surprisingly detailed reaction to this talk.)
“The Worst Music of All Time”
(and what it can tell us about the best)
Can bad music help explain what’s good? Billy Joel,
The Bee Gees, William Shatner and Bob Dylan show us.
COURSES
(primarily for general audiences)
There are survey courses in Art, History,
Art History and History of Art History.
Isn’t it time to take Comedy seriously?
(Six 2-hour classes; trailer; video – bits of everything)
(Also available: three 75 or 90-min. classes)
SEMINAR
(primarily for professional/academic audiences)
The rules, philosophy, psychology and biology of comedy.
Including comedy vs. logic, comedy vs. drama, and
the secret life of jokes. (3 hours; trailer, video)
(Also available: “The Art & Craft of Comedy” –
one 7-hour or two 3½-hour presentations.)
