All Things Comedy with Anne Libera (The Second City)

In this episode, Amanda chats with Professor Anne Libera—Director of Comedy Studies at the prestigious comedy club The Second City in Chicago—about how comedy works and why we need it. Anne Libera is an Associate Professor and Director of Comedy Studies at Columbia College Chicago and The Second City and served as Director of Pedagogy for The Second Science Project. She has presented on topics in improvisation and comedy at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Chicago Ideas Week, Chicago Humanities Festival, and guest lectured at the Stanford Business School. Directing credits include Stephen Colbert's one man show Describing a Circle, The Madness of Curious George, Computer Chips and Salsa, and The Second City Goes to War as well as Second City touring productions all over the world. Her book The Second City Almanac of Improvisation is published by Northwestern University Press who will also publish her upcoming book Funnier: A Theory of Comedy with Practical Applications.   The Science Write Now (SWN) Podcast is for people who love science and the arts. If you’re interested in learning more about great books, plays, and films; writing, research or editing; the lives of scientists; and creative insights into contemporary science; then you’ve come to the right place!The SWN Podcast is hosted by Amanda Niehaus and Jessica White and produced by Taylor Mitchell with funding from the Australia Council for the Arts.You can also find and follow us online - on Twitter - on Instagram - and on Facebook! Enjoyed this episode? Share the SWN love!If you liked this episode, leave us a review and share it far and wide. Science Write Now is dedicated to accessibility, connectivity, inspiration and collaboration across disciplines. Our content is free to access and we want to keep it that way, so if you’re keen to be part of this growing community of creative writing inspired by science, hit subscribe!We’ll be back with another episode soon, and more conversations inspired by science and creativity to come!We acknowledge the Jaegara and Turrbal People, Traditional Owners of the land on which this podcast is created, and the unceded cultural lands on which our guests live and continue to make and tell stories.