Dave Fox

Classes and Presentations with Dave Fox

Dave presents informative workshops, presentations, and keynote speeches infused with his lively humor.

Having recently moved from Seattle to Singapore, he's now offering online versions of his popular travel and humor writing workshops, as well as one-on-one writing and humor coaching -- online, by phone, or in person in Singapore. (And he can find a time zone that works wherever you happen to be!)

For more info, choose one of the following links or just scroll down the page.

Upcoming Presentations and Online Writing Workshops


Dave's got two online writing workshops on deck. They are wildly fun, and also make great gifts for your favorite aspiring writers!

Just Announced : November 17 - December 22
Advanced Humor Critique Group
This intermediate / advanced critique group is for anyone who has already taken one of Dave's humor classes, or who has some basic humor writing experience and wants to bulk up their comedic muscles.

We'lll have a cozy, online group where you can submit a story a week for five weeks (1,000 words maximum, please, though if you have wordier projects you're working with, let Dave know and he'll try to help). You can submit something totally new each week, or a revised version of something you've already written -- whichever is most useful to you. (And as before, if you work with a different humor genre, such as stand-up comedy, script writing, fiction, or cartooning, you're welcome to focus on that too.)

Unlike the first class, this critique group will not include detailed weekly lessons (hence the slightly lower price of $149 for five weeks). Dave will send out a short prompt each week to give you ideas for your writing. You can follow that prompt for inspiration, or write whatever you like.

Is this group right for you? If you have already taken Dave's primary humor course, "Professional Humor Tricks for Writers, Speakers, and Other Misfits," you'll do fine here. You know how Dave's critiques work. If you have taken one of Dave's shorter, in-person humor workshops, or if you already have some humor writing experience and don't feel you need the basic course, drop Dave an e-mail -- with a writing sample or some info on your writing / humor background -- and he will let you know if this course sounds like a good fit for you. If not, his more structured class starts up again on February 14.

To Sign Up or For More Info, Please E-mail Dave at dave@davethefox.com

 

New Online Workshop: January 10 - February 7, 2012
Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Tales
Geared toward beginning and intermediate travel writers, this five-week course will focus on a specific type of travel writing: the personal travel tale. We'll start with a crash course in how to write lively and meaningful travel journals. Then, we'll craft those "rough draft" diaries into polished stories we can share with friends, put in a blog, or publish professionally.

Each week, you'll receive a lesson via e-mail, and optional exercises related to that lesson. In our private, online group, you'll have the chance to critique and be critiqued by your classmates in a supportive and encouraging environment.

Get Full Details and Sign Up Here!



New Online Workshop: February 14 - March 20, 2012
Professional Humor Tricks for Writers, Speakers, and Other Misfits
Discover the techniques professional comedy writers use to write consistently, exceptionally funny material. This six-week workshop will teach you how to think, write, and be funnier. (You will not learn how to smell funnier. You must figure out that part on your own.)

Each week's lesson will offer techniques and exercises to help incite maximum laughs. Dave will help you develop your own voice and personal style, and identify common mistakes that might be holding you back from being as funny as you can be.

Get Full Details and Sign Up Here!

 

Dayton, Ohio: April 18-21, 2012
Catch Dave at the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop
Travel humorists don’t dream of smooth journeys. When chaos strikes, our funniest stories are born. Learn more when Dave speaks at the 2012 Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop in Dayton, Ohio. The topic: "Travel Catastrophes for Fun and Profit."

This is the workshop that launched Dave's career as an author in 2004 when he won their book proposal contest for his best-selling title, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad. It's the primo humor writing workshop in the United States, and it will open soon for enrollment. In the past, it has sold out within nine days, so if you are interested in going, check back frequently to the humorwriters.org website to find out when they start accepting payments.

Get Full Details !


Class Descriptions

Below, you'll find descriptions of Dave's most popular in-person presentations. He also offers costomized keynotes, tailored to your group.

Getting Lost
Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad

“When you travel, things go wrong.” That might not sound like uplifting advice, but Dave proves otherwise as he shares stories from his award-winning book of travel humor essays, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad, as well as more recent tales of his adventures in Asia and Africa. A veteran tour guide for PBS travel guru Rick Steves, Dave has spent much of his life traveling overseas and trying not to make a mess of things. At age eight, he nearly started a riot in Tunisia. In college, he discovered that two words of a foreign language can be enough to convince the police to stop pointing machine guns at you. As a pseudo-adult, he has rescued tour groups from drunken rodents, helped prevent a knife fight in the Vatican, and discovered that quacking like a duck can cure traveler's burnout. He also recently drove into the Kalahari Desert where he taught a group of Kalahari Bushmen how to play Frisbee. This talk is full of laughs, along with spoonfuls of history, language, and culture, and a message that will inspire you to embrace the moments in your own travels when things don't go as planned. Dave can also tailor this keynote to the interests of private groups.
Length: 20 to 90 minutes

How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals
And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip
Recommended in the Wall Street Journal
Every journey has two parallel experiences — the external, in which we observe the world around us, and the internal, in which we visit new places within ourselves. With foreign surroundings as a backdrop, you'll learn to tap your deeper emotions and create vivid travelogues for yourself and others. Simple but powerful exercises will help you discover your unique voice as a travel writer. You'll explore different journaling techniques to find the style that's right for you, and learn ways to overcome one of the biggest challenges in travel journaling simply finding time to write when there is so much else to do! Whether you're writing for yourself or publication, whether your explorations take you around the block or around the world, this class will help you tune in to your inner journey. You'll travel and write with exciting new insight. For related articles and exercises, please see the online version.
Length: Varies. This class can be taught in a single session from one to three hours, or as a hands-on seminar of up to five two-hour sessions.

How to Write Phenomenal Travel Tales
Turn your travel adventures into stories you can publish! Dave Fox helps you take your travel diaries to the next level and polish your journal entries into personal essays. Explore sub-genres such as adventure travel, self-discovery, and Dave's specialty: travel humor. Learn how to identify great topics, shine up your rough drafts, and work within an editor's requested word count. Dave will also talk about places where you can publish your work, from personal travel blogs to paying markets such as books and magazines.
Length: One to two hours

Professional Humor Tricks for Writers, Speakers, and Other Misfits
Well-written humor can inspire your readers to smile, laugh, and beg for more. Poorly-written humor, on the other hand, can inspire them to hunt you down and throw stuff at you. Whether you’re writing full-blown comedy, or just wanting to liven up your words and infuse laughter into other genres, this class teaches you how to think funny and write funny without getting splattered in the head with a tomato. In this fun, hands-on workshop, Dave teaches his favorite techniques for finding, creating, and strengthening the laughter in your work.

This workshop covers:

  • Surprise: The universal element of humor
  • Proven techniques to create or strengthen your humor
  • Giving your jokes maximum impact with the right words and timing
  • Stretching your humor to make it even funnier
  • How to critique and learn from professional humorists
  • When and why to throw away your best joke
  • Markets for humor writers
  • How to not be that annoying guy at the party with the lampshade on his head

The class touches on a wide range of genres from personal essays and humor columns to stand-up and sketch comedy. While it focuses on written humor, the techniques are also great for public speakers.

(Dave also offers a six-week online version of this workshop.)

Scampering through Scandinavia
A Slideshow Journey through Europe's Nordic Countries

Explore the diversity of Europe's Nordic countries — from agricultural Denmark, to industrial Sweden, to fjord-splintered Norway. Discover why the Vikings were such great travelers as we meander through the Land of the Midnight Sun. Learn what the Danes call a Danish pastry and why Finland isn't really part of Scandinavia. We'll visit a salty fishing island, frolic in fjord country, and compare capitals in Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki.
Length: One to two hours

The Vikings
For centuries, the Vikings have been known as ruthless plunderers who rampaged through Europe in the Middle Ages. While there is some accuracy to this stereotype, they were more civilized than their reputation suggests. Master shipbuilders, navigators, and craftsmen, many Vikings led peaceful lives. Pagans in their early days, they later brought Scandinavia in line with the rest of Christian Europe. The Vikings were the force that would ultimately unite Northwestern Europe's minor chiefdoms into the nations that make up Scandinavia today. In this lecture, Dave explains who the Vikings really were, and why they have such a merciless reputation. From the first documented Viking raid in 793 AD to their eventual absorbtion into the rest of Europe 300 years later, learn about the Vikings' history, society, and the truths and fallacies behind the Viking stereotypes.
Length: One hour

European Travel Skills
Everything you need to know for a successful romp in the European playground. Dave teaches you how to plan an itinerary that will maximize your time without wearing you out. Find out when to use a travel agent and when not to, how to get the best deals on flights, and how to find cozy, family-run hotels for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay. Dave untangles the confusing web of European railpass options, and discusses when renting a car is an asset and when it's a headache. Get tips on the formidable task of how to pack light, plus travel safety, hurdling language barriers, changing money, and more — with plenty of time for questions and answers. This class is based on Rick Steves' best-selling travel skills book, "Europe Through the Back Door." Dave worked with Rick Steves for 16 years, and shares his tips as a professional traveler with a lifetime of experience.
Length: One to two hours.

 

Dave's Clients

Dave Fox is available to speak to groups of five or 500. Here are some of the organizations he has spoken for in the past:

  • Princess Märtha Louise of Norway (Opening Speaker: April, 2006)
  • Rick Steves' Travel Seminars
  • Holland America Cruises
  • The Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop
  • REI
  • Barnes & Noble Bookstores
  • Wisconsin Book Festival
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison Travel Center
  • Seattle University
  • Portland Community College
  • Pierce County Dental Association
  • Westcott Bay Institute of San Juan Island, Washington
  • Deaf-Blind Club of Seattle
  • Libraries around Washington State
  • Rotary International
  • Sons of Norway

Dave also gives lively radio and television interviews. He has been a guest on the following programs:

  • "Weird U.S." - The History Channel
  • National New Year's Eve Broadcast, 2010 - ABC Radio, Australia
  • "The Morning Show" - ABC Radio, Perth, Australia
  • "Travels with Rick Steves" - Public Radio, United States
  • "The Travel Show" - WABC Radio, New York
  • "Travel Talk Radio" and "Business Travel Radio" with Sandy Dhuyvetter (Syndicated Internationally)
  • Q13 Television Morning News - Seattle, Washington
  • "Community Matters" - AM 1090, Seattle, Washington
  • "Escapes with Ann Lombardi" - Radio Sandy Springs, Atlanta, Georgia
How to Contact Dave

Whether he is in the United States or leading tours in Europe, you can reach Dave by e-mail at dave@davethefox.com.

Dave's Mailing Lists

Join Dave's mailing list to receive e-mail about upcoming classes when they are announced. For more information, please visit the Mailing List page.

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