Miami Ad School today announced that comedian and celebrity speaker Marty Wilson has been engaged to teach ‘Stand Up’ and creative and writer Simon Veksner to teach ‘Story Writing & Wordsmithing’.

‘Improvisation, learning to think humorously, writing and presentation skills and resilience are essential skills for young creatives if they want to stand out in today’s industry,’ Wilson said (pictured below).

‘Equally valuable for young copy writers is the craft of writing, with developing plot structures, character and action development, to create content. It is very pleasing to see that Miami Ad School teaches these traditional skills,’ Veksner added (pictured below).

Wilson, a former Australian Comic of the Year worked as a full time headlining Stand Up artist in the UK for seven years. A Pharmacist turned Award-Winning Advertising Copywriter turned Stand Up Comic turned Bestselling Author and Speaker, he now helps people and businesses use humour and levity to lead behaviour change in the areas of health and innovation. He is the only Australian invited to speak at the third annual ‘Funny Business’ conference held in San Francisco in June.

Wilson is the author of 18 books, including the bestselling What I Wish I Knew series, based on over 1,000 interviews with inspirational and successful people, from footy coach Wayne Bennett to a Buddhist Nun who works with prisoners on death row in L.A., from Comic Anh Do to a mother of eleven children, from a 911 survivor to chef Maggie Beer.

He writes for Reader’s Digest, the Sydney Morning Herald and a dozen magazines, and regularly appears on Sunrise.

Simon Veksner, writer and creative, has had an 20-year advertising career spanning agencies including Naked Communications, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB London, BBH, and DDB Sydney and has won awards including a Cannes Grand Prix (he co-created the VW ‘Cops’ ad) and multiple Cannes Lions, plus two D&AD Pencils and over 40 D&AD In-Book entries. Founder of Sydney-based Social Media agency Hungry Beast. HungryBeast.co

In 2010, Veksner published a book aimed at young creatives called How To Make It As An Advertising Creative, and his second book titled ‘100 Ideas That Changed Advertising’ came out in 2015. His Scamp blog was the most popular advertising blog in the UK and in 2013 he re-launched Scamp in Sydney, where it has become a weekly feature on Campaign Brief.
Students will have crafted a publishable short story and perform their six minute standup set in front of an audience at the end of the 10 week course.

The courses are taught in 10 weekly 3-hour sessions in the evenings, from 6.30pm to 9.30pm at the school on level 5, 2-12 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills. Stand Up will commence on Monday 4 July and Story Writing on July 7.

The School has four places available in the Stand Up course and six places in the Story Writing course. Tuition costs for each course is $1,250. If two courses are booked tuition costs are $2,350.