Learn from Jonathan Tessero, award-nominated writer, director, and creative consultant trusted by Tony and Emmy-winning producers to make scripts sharper, funnier, and more shootable!

You’ll also receive two downloadable guides packed with punch-up techniques you can start using immediately to make your script land bigger laughs and sharper moments.

If you’re writing a feature film, whether a character-driven comedy, a heartfelt dramedy, or a genre piece with sharp wit, you already have something special. Today’s marketplace is full of good stories, but the scripts that truly shine are the ones that hit harder, land funnier, and move faster. You’ve done incredible work: you’ve built characters you care about, shaped scenes that serve your story, and crafted dialogue that sparkles with subtext and desire. Now it’s time to take everything you’ve created to the next level and transform your script into a Hollywood-ready gem with the power of the punch-up!

But punch-up can feel like a mysterious, intimidating step - mostly because no one ever really teaches it. You may have heard vague notes like “make it funnier,” “lift this moment,” or “sharpen the turn,” without any real guidance on how to do that without breaking the scene you’ve already shaped so carefully. Maybe you’ve tried the obvious fixes: adding jokes, trimming lines, swapping a word or two. Or maybe you’re stuck on a pivotal beat and don’t know if the solution is tightening, deepening, heightening, or rewriting behavior instead of dialogue. Punch-up isn’t a punishment, and it can’t rescue a bad draft, what it can do is transform a good script into the version that gets made instead of passed around to script doctors. It’s a craft of rhythm, tension, specificity, escalation, and character-driven choices. And once you understand the toolkit, you can use it to tune your script before anyone else touches it.

That’s exactly why Jonathan Tessero is the perfect guide for this webinar. Jonathan is an award-nominated writer, director, and producer whose work across theater, film, television, and live entertainment has earned acclaim from The New York Times as “sentimental… quietly affecting… and very funny.” He brings more than two decades of experience writing and directing material for actors, comedians, musicians, models, and performers across Broadway, Las Vegas, arenas worldwide, and major U.S. television networks. His expertise lies in understanding how jokes land, how character shapes voice, and how performers bring dialogue to life—making him a trusted creative consultant and script doctor for Tony and Emmy-winning producers. When it comes to rewriting, rhythm, and comedic architecture, Jonathan has not only taught the craft—he has lived it at the highest professional level.

In this webinar, you’ll break down what punch-up actually is, why it matters, and how great writers think about rewriting. You’ll learn how to diagnose what a scene truly needs, sharpen rhythm and turns, use behavior to elevate comedy and character, apply structural tools that strengthen emotional and comedic impact, and rewrite without losing your voice. With practical approaches, the “Five Fast Punch-Up Fixes,” and handouts like the Punch Up and Pass Checklist and Guide to Function, Impact, and Cost of Making That a Joke, you’ll walk away with a clear, actionable framework for elevating your script and the confidence to polish your story into its strongest, funniest, most shootable version yet.

PLUS! You Will Receive:

• Two downloadable guides packed with punch-up techniques you can start using immediately to make your script land bigger laughs and sharper moments.

• How Great Writers Think about Rewriting

• Why punch-up isn’t about “fixing what’s wrong”, but starting from what’s working

• What punch-up actually is (and why it’s NOT just adding jokes)

• Why even good scripts need a polish pass

• The mindset shift that turns rewriting into power, from punishment

• How to Diagnose What Your Scene Really Needs

• How to identify the emotional engine of a scene

• How to spot flat turns, dead pacing, and soft tension

• The “missing beat” technique that unlocks stuck moments

• When a scene needs tightening vs. deepening

• Approaches to Punching Up a Scene 

• Techniques for sharpening rhythm, turn moments, and buttons

• Humor and when it costs more than it accomplishes

• How to match the emotional engine of a beat or scene

• Beat-level adjustments vs full passes

• The Five Fast Punch-Up Fixes You Can Use Immediately
  
  

• How Character Choices Create Comedy, Conflict, and Truth

• Devise behavior that reveals character

• Use psychological logic to drive funnier and more authentic choices

• Diagnose when a scene’s problem is behavior, not verbal

• Turn character flaws, tactics, and copying mechanisms into punch-up engines

• Structural Punch-Up Tools That Transform Moments

• Escalation patterns that create comedic and emotional power

• Status games, collision moments, and POV clashes

• Setup/payoff architecture hidden inside your script

• Structural reversals and turns that sharpen, surprise, and reshape

• How to Build Scenes Directors Want to Shoot and Actors Don’t Want to Change

• How to Rewrite Without Losing What You Love 

• How to elevate without demolishing

• Knowing what to cut, what to keep, and what to protect

• How to maintain your voice across characters that have their own

• How to navigate the layers of rewriting from the pitch to page to production

• Q&A with Jonathan Tessero

• Screenwriters stuck on a specific scene, sequence, or comedic moment.

• Creatives who keep hearing notes like “make it funnier” or “lift this moment” and want clear, practical tools for how to actually do that.

• Writers who want to strengthen pacing, rhythm, reversals, and comedic timing in their work.

• Filmmakers who want to understand how performance, behavior, and character choices drive comedy.

• Comedy writers looking to deepen emotional engines and heighten comedic beats without relying on joke passes.

• Drama or genre writers who want to inject sharper humor, personality, and specificity into scenes.

• Scripted content creators preparing material for actors, directors, or producers and want to make their pages irresistible.

• Any writer who wants a repeatable punch-up framework they can apply to every draft moving forward.