Miami Ad School has two new courses for creative who want to surge ahead in their careers. Comedian and celebrity speaker, Marty Wilson, will teach Stand Up. Creative founder of Hungry Beast, Simon will 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 of his course.

Marty Wilson

“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.

Simon Veksner

Wilson’s ideas about what the business world needs right now have made him a popular and influential speaker. “If success has a flavour, it’s not ham & pineapple,” he says of the need to think and act differently.

Wilson knows rather more than most about thinking differently and changing. He is a former Australian Comic of the Year who worked as a full time Stand Up in the UK for 8 years. “So while my keynotes and group workshops are full of scientific research, positive psychology plus takeaway tips and strategies, they’re all wrapped up in countless laugh-out-loud stories to help people embrace behavioural change in a less painful, more productive way.”

He is the only Australian invited to speak at the third annual Funny Business conference held in San Francisco in June.

Wilson is also 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 LA, 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 worked in top agencies throughout his 20 year career, including Naked Communications, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB London, BBH, and DDB Sydney. He has won all the awards that matter, including a Cannes Grand Prix (he co-created the VW Cops ad) and an impressive array of Cannes Lions, plus two D&AD Pencils and more than 40 D&AD In-Book entries.

Veksner founded Sydney social media agency, Hungry Beast, in August last year. “Mission: creating better content. Let’s face it, a lot of the content in Social right now is quite average.”

In 2010, he published a book for young creatives called How To Make It As An Advertising Creative. His second book,  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.

By the end of the 10-week courses, students will have crafted a publishable short story and have performed their 6 minute stand-up routine set in front of an audience.

Miami Ad School 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 July 4 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.

Find out more by contacting Helga Diamond here.

Or jump across to the website.