This chapter critiques the traditional model of stand-up comedy workshops and proposes an alternative, affectively attuned approach grounded in play, collaboration and collective empowerment. Drawing on affect theory (Massumi 2010), it argues that the emotional tone of a room—its “atmosphere” (Brennan, The Transmission of Affect, Cornell University Press, 2004)—shapes what participants can do and who they can become. Rather than treating laughter as a by-product of jokes, the chapter reframes it as a collective force that can create the conditions for comic performance—reconnecting women with their sense of humour and unlocking the creative potential that traditional, hierarchical workshop models can often suppress. Reframing the workshop around atmosphere positions it as a feminist site of experimentation and care, where laughter is a medium for reorganising power and rehearsing more capacious ways of living.