Finally!

Through all my research so far I have finally found talk about sketch writing. Gene Perret who wrote "The New Comedy Writing" also wrote for the Carol Burnett show and has a chapter in his book all about sketch writing. The information is also pretty detailed and gave me a lot of insight to sketch writing.

Perret says that sketches need to consist of 1. A Premise 2. Some complications 3. As resolution (or ending). By the look of the sketches I wrote, I feel I have all 3 of these. However, my sketches are not very long so the 3 of these elements seen to blend together.

Perret does a lot of detailing of how he wrote sketches and the problems he had in trying to work out the resoultions. Some of them worked and some didn't, so rewrites had to be done and that type of thing. What he does a good job at is explaining what a premise actually is. It is not simply, "A man works in a power plant" as that is just a setting. The premise would be "A man works in a power plant and spills coffee on the board knocking out power to the power plant" (that is a bad example but shows exactly what a premise is). You have to have something happen. I think, for the most part, the sketches I have do that.

After reading Perret I think that I work somewhat backwards in the realm of sketch writing. Instead of coming up with a premise and working to a resolution (which Perret says is the most difficult part) I always seem to have the end of the sketches in mind, and have to work my way to that. I prefer this method since to me, the endings are the most important, it gives the audience the jolt, or the punchline. I don't think there is a right or wrong way, that is just the way I write my comedy.

As well, Perret made a great point in that not all jokes have to be great jokes. Some need to be less funny than others as the laughter is a type of snowball effect. Little laughs grow to bigger ones, and than after the big laugh the little jokes carry on the laughter. That made me feel differently about my main sketch in the script I wrote. Someone said that the jokes that ended the segments may need a sharper punch. I agreed but after reading that I thought that the main sketch has the greatest surprise ending, so I shouldn't have enormous laughs before it. Leave those to the littler sketches and end on a crazy note.

We will see how it goes.

1st Script Finished

I have finished the script for the first episode of the sketch show and am pretty pleased with it. Of course, during the course of filming more than likely things will change (dialogue, plot, etc) but at this moment I think it is pretty solid. I have shown it to quite a few people and have heard good things. I would probably have prefered some more critique but for people who aren't writer's, sometimes they don't know what to look for. As long as it makes sense to them and they find some of it funny I take that as a good sign.

As for my research, I am still looking around for books and articles. There still does not seem to be a lot of books about sketch comedy. But, today I recieved some more interlibrary loan books on SNL and Second City, so hopefully they will have some useful information.

Next thing I plan to do is have a film crew meeting as well as drawing up some storyboards and finding locations (most of those have already been found).

Comedy Resources

It has been relatively difficult to find many sources (or at least scholarly ones) on comedy, and especially sketch comedy. For some reason, people don't feel the need to write about it. However, I have found some books of comedy techniques and how to write for TV and that sort of thing. The book I am looking through right now is called "The New Comedy Writing". It is written by Gene Perret who used to write jokes for Phyllis Diller and other television shows.

What he has said is that comedy, like anything else, can be improved through practice. He also gives examples of what a comedy writer should do to help their writing. For instance, he says that writers should be able to proficient with language, since most jokes come from words. The better you are with words, and their meanings, the better your jokes could be. He also says you should be able to visualize and scan your surroundings for jokes.

Some of this may sound straight forward, but he does a great job of explaining why it is useful (something i probably haven't done). These are things I normally do anyway, but it is refreshing to hear someone say this, especially who has become a big shot in the comedy writing game. It makes me feel that I'm on the right track.

Some writing, more needed

Recently, I have just been working on writing the sketches for the television show. The ones I have written I am pretty happy with. They are short, but so far I have received a good response from the people who I have shown them too. Hopefully, they will translate well to the screen. I have a good feeling about them though.

I still need more sketches. I have other ideas, but a lot of them may be out of the realms of what I will be able to work with. I know other ideas will come to me, but I need to stop forcing them, since that is when nothing comes to me.

I have been watching The Kids in the Hall and paying close attention to how they structure their sketches, as well as the content within them. I find them very funny because the sketches are, at times, very strange (or the idea around the character(s) scenarios is weird). The sketches can be pretty smart too, which I think makes them funnier. I would like my sketches to be within the same realm as theirs in a sense. Though, my ideas don't tend to be so outrageous to start with, but the endings of them should have a type of shock element to them. I think that is how good comedy works, since you don't see the joke coming.

Also, with The Kids in the Hall, in the later series they are sketches that continue throughout the episode. That was how I was planning on doing mine. Have one major sketch, with a story arch, and placing mini ones in between. This idea comes up in another show that I will mention in my next post.

Here is a sketch from The Kids in the Hall I think is really smart.

Quick update

So far, I have basically just been working on the sketch/tv show ideas. They are coming along. I realise that it is going in a slightly different direction than I initially intended, but one which I think is going to be pretty weird. A little darker perhaps too. The different direction is mainly that the sketches are longer than I anticipated, but they are going to stretch over the entire series (There would be a 6 episode season, which I'm basing off a normal British series length, which I am influenced by).

Also, I have been looking for different resources. The main aspect of that is just digging around to see what I can find and what I feel will be useful for my project.

Other than that, nothing too exciting to mention. I find these initial stages pretty slow. Whoa is the life of sketch comedy.

How to Begin a Comm Capstone

I am re-posting this post on this blog since I think I did it incorrectly on the previous one. So if anyone read that one, this is the same stuff.

This is my first entry for the Capstone and so far I've been running behind. I missed the entire first week of school due to some stupid flu (which I never get) so I have been playing catch up with all classes.

What I have done for the Capstone, is I have decided on what I will be doing. I am going to center my Capstone around my comedy writing. I will also be doing a complete first episode of a comedy-sketch television show. I also want to try to finish the play I wrote as well as write at least another script (considering a comic book format) so I will have an extensive portfolio.

The main focus for my Capstone is going to be on the writing, so while those of us who will be in the show are not professional actors, I am more concerned with the overall structure and writing of the episode than on the quality of the filming.

With that said, I am going to make this the best I can and am not going to half-ass anything. I figure this is a unique opportunity so better take advantage of it.

So far, I know what the show will be about and the structure I want to take it. I have most of the sketches planned out, but I just need to begin to actually write them. That should be the easiest part. I hope.