How To Be A Comedy Writer , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Marc Blake

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

59 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Think you're funny? Writing successful comedy isn't just about having a gift for gags; you need to hone your talent and polish your humour to earn a living from making people laugh. If you want to write stand-up comedy, sketches, sitcoms or even a comic novel or film, How to be a Comedy Writer tells you all you need to know and more about the business, the structure of jokes and the nuts and bolts of a craft that can be learnt. This new ebook edition has been specially formatted for today's e-readers.

Sujets

Television

Humour

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	29 juin 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781849892315
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0250€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

How to Be a Comedy Writer
Secrets from the Inside
Marc Blake

Published in 2020 by
Marc Blake
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2020 Marc Blake
The right of Marc Blake to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.
The views and opinions expressed herein belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Andrews UK Limited.

Introduction
ARE YOU THE funniest person in your office? Were you the classroom wag? Did you ever collect Viz comic or Mad magazine? Is half your living room taken up with DVDs, books and scripts? Do you watch comedy on TV and think ‘I could do that’?
Comedy is big business. It seems everyone is either a comedian or polishing up a comedy script. There are TV channels devoted to comedy and in its scripted form – the sketch, play, sitcom or screenplay – there is greater demand than ever before.
So where to start? The good news is that all you need to begin on your comedy career path is the desire to do so. There are no comedy exams; no GCSE or City and Guilds qualification in the well-turned phrase, the witty jibe or finely-honed gag. Passion is your entry level requirement, plus a smattering of talent and the dedication to giving it a go. Providing you have these fundamental prerequisites, comedy, like all other forms of writing, is a craft you can learn.
After looking at how and why we laugh, this book explores the arena of live comedy, as more often than not the desire to be funny is accompanied by the urge to perform. To some, the idea of getting up on stage and reciting their own material may seem as fun as a live autopsy but do follow the section on stand-up: the focus is on the creation of the material rather than the performance. (Note: performers always refer to their jokes as material because, like a roll of cloth, it can be tailored to suit, it can be threadbare, or it can be woven into a rich tapestry. Comedians like metaphors.)
From live comedy, including sections on characters, topical jokes and playwriting, I move to sketches, discussing the mechanics of sketch writing, as well as giving tips on how best to submit your material. Sometimes a sketch expands beyond its natural length and you find yourself writing a script. This is where the sitcom or the comedy drama comes in. Both these forms are examined in detail. Perhaps you wish to take your comedy to another level still – to the comedy screenplay (a blueprint for a film) – there’s a section on that as well.
Then there’s published comedy. Parody and comedy guides fill expanding humour sections in bookshops. There’s the comedy novel, the longest form of comedy writing but a popular one: Terry Pratchett, Ben Elton and Helen Fielding all sell worldwide. I will conclude with a section on marketing yourself as a comedy writer, dealing with writer’s block and advice on how to pursue an agent.
This book will not make you funny. Wait… come back. The question of whether comic talent is born or made is a difficult one. Some, like Peter Kay, Eddie Izzard or Billy Connolly were clearly never meant to be anything other than comedians, whereas other successful joke tellers like Lee Mack or Jack Dee have had to hone their talent over the years. Ronnie Barker was as prolific a writer as he was a performer, whereas Ronnie Corbett’s armchair monologues were scripted by David Renwick. Raymond Allen, writer of Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em , is a spontaneously funny man, whilst Simon Nye, the creator of Men Behaving Badly , has a more circumspect approach to life. Each generation reveals a new batch of talent. Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Michaela Coel are currently riding high as comic laureates.
Whether you come to comedy writing with a natural skill or not, you will probably need a good couple of years to find your feet and to develop your writing style. My intention is for this book to inspire, encourage and act as a catalyst for your talents. Even if you complete all the exercises, I cannot guarantee you will end up funnier, but if the talent is there, you will stand a much better chance of making a living from comedy writing.
Note to the 2020 Edition. Since this book was first written, some comedy has dated, and some performers and shows have been forgotten. I include an index at the end to reference some of these.

Part 1
Comedy Basics
Why laugh?
THE FIRST MENTION of comedy comes from ancient Greece. Aristotle tells us that in the towns of Megaris and Sicyon, the people were noted for their coarse humour and a sense of the ridiculous. After an evening banquet, the young men would roam the streets with torches, headed by a lyre player or flautist. This was called a comus and the band members a comoedus: the idea being to mimic the dramatic choruses which were popular at the time.
In later Greek mythology, comedy was recognised as being one of the nine Muses. They believed that a talent for wit belonged to the gods and could be spirited away at any moment – very impressive to be counted a Muse, as among the others there was epic poetry, music and tragedy.
From these early beginnings we see that comedy has two functions: to ridicule, parody or to prick pomposity – a way of letting off steam; and something more creative – a constructed comic view of the world. A sideways glance, liminal, off-kilter.
We can trace these two approaches throughout history from the court jester to Shakespeare, from farce to Vaudeville, and from variety to revue right up to the present day. Whether it’s Austin Powers , the Pythons or Little Britain , there is a definite lineage of laughter. What all comedy has in common is that it mocks those higher in status; it exposes their foolishness and helps us to bond.
Humans are the only species who laugh. Forget the bared teeth of the chimp or the tittering hyena; we are the only ones to let rip with a snigger, guffaw or belly laugh. And we learn young. Babies learn to laugh from as early as eight weeks old and small children love to run about in shameless glee. Laughter is natural and healthy, good for releasing endorphins and boosts our immune system. It has practical purposes too. Humour has been used by the church and by medical practitioners
- in the middle ages, priests in Bavaria used to get up and do a kind of Carry On routine to get the congregation laughing. More recently, in Bombay, a Dr Madan Kataria set up laughing clubs to create a sense of community where religious and economic differences could be ignored.
The two principal kinds of laughter are those that bind and those that separate us. Cohesion is vital in any culture and shared notions of what is funny pull us together. We laugh in superiority as we pull the rug from underneath a famous celebrity or politician. We laugh at the foibles of the opposite sex. We laugh at another’s embarrassment. We experience hubris and schadenfreude. We laugh to deal with feelings of mortality – witness gallows humour or the sardonic wit of doctors and nurses. Laughter can be silly and nonsensical or cruel and heartless.
As some of these examples suggest, laughter can belittle others, such as with sexist, racist or politically incorrect humour. This mockery, born out of fear, creates a lesser other and puts them at arm’s length. This is laughter as a defence mechanism, a way of protecting our perceived tribe. It is important, though, to discern between racist taunting and xenophobia, which is a dislike for foreigners. The latter is universal, as all countries seem to have that other nation who is the butt of the joke.
Here are some who like to laugh at their neighbours. I’m sure you can think of more… America – Canada Britain – France Spain – Portugal Scotland – England New Zealand – Australia Germany – Austria Greenland – Iceland
Forms of Humour
JOKES WORK ON us in one of two ways. Either we see something incongruous or we hear something that strikes us as funny. Laughter is a physical response. Look at the terminology – I cried with laughter, I wet myself, I split my sides, I busted a gut. Watch an audience at a show; when the punchline arrives, they jerk forward, smiles become roars and if the comedian is particularly deft, they applaud or weep tears of joy.
We have similar responses to recorded forms, but what is unique about live comedy is that it is immediate. It has to strike hard and fast. It does not bear much repetition and it does not always travel well. We all, of course, perform live, with our friends. We tell stories, we mock one another, and we develop running gags. The craft comes in taking that freshness apart and trying to recreate it. For that, we need to look at visual and verbal humour.
Visual Humour
Slapstick
A slapstick was originally a kind of divided wooden stick, which was used to strike others, with the laughs coming from the humiliation and supposed pain inflicted (it’s OK – no one in comedy ever really gets hurt). Mr Punch has one. This term has grown to encompass any kind of boisterous knockabout comedy, from Laurel and Hardy to the Marx Brothers to Reeves and Mortimer. It requires precise timing to elicit laughter.