Creator Stories

The Chorts! 2023 Awards

Sunday 3rd December saw The Comedy Crowd return to The Phoenix Arts Club in Soho for a festive celebration of comedy creating excellence at the Chorts 2023 awards ✨.

Shortlisted from over 500 sketches sent in from across the globe, the 18 best Chorts! were introduced by their creators and screened to a rapt crowd of comedy creators & enthusiasts.

But that wasn’t all! There were also live performances from Chorts finalists past and present including Hudson Hughes, Holly and Brooke, and Paul Holliday. The event was expertly compered by the wonderful MC Martin Dixon, and the Industry Judges Award and Audience Award were presented to the 2023 winners.

These were awarded as follows 🥁

INDUSTRY JUDGES AWARD WINNER

The trials and tribulations of someone living with a ghost.

🏆 The Chorts! 2023 Industry Judges Award Winner is Nikola McMurtrie with her sketch A Day In The Life Of Someone Who’s Being Haunted 🏆

Well made & superbly delivered – putting the ‘dead’ in to ‘deadpan’. Strong premise with lots of well executed flourishes and surprises beyond the core idea. Very inventively done.

Shane Allen, Chorts! 2023 Industry Judge

Runners Up in the 2023 Industry Judges Award were Christian Jegard with Doctor Sex, and Serena Terry with Explaining Menopause to 6 Year Olds.

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

This teacher has her hands full, especially when the kids continue to they’ll their mum’s deepest darkest secrets.

🏆 The Chorts! 2023 Audience Award Winner is Serena Terry with her sketch Explaining Menopause To 6 Year Olds 🏆

This is the part where you, the audience, get to cast your comedic eye over the Chortlist and have your say! Each year, a Chorts! Audience winner is crowned based on the total number of likes and laughs on each Chort! Serena’s sketch scooped the Audience Award after racking up a record breaking 850+ likes across YouTube and Facebook 👍

Congratulations to the Chorts! 2023 winners and to the creators who made the Chortlist! This year saw record numbers of entries from across the globe, and we are hugely impressed by the variety of talent on show.

You can enjoy all eighteen Chortlisted sketches on our official playlist:

🎞️ Chorts! 2023 playlist 🎞️

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted sketches to this year’s competition. Once again we had a blast watching them all, and as always there were some great entries that didn’t make the Chortlist which reflects just how truly creatively excellent you all are.

Thanks also to our 2023 Industry Judging Panel, who were Shane Allen, Hannah Rose, Mark Boosey, Lynne Parker, and Chris Chalmers, and to Theo Critchley, Ed Kirby, and Vanessa Esposito, all of whom helped to make this year’s competition a Chorting success!

And that’s a wrap on Chorts! 2023. Chorts! will return in 2024 for more sketch comedy mayhem.

Why You Need A Comedy Writing Partner (And How To Find One!)

Comedy writing partnerships just work.

Going solo doesn’t mean you can’t write great scripts but it’s going to be a whole bunch harder. Then again, it’s also very hard to find someone who you connect with, both personally and creatively.

So at this point we’re going to hand you over to one of The Comedy Crowd’s favourite writing duos, Joanna Tilley and Krysia Pepper, to give some insight into:

– Why it’s important to write in a partnership
– How to find one
– Their latest comedy idea involving gerbils
– How their creative process works
– How to get noticed

One of the above is fanciful, the rest are crammed with good advice… and this post writer has overstayed his welcome so let’s get into 5 mins of top content…

The Chorts! 2022 Awards

Sunday 4th December saw The Comedy Crowd descend on The Phoenix Arts Club in Soho for an afternoon of BIG laughter, huge talent, and a good helping of Christmas cheer!

Shortlisted from hundreds of sketches sent in from across the globe, fifteen cracking Chorts! were screened to a rapt crowd of comedy creators & enthusiasts, each introduced with unique flair by their creators. But that wasn’t all! Matthew Snead and Lynne Parker, two of our 2022 Industry Judges, joined us for a chat on the comedy landscape in 2022, TikTok, and their thoughts on the 2022 Chortlist, of which two sketches were to be announced as winners.

These were awarded as follows 🥁

INDUSTRY JUDGES AWARD WINNER

A motley crew of dating misfits gather for advice on their latest drafts…will they flunk this semester or pass with flying colours?

🏆 The Chorts! 2022 Industry Judges Award Winner is Lorelei Mathias, Peter Lydon & Melon Comedy with their sketch Creative Writing 2.1 🏆

This year’s winner Lorelei Mathias really deserves true credit as she combines topicality with great casting and production values. It’s the full package and, as a runner up in this year’s Funny Women Comedy Shorts Award I am particularly delighted that she’s taken the prize on this one!

Lynne Parker, Chorts! 2022 Industry Judge

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

TikTok sketch comedy!

🏆 The Chorts! 2022 Audience Award Winner is Lucas Heap with his sketch Amanda Holden Steals My Holiday Clothes 🏆

This is the part where you, the audience, get to cast your comedic eye over the Chortlist and have your say! Each year, a Chorts! winner is crowned based on the total number of likes left on each Chort!. Lucas’ sketch scooped the Audience Award after racking up a formidable 600+ likes across YouTube and Facebook 👍

Congratulations to the Chorts! 2022 winners and to the creators of all the shortlisted Chorts! This year saw hundreds of excellent entries from across the globe, and we are chuffed to present this varied and vibrant showcase of talent.

Our 2022 Chortlist has character comedy, musical comedy, highwaymen, punks, birdwatchers & more, and you can enjoy all fifteen sketches on our official

🎞️ Chorts! 2022 playlist 🎞️

I was thrilled to be asked to judge this year’s entries and it was so great to see so many fresh and diverse ideas. Who knew there was so much fun to be had from desperate vapers, driving lessons, human resources, garden hardware – not to mention Amanda Holden. Congratulations to all entrants – it was a tough call!

Matthew Snead, Chorts! 2022 Industry Judge

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted sketches to this year’s competition. We had a blast watching them all, and there were some great entries that didn’t make the shortlist which reflects just how blimmin’ good you all are.

Thanks also to our 2022 Industry Judging Panel, who were Lynne Parker, Matthew Snead, Clelia Mountford and Anil Gupta, and to Joanna Tilley and Katerina Robinson, all of whom helped to make this year’s competition a Chorting success!

And that’s a wrap on Chorts! 2022. Chorts! will return next year for more sketch comedy mayhem.

Creator Of The Week: Holly Hall

This week’s featured creator is Holly Hall, the newly crowned winner of the BBC New Comedy Award’s Digital Comedian of The Year!

Click here to read more »

Creator Of The Week: Ania Magliano

This week’s featured creator is Ania Magliano, one of the 4 four regular writers on the ‘Have I Got News For You’ Twitter account.

Click here to read more »

Creator Of The Week: Izzy Radford

This week’s featured creator is Izzy Radford. Izzy is a bold, young and exciting new writer who leads the Scripted department for TV production company ‘Ten66’.

Click here to read more »

Creator Of The Week: Al Jarrett

Welcome to a new feature where we scour the comedy universe for the most promising and innovative new comedy talent. We want to showcase new creators who are doing something a little bit different, or making use of new trends and platforms, so that we can all learn a little something.

Click here to read more »

Producing Your Own Script – A Comedy Crowder’s Story

Hi. I’m Ed, I wrote my short Mockumentary script “Country Lines”, then recruited a team and project managed the process until the film’s release a few days ago. You can watch the film here. I’m going to try and talk through the pro’s and con’s of making your script, why I think it’s ultimately a good idea, along with some “quite good” advice about what I learn during the process.

Tell me a bit more about you, Ed.

Well, I’ve been writing comedy scripts for about 5 years. Taking courses, entering competitions, doing the odd smart phone character piece, you know the like. About two years ago I set myself the challenge of making three short films with all the stories set in my home county of Shropshire. I’d call the faux production company “Shropshire Investigates”, with the three films all being mockumentaries. Sounds alright so far. A bit This Country, but all good. I wrote and brought to life the first script – About two siblings inheriting a farm with a small, skeleton crew.

Now it was time to make the second film. I’d had the warm up of the first, this next one felt proper. I wanted to move things up a gear. The running time went from six to eleven minutes, I’d direct, there’d be a bigger crew, with a more complex set of scenes too.

But let’s rewind. You may not be as gung-ho as me, so here are some…

Issues to consider before making your script.

Our friends running the Sitcom geeks podcast have regular discussions on the pro’s and con’s of producing your own script. I’m sure they won’t mind me saying that the conclusion is generally not so positive as there are all of a sudden too many uncontrollables which might tarnish an otherwise good script. This is a huge consideration and here are others too:

Time

Writing a good script, even if it’s “just” a short film, takes long enough. It’ll take that time again, plus some, before your film is actually released.

I began writing my script at the end of 2019, and it’s finally out now (March, 2021). But many factors can play into how long it takes to make your film. Such as; script completion time, aligning many diary’s for rehearsals and filming, the potential abyss of the edit, your main prop; a tractor having a flat tire, a global pandemic, etc.

Money

We’re not talking about getting your mate to film you on their iPhone and knocking it together with iMovie. Money will definitely be a consideration.

There’s a big debate on your local actors and film makers Facebook pages about not paying much (or just expenses) for a film crew. I completely get that it’s an issue that needs to be treated with respect. See what you can afford, be upfront about it and if the script is good enough, you will be surprised the quality of talent who want to have their name attached to your credits

The Other Variables

Going back to the Sitcom geeks point made earlier – why risk your perfectly good script by getting half a dozen others involved who may unintentionally dilute the quality of the portrayal of your script? Well, yes, this can certainly be a gamble. But if you do a solid job of recruiting your team, getting the best crew you can, even with a small budget, then you will all of a sudden have a lot of talented people who will be pushing for this film to be a success.

My reasons for recruiting a team and making my short film.

Maybe some of these will resonate with you.

  • Getting a broader look at other departments involved in producing a film

I think this will be invaluable experience for me going forward. I was living a very sheltered life as a solo writer.

  • Networking

Living in Shropshire (Up to Birmingham, turn left, keep going, just before Wales) it’s hard to find other screenwriters or similar creatives

  • Fulfilment

When constantly writing scripts and sending them off, not hearing, or even if I did hear feedback, it never felt like there was a fulfilling end to all the work I put in. With this film I feel like I have a proper finished piece of work now. Like a painter, or a brickie.

  • Marketing myself

It really does all depend on the final piece being a fair representation of your work. Or better than fair, ideally. If so (and it’s a big if), then there is no doubt a film is a far better and easier way of bringing attention to your writing.

Recruiting your team

Other than your script, recruiting your team will be the most important factor in making your script.

Tom, our Director of Photography, was recommended to me. He was brilliant, as were all the team. Looking back, one of the most important pieces of knowledge Tom brought to me, was the use of a “casting call” document. This was an imperative tool in recruiting the team.

A casting call essentially gives all the details about your project such as the genre, planned dates for shooting, estimated running time, expenses paid etc, along with a kind of pitch document about the premise, story line and characters. This is the bible document that I used to send to people who would then have all the details needed to decide if it was something they would want to get involved with. Mine was fairly short at 2.5 pages and I’ be happy to share this with anyone if it might help.

With Tom on board and after spending a bit of time getting the casting call right, I set about using this document on the Comedy Crowd TV site (whoop), which is where I recruited one of the actors from, Sean – he messaged me after reading my project page on CCTV. Actor recruitment websites are really useful too (surprisingly enough) It was all pretty easy to set up the adverts and they are free too. The two or three sites are all similar and ask the same questions. With a bit of luck, actors will then apply for your role as you then look through their profiles. Our actress, Amber came through one of these sites.

Finally, social media. I mainly used Facebook, but I can imagine other socials may be useful. Facebook has lots of groups set up for actors and film crew members who are looking for projects to get involved in. Our music composer came through posting on one of these groups. Again using my casting call document… Have I told you these casting call documents are a good idea?!

I was amazed that we had over 30 applicants for the three main acting roles. All had sent in self tapes for certain lines within the film. I had such respect for their efforts. I gather that although my casting call document was really fantastic, that number of applicants was not actually uncommon for other film makers.

So that’s a bit about if making your script is the right approach for you and the recruitment side of things, now for the quick fire round.

Here’s some other tips after making my script

  • Just keep buying the team food and drinks when you meet up. This has served me well in everyday life too.
  • Unless you know a bit about editing, this stage of the process will blow your mind. You’ll feel like you’ve just been shown the internet for the first time. It’s a whole new world and I barely understand any of it still, but I do know editors are very important! Although don’t let that scare you off. Your script can completely change in the edits, communicate regularly with the editor to make sure your vision is followed as best as possible.
  • We had three, three hour rehearsals. They were great fun, and each of the actors had a completely different approach. Work with them separately in between rehearsals. It seems only when everyone is fully confident with their lines does the real chemistry start to happen.
  • Carefully, carefully plan your shoot days. They will fly by very quickly and those little details can easily be forgotten.
  • Performances come across much more relaxed when everyone has settled in. Plan time for warm ups at the start.
  • Get as many team members involved as you can manage! I could have really done with a hand on the shoot day to sort out bit and bobs, props, sound – bloody sound! We missed having a sound pro. That ended up being me. I’m not a pro and those booms are damn heavy!
  • Make sure you have a very supportive support bubble. Due to blessed Covid, we had to change locations which meant turfing my partner and daughter out of our house (they had somewhere else to stay!) for a day and a night. There are peaks and troughs in the project but in general it’s a consuming process.
  • Continuity of set and costume. Be wary of this over multiple days filming.

Thank you reading. I’m always keen to hear from potential collaborators or maybe just to have a chat about some of the above. Here’s my website with further details.

Also, twitter and the film’s instagram.

All the best,

Ed.

To set up a new comedy project and look for collaborators, or to set up your own creator profile and find projects to get involved in, head to Comedy Crowd TV.

O2 and The Comedy Crowd

We are delighted to have partnered with O2 to produce a series of original sketches showcasing up and coming talent from this fantastic community.

The partnership is part of O2’s campaign to “Do more of what you love”.

Living In A Bouncy Castle – Created by Luke Rollason and Kit Sullivan

O2 and The Comedy Crowd have partnered to enable new creators to make five original comedy sketches which are available now exclusively on Priority. They cover a range of topics including ‘When a Group Chat Joke Fails’, ‘When Fans Forget How To Fan’ and ‘ The Ref Who Can’t Stop Running Backwards’.

At O2, we have a long-standing history of working with up and coming talent. Now we’re bringing the comedy to your living room, through this unique collaboration with our partner The Comedy Crowd to share the talents of new comedy creators and help our customers take some much needed relief.

Maya Murrell, Head of Priority

To make these videos we brought together writers, performers and producers from the Comedy Crowd community, matching them according to their skills and comic style. Our unique approach of working with the community means we can produce tailored content quickly, plus it gives new creators the opportunity to showcase their talents. Creators can sign up for their free weekly opportunities newsletter here to find out more about how to get involved with The Comedy Crowd.

Operation Parcel: Sorry We Missed You – Created by Alice Etches

As a new comic used to playing to dusty rooms above pubs with audiences of 8 people, getting this opportunity to create and release my sketch with O2 has been unreal! It’s so exciting that O2 are supporting creators on the grassroots level like this. The whole process has been invaluable and it feels amazing to see my finished sketch on the Priority app!

Jessica Lee, Comedian

Priority is exclusive to O2 customers and brings a collection of invite-only moments to help them do more of the things they love. From exclusive treats and experiences, to early access to the most sought-after tickets in entertainment.

Customers can download the Priority app via the app store, or by texting PRIORITY to 2020. For more information, search Priority on O2 or visit https://priority.o2.co.uk/

To watch the five sketches on Priority click here.

Comedy Crowd TV April Offer – 30 Day Free Trial and Support Your Favourite Comedy Club!

By Peter Wright

In April we’re donating half our Comedy Crowd TV channel subscription revenues to comedy clubs to support them during this difficult time. After that if you choose to pay for a year’s access (£12) we’ll use that to support grassroots comedy creators and local comedy clubs

Much of the World is in lockdown, and if you aren’t afflicted by the virus itself you are now suffering the consequences of extended isolation from (or with) loved ones. Here at Comedy Crowd TV we are offering you an escape with a 30 days of free access to a channel which showcases the best of independent comedy shorts, sketch shows and series.

In addition, we’re supporting comedy clubs and organisations who have been hit by the recent restrictions. Participating companies have been given an exclusive code and if you enter it when signing up for your free trial, and then continue your access beyond the 30 days, then they will receive half of your £12 access fee!

To get a taste of the shows you can watch today on Comedy Crowd TV we’ve compiled a little post with 5 of the best. Check that out here.

Join us on Comedy Crowd TV this April, supporting independent creators, local comedy clubs and injecting a ray of comedy into your day. Sign up for your 30 day free trial.

No code for your local club? Or are you a company owner? Get in touch at theccteam@thecomedycrowd.com

5 Shows You ‘Need’ To Watch On Comedy Crowd TV

By Peter Wright

So you don’t need to watch anything really. I know that. I just thought with this being the internet the custom seems to be that a healthy dollop of hyperbole doesn’t go amiss. And this next bit will change your life.

During April we’ve launched a 30 day free trial for the Comedy Crowd TV channel, added to which if you continue beyond the 30 days you can elect a comedy club or organisation to receive half of your £12 access fee (that’s £12 for a year, not a month like your average subscription channels).

But what the jumping Jehovahs is the Comedy Crowd TV Channel? Well it’s the home for the best independent comedy from our community of creators. The fresh creators who nowadays face a real slog to get noticed by mainstream channels, but who thrive in our crowd sourced comedy community. This is the place to find the most exciting new talent, first. Here are 5 shows you ‘need’ to check out:

Michael Spicer’s One-Man Lolwagon

Michael Spicer shot to prominence this year with his ‘Room Next Door’ series in which he plays the role of an adviser to celebrities and politicians during their most calamitous interviews (yes, Boris and Donald are featured and don’t disappoint). The viral appeal of this format is finally getting Spicer the recognition he deserves, but take time to look at his back catalogue and you’ll find a treasure trove of weird and wonderful sketches. Michael Spicer’s Lolwagon has now been compiled into a 3 episode series on Comedy Crowd TV. Chris Catcher, the tone-deaf leader of the United Men’s Movement (UMM) is a character not to be missed.

‘As an act of protest against the feminexist women only screenings I am organising a male only screening of a male centric film at my local cinema. My Aunt Sharon is coming. She is a woman but she has agreed to drive me to the cinema and she doesn’t want to wait in the car all that time… But that’s it.’ – Chris Catcher

Zipwaz Humphries

Victor Hampson is the creator of ‘Zipwaz Humphries’, a sitcom that celebrates a pocket of South West rural England and a menagerie of oddball characters. Surreal yet reassuringly familar. Dark yet undeniably warm and sweet. If the Mighty Boosh was musical theatre on acid, Zipwaz is the Mighty Boosh on nothing but earl grey tea and a slice of battenburg. The reason the show hasn’t hit the mainstream yet? On first watch it can seem that Victor and his pals are chancing it. The acting appears wooden, the effects rudimentary, and the music tapped out on keyboard piano. But keep watching and it soon becomes clear that the style is deliberate, and perfectly pitched to Victor’s bizarre but brilliant sense of humour. There’s nothing like this anywhere else. 

‘All this sacrificing has taken me by surprise. I had plans, I was going to go swimming on Thursday. How’s that going to work if I’ve been sacrificed? I suppose you might take my corpse to the pool, I might float about a bit, but there’s going to be no active propulsion so it’s just going to drift across the lanes. That’s going to inconvenience the other swimmers.

Aussie Girls

Joanne Carolan and Pascale WIlson have been touring their stand-up and character shows as ‘Shirley and Shirley’ for 6 years. Their brash and irreverent style is best showcased in their series ‘Aussie Girls’ which portrays two Australians in search of the English dream: binge drinking and promiscuity. They’ve made a mini series of the show which is available on Comedy Crowd TV. It’s not safe for the easily offended and definitely not for work.

‘You are a strong, independent Aussie chick from Darwin, with an alcohol dependency and an unhealthy relationship with picnic cheese. They need to accept you for who you are’

Third Leg Studios

The boys from Third Leg Studios, Mark Whelan, Joel Stern and Tel Mears, have been making great sketches for a while. They take a sideways look at modern masculinity, satirising characters and behaviours in a way rarely seen on the mainstream comedy scene. The best of their work comes in their 5 part web-series ‘No-Fap’ which follows Richard Perera on his journey to abstain from porn and masturbation – which he has been led to believe will help him become physically stronger, mentally sharper and spiritually enlightened.

‘I was masturbating up to 30 times per month and that, coupled with my low sales record, cost me my job’

Un_conditional

Un_conditional is a self-filmed documentary by Rob Morgan and Tom Cousins following a Christian outreach pop/synth band as they release new music and tour the country’s top churches. There’s little new about comedians poking fun at religion, but this mockumentary is both kind hearted and hilarious. It acts as the perfect showreel to propel this comedy duo, whose writing is sharp and dynamic is authentic. 

’The way Chrinder works is you get put in a virtual church hall, you have a two minute sermon and then you start swiping. So you swipe right if you want to pursue them, you swipe left to love them as a sister of Christ. If you get a match you can then offer them a digital piece of quiche and filter coffee, if they accept that you can then start chatting to their Dad.’ 

All these shows and many more are available today on the Comedy Crowd TV channel.

No code for your local club? Or are you a company owner? Get in touch at theccteam@thecomedycrowd.com.

Create Your Comedy With The Crowd

With only our spare time and a tiny budget, we could never have launched our own web series without having the crowd behind us.

Matt Harris – Creator of ‘Comedy Of Gamers’

The Comedy Crowd is all about supporting creators to go beyond an idea – to stop dreaming about the comedy you want to make and to actually do it.

But it’s hard. We know. It’s why we started this community. To make anything more ambitious than a smartphone monologue (and we’ve seen some good ones of those) you need people who bring skills but who also share your vision, and that’s really difficult. Get it wrong and you plough time and money into an endeavour that never lives up to your expectations. That’s so disheartening, but it doesn’t need to be.

The Comedy Crowd is a community full of people like you. People who have great ideas and want to see them happen. Helpful, friendly, funny people with a diverse array of skills, and we’ve created a platform that brings this Crowd together.

The team at The Comedy Crowd adopt an innovative approach to collaboration. Their platform has put me in touch with some fantastic and brilliantly funny creatives. The Comedy Crowd’s platform has allowed me to pursue my own creative endeavours, and I will therefore forever be indebted to them.

Connor Kent – Creator of ‘Box Of Charms’

It’s called Comedy Crowd TV. Creators create a project and call out who they’re looking for to help make it happen. Here’s a list of all the roles available:

  • Producers
  • Directors
  • Writers
  • Director of Photography
  • Editor
  • Sound Editor
  • Composer
  • Actor
  • Animator
  • Voice Actor
  • Marketing / Social Media
  • Graphic Designer

Comedy loving folk can then scan through the projects, filtering by the role they’re looking to fulfil, and then contact the creators directly through their project page.

Calvin and I started our collaboration by comparing Comedy Crowd profiles and finding a project to work on together. At every step of the journey we found other Crowders coming to our rescue with their feedback, encouragement, time and skills, helping us make our work better and get our show made.

Matt Harris

Whether you want to create your own show or get involved in an existing project, now is the time to get involved. To search for current projects click here or set up a new project and get help from the Crowd.