Shared Drive – Making an audio sketch show
By Tom Worsley
Shared Drive is an audio sketch showcase starring Alex Garrick-Wright, Rob Gilroy, Elaine Malcolmson and Rhiannon Shaw. It’s produced, directed and edited by Tom Worsley and scripted edited by Rebecca Bain. Songs are by Alex MJ Smith. Theme tune is by Katie Butler.
Shared Drive was written by Chris Ballard, Chris Douch, Alex Garrick-Wright, Sophie Hall, Max Kreisky, Paul Read, Vicky Richards, Kalum Wilson, Tom Worsley and Amy Xander.
There’s a distinct lack of sketch comedy – and comedy in general, really – and as many brilliant writers and performers are struggling to find opportunities as the comedy marketplace dwindles, it made me realise that you’ve got a choice – you either get terribly sad and cry about the industry or you decide to make something yourself. After all, creating content and releasing it online has never been easier. So I promptly dried my tears, blew my nose, showered and dressed, and set about getting in contact with the funniest writers and brightest performers I could think of and asking them to be involved in ‘Shared Drive’. Every one of my connections came about through online networking and social media and, incredibly, lots of talented people, all with comedy experience, credits and awards, wanted to be involved; to volunteer their creativity and time to create something funny with me.
The aim was to create a one-off sketch showcase just to get something out there, bringing in as many writers and creatives as I could possibly cram into a 20 minute show without it simply bursting open and drenching everyone with comedy. A showcase that performers and writers could clip for their social media and send out there to whoever would listen.
Shared Drive is a sketch show at a time when opportunities for sketches are limited, and are only continuing to get smaller. More than ever making sketches that are just – well, funny, quite frankly – seems out of fashion. A forgotten branch of the comedy world. We just wanted to get together and make something funny. No themes or with a message. Nothing zeitgeisty or topical. Just funny. Some quick, silly sketches to put out into the world.
Everything was submitted to a shared drive and recorded remotely, relying on a group of writers and performers coming together with passion and a shared drive to make a little audio sketch comedy show to put out across social media… Wait. ‘Shared drive’?… Oh, I get it now. That’s clever… Huh. It’s got two meanings.
Right now this is a one-off. Everyone involved volunteered their sketches and their time because it’s just a small pilot show to see if it was possible to produce some high quality audio sketches from our respective homes. Could it be a recurring project? Could we do more? Like everything, it comes down to money. It remains to be seen whether this could grow into something bigger. But I’m excited to see if it can…
Shared Drive is available to listen to now on Acast, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts!