Tips for submitting to London Sketchfest – Sketch Scribe
Sketch Scribe is a competition looking for scripted comedy sketches from new writers from around the UK which are performed live at the festival by a super group of comedians formed from live sketch groups. The sketches will be judged by a panel of industry professionals who will decide on a winner. The deadline is 14th August.
The winning writer will have a chance to receive a development and insight session with an award-winning sketch group and a script development executive. Last year’s winner saw Michael J Byrne from Ireland win a development session with script editor Andrew Ellard (The IT Crowd, Red Dwarf, Cardinal Burns).
This is a great opportunity for our UK subscribers, so we approached Adam Dahrouge, the artistic producer for London Sketchfest to give Comedy Crowd subscribers some advice:
What have successful sketches in recent years had in common?
The writers were true to themselves. They didn’t try too hard to be something.You might expect us to be more specific but in this case it’s about the art rather than the science.
We could say that pull back and reveals are popular where you pull back the story and reveal a completely different joke. But these styles are transient, popular at one time and then they pass.
What is common behind all good sketches is a writer who is true to their style of comedy. It may change with time but you can’t fake it or impersonate without it being obvious.
What advice would you give about writing sketches for the Sketchfest audience?
Our audience now expects the unexpected. They expect clever, new takes on things. Ultimately audiences want to be surprised and exhilarated, either by an idea or a performance or being taken by surprise, or if you’re lucky all three.
It’s the writer’s job to come up with something that we haven’t imagined or thought of before, after that you’re performers will add another layer of character, so it’s important to focus on what’s at the core – the idea.
It may not come straight away but if you keep searching you’ll eventually surprise yourself and that’s when you know you have it.
What did you learn from sketch scribe last year?
Honestly, that as good as the writing is, the reaction of an audience is crucial for the development of a sketch. A good comic actor can help as well. Sketches are truly brought to life in their performance. It is where the characters really shine and it’s often the beginning of the next big editing phase.
It’s one of the reasons we thought we had to continue Sketch Scribe after it’s inaugural event at last year’s festival, it’s a great opportunity for writer’s to get their work on stage and move to the next level.
To view the full submission guidelines and submit to London Sketchfest Sketch Scribe click here. The applications deadline is midnight on 14th August.
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