Chorts! – How to get your comedy show noticed in 2017
It’s tough pitching a comedy script or performance showreel to anyone and everyone. Commissioners and top producers get thousands of requests like this. So how do you stand out? How do you get them to come to you instead of you pitching to them?
What you need is social proof. Evidence that what you have will attract an audience and be turned into something special.
The trouble is proving an audience for a script is virtually impossible. No one wants to read a script, so you can’t build an audience for a script alone. Here’s the first part:
Make something visual
Turn your script into a format that people want. Something closer to the finished product, even though its not there yet.
Making something visual does not mean pulling together a full cast and producing a half hour sitcom. Many experts have argued against making it yourself because, as James Cary rightly says on the Sitcom Geeks podcast, it won’t look like a professional sitcom. But you don’t need to do this!
All you need to showcase your comedy is a smartphone and an actor.
A brilliant recent example of someone stripping it right back to smartphone and actor is Thomas Gray in his video Stag Do. A poorly produced video that just shows one person talking to a camera achieved almost 2 millions views.
Thomas Gray is now a regular BBC3 production. And it worked because the character is engaging and funny. Which brings me to point 2:
Focus on characters
You need the audience to understand your character straight away. All the best comedy shows do this, and a perfect example of how to do it well is Friends. In the first scene of the first episode, every character speaks and shows their personality in a few carefully chosen words. It’s brilliantly executed.
Don’t waste time on plot and scene setting. Even the best comedy shows with the biggest budgets get noticed because of their characters. Sheldon Cooper would be funny and engaging in a monologue or conversation without the rest of the Big Bang sitcom.
Keep it short and get feedback
Back in pre-internet days comedy writers and performers got noticed by putting on live shows that attracted an audience. The response could be measured by audience numbers and laughter. If you were good, you knew about it and so did everyone else. This is how John Cleese and the Python crew got started and built a reputation that led to work with the BBC.
Nowadays you can use the internet. But there are some big differences. One is that the audience at a live show has committed to watching you and will give you time. People won’t give you that time online. And when you perform in front of a live audience you get instant feedback. On YouTube you can actually hear the crickets and dust balls as the view count stays on two (both you).
Give the online audience what they want. Something short but lots of it.
These 3 points are the reasons that Chorts! exists today. A platform for 2 minute videos of new comedy characters, with the best, most liked and most shared being regularly screened to producers and commissioners.
You can get private feedback from viewers, and see for yourself how people react to your comedy characters. It’s also free to use.
Don’t waste time on content that won’t catch the attention you are looking to catch. Short, sharp, funny characters in an easily digestible format will significantly enhance your chances of getting noticed online. After all, what’s the point of making comedy if there is no one to laugh at it?