Beginning Together

By Making Faces – Sketch Comedy Troupe

“No man is an island.”

So begins John Donne’s poem and concludes Hugh Grant in About a Boy. That’s why sketch writing is the highest form of comedy.

Not many people will tell you that – least of all ‘umble sketch comedy troupes like us. But it’s true.

In fact, you might look at people like Michael McIntyre and think he’s the definitive one-man show – a singular genius – but it’s a well-known fact that he has writers who work with him who are credited as “programme associate” to keep up the myth of lone genius. [LINK TO: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/stewart-lee-accuses-high-profile-comedians-michael-mcintrye-jack-whitehall-and-frankie-boyle-of-8718101.html]

You can understand why solo stand-ups want to create the illusion that all their jokes are their own, but if you look at the history of comedy, all the best stuff was written by teams.

Making Faces Sketch Comedy Troupe began as three soloists, Dan Curtis (stand-up), Lizzie Kevan (musical comedy) and Ed Mayhew (puns and poems). We saw each other at a Summer Festival and decided to team up.

Our initiation was a high-octane roller coaster which went against all advice we have subsequently discovered. We were together for just one week of writing and performed just one preview show together before we took a 17-show run to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2010. The show, (called Making Faces before that was the group’s name), mixed our solo pieces and featured our first sketches together.

No surprise, the sketches were what the audience enjoyed the most – so that’s what we kept doing.

Since then we’ve been to Fringe Festivals in Edinburgh (Laughing Horse), Brighton (Otherplace Productions) and Camden (Etcetera Theatre), each providing their own benefits and costs, but all recommended.

Following in the footsteps of one of the top sketch groups in the country, Pappy’s, we started a monthly comedy night, called FACELIFT. This was a great opportunity to get to know acts that we really love, as well as trying our sketches out. We were really lucky to have groups like Pappy’s, Two Episodes of Mash, Jigsaw, The Pin and Tim Vine at our early shows.

Hosting a night requires a lot of time and energy but it is a great way to gain experience and meet people. We’re excited that people still want to come to FACELIFT as many new comedy nights don’t get off the ground.

By far the best thing for us as a group has been writing, improvising and trying out ideas together.

There is a Biblical proverb: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” And we’ve found that to be true. When Ben Elton and Richard Curtis were writing Blackadder, they had the rule that if their line was removed by the other writer, it was never put back. The result: the sharpest comedic writing.

While we can’t claim to be in that hall of fame (yet/ever) we’ve found that when we write together the standard of our work is so much higher because it receives immediate feedback. When we perform together, we bring differing insights into why a joke hit or missed.

In comedy, there is simply no substitute for the immediate feedback of laughter from a viewer – as a stand-up, you can rehearse 100 times in a mirror, but the moment you share your work with an audience, that’s when you’ll really get the feedback you need. In a sketch group, you get feedback much more quickly. And that, my friends, is why sketch comedy is the highest art form available to humankind.

So, if you’re starting out in comedy, or in any arts industry, do not expect to be a genius on your own. The Artist (with a capital A) didn’t exist, even during the Renaissance, and it simply can’t exist today.

As John Donne may have written if he were alive in 2016:

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

I probably shouldn’t have voted for Brexit … innit.”

Watch Making Faces – Sketches at Leicester Square Theatre, 21-22 November, £5, 7pm

https://leicestersquaretheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873560021/events

To see a comedy video of Making Faces discussing the Myth of Genius click here:

Myth of Genius – Professor Wilmots Phymer
https://vimeo.com/175510774