The Comedy Crowd Blog

Trying Not To Lose Yourself In Other People

By Joz Norris. I’ve found this blog very difficult to write, weirdly. The initial draft essentially waxed lyrical about some of my comedy inspirations when I was growing up (Marion & Geoff and The Trip in particular) and praised the fact that neither of those were obviously mass-appeal, marketable ideas, but both of them really doubled down on […]

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Why scratch theatre is great for comedy writers

By Stevie Cooke. I’m the first to admit, I’m a submissions junkie. If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend your time trawling through the internet finding any open opportunities that might be suitable for your work. Or not – sometimes I’m not fussy, I’ll enter anything just to get that submissions high… A few years […]

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Belladonna Comedy: Making a comedy satire site and getting a book deal

Sounds like the dream right? Brooke, Caitlin, Carrie and Fiona make up Belladonna Comedy. They run their own popular satire website and are shortly releasing their first book “New Erotica for Feminists”. We had the pleasure of catching up with them and finding out how they did it. There’s some great advice in here for […]

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No Matter How Good You Are At Something There’s Always About A Million People Better Than You: The Journey of a Runner Up

By Jon Holmes. In 2017 comedian Hari Kondabolu created the documentary “The Problem With Apu“. It was a made-for-TV doc that addressed the racial incoherence of a fictional character: Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. While I don’t claim to be of any sort of minority, I certainly always admired The Simpsons and still to this day will cite […]

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Taking a comedy character from idea to pilot

An interview with Steve Whiteley, creator of the comedy character Wisebowm, recently commissioned for a 30 minute BBC Radio 4 pilot. OK so it’s a 26 minute video, but that’s just because there is so much gold here for comedy creators. If you don’t want to watch 2 blokes chatting for that long and want […]

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Building a sitcom plot using set-pieces

By Chris Head I coach and direct stand-up and am the author of “A Director’s Guide to the Art of Stand-up”. Meanwhile I have an annual gig working with undergraduates at Bath Spa University to develop a multi-cam studio sitcom, I coach writers and I am about to script-edit a BBC Radio 4 sitcom pilot. […]

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The Producing Journey

By Jon Ornoy, Producer and Director, Animal Mother Films. As an independent producer, figuring out how to do a lot with a little is pretty much the name of the game, and as I now embark on producing my first narrative feature film that maxim is only proving more true. The other guiding principle that […]

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How to create a comedy character

By Chris Head. So you want to create a comedy character. Perhaps it’s a character for you to perform or for a sitcom/comedy drama script. In this blog I am particularly thinking of narrative comedy script characters, but these thoughts can be equally useful for sketch characters and so on. Here are some ways you […]

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Finding Fans on Punkanary – Part 1

OK comedy creators. We know building an audience sounds like a bloody daunting nightmare. One of those where the cold sweat makes the bed all clammy with Facebook likes. But now it’s time for a totally fresh start. Forget making a website, a mailing list, all that stuff. Now you have a brand new page […]

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Finding Fans on Punkanary – Part 2

Understanding your show and your fans What’s the big idea? You know your comedy idea is damn good. But to find out who your true fans are, you need to think about your show in a different way. Who are the people, places, and groups that will give you a try when they’ve never heard […]

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Finding Fans on Punkanary – Part 3

Now you understand your fans, it’s time to go where they hang out and share your show. And before we enter this murky world don’t forget the most important thing, make this fun for you and your team! Stay in the moment and do what feels natural. This is rule number 1. OK enough pep […]

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Finding Fans on Punkanary – Part 4

Once your first fans have found out about you and come to your Punkanary page, it’s vital to provide them with a good volume of content (not necessarily videos) and interact with them, inviting and responding to comments or questions. Your Punkanary page is the home of your show. This means you don’t need a […]

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