Inspiration

Sperm & Eggs – What I learnt from self-publishing

By Paul Angliss

Did you know that in the animal kingdom, ‘the seasonal synchronisation of libidos exhibited by the big litter strategists is rarely observed in human society? Except, that is, in the transient communities formed on Club 18-30 holidays’? And that ‘a man will feel the urge to play the field. Or, in the case of Norwegian men who entertain multiple partners living in communities distributed along high-sided sea inlets, an urge to play the fjord’?

The above are excerpts from my first foray into self-publishing a book, Sperm & Eggs, a kind of satire of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. These I cobbled together with a bunch of other stand-up type observations to fit a narrative, an exploration of a questionable theory, a proposition that the behaviour of men and women is determined by the behaviour of their respective gametes, their sperm and eggs. It’s presented as an accessible-to-the-masses revelatory Jordan Peterson or Richard Dawkins blockbuster, turning on its head what we know about ourselves. Supplemented by illustrations that have only a tenuous link to the subject matter, Sperm & Eggs is a triumph of style over substance. In essence, it is a parody of the bestseller non-fiction genre. Furthermore, Sperm & Eggs is reassuringly gender apolitical, more of a comment on the absurdity of life.

I initially released the book as text only without illustrations. Despite finding an amazing influencer in sex historian, Dr Kate Lister, on Twitter and her retweets of excerpts from the book going viral, book sales on various publishing platforms were low.

A few years later I wondered if an illustrated version might be a better sell. I have an old mate and ex-work colleague and fellow substandard impersonator of Des Lynam, Simon Thompson, a fantastic illustrator, portrait artist and book designer, who shared the same sense of humour, liked the book and agreed to illustrate and design Sperm & Eggs for a 50/50 share in any royalties we might earn from the relaunched illustrated title.

We wanted to see if there was an alternative to Amazon’s self-publishing service – Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – for creating paperback, hardcover and ebook versions of your book. However, our research showed strongly in favour of first-time self-publishers using a company that squirrels vast sums of money into offshore havens and offers bathroom facilities for its delivery people in the shape of repurposed Evian bottles jettisoned onto hard shoulders. KDP allows you to choose which genre your readers will search to find you so that you can, as we have been, in the top 20 bestsellers for the rather niche genre, ‘Theories of Humour’, but 2,000 plus in the wider genre ‘Satires’. KDP also allowed us to set a publication date in advance so that we could plan a book launch campaign promoting the book on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

All very well EXCEPT in our case when we wanted to delete my original text-only edition of Sperm & Eggs so shoppers would buy the new, illustrated version instead of the old one by mistake. KDP won’t let you delete a title, but ‘unpublish’ it instead. To do this, you have to request KDP to unpublish your book using the email address you set up your KDP account with in the first instance. 40 emails later and it was confirmed that the email address associated with my KDP account was someone called Sharon. Either our account had been hacked or Amazon had some malfunction in their system. Had she known about it, Shazzer might well have experienced Imposter Syndrome.

Simon and I took a calculated gamble by taking out a full-page advert in Viz, the readership of which we thought would be a targeted audience. It was worth a punt, especially as we had timed our launch for 6 weeks before Xmas. So far, we have seen only 19 sales in total. We still have faith in the book and I’m looking now to try and find influencers who might endorse Sperm & Eggs. You never know what might spark sales, what might be the toilet scholars next must-read.

Sperm & Eggs is presented in three volumes. The first is Sperm & Eggs – Attraction, covering the initial phase of the sex cells herding the procreators together. The second is Sperm & Eggs – Interaction, the third is Sperm & Eggs – Relationships. They are a must read for those who wish to know why they do what they do and then blame something else.

Sperm & Eggs – Attraction can be found now in paperback and hardcover versions here on Amazon.

The Chorts! 2023 Awards

Sunday 3rd December saw The Comedy Crowd return to The Phoenix Arts Club in Soho for a festive celebration of comedy creating excellence at the Chorts 2023 awards ✨.

Shortlisted from over 500 sketches sent in from across the globe, the 18 best Chorts! were introduced by their creators and screened to a rapt crowd of comedy creators & enthusiasts.

But that wasn’t all! There were also live performances from Chorts finalists past and present including Hudson Hughes, Holly and Brooke, and Paul Holliday. The event was expertly compered by the wonderful MC Martin Dixon, and the Industry Judges Award and Audience Award were presented to the 2023 winners.

These were awarded as follows 🥁

INDUSTRY JUDGES AWARD WINNER

The trials and tribulations of someone living with a ghost.

🏆 The Chorts! 2023 Industry Judges Award Winner is Nikola McMurtrie with her sketch A Day In The Life Of Someone Who’s Being Haunted 🏆

Well made & superbly delivered – putting the ‘dead’ in to ‘deadpan’. Strong premise with lots of well executed flourishes and surprises beyond the core idea. Very inventively done.

Shane Allen, Chorts! 2023 Industry Judge

Runners Up in the 2023 Industry Judges Award were Christian Jegard with Doctor Sex, and Serena Terry with Explaining Menopause to 6 Year Olds.

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

This teacher has her hands full, especially when the kids continue to they’ll their mum’s deepest darkest secrets.

🏆 The Chorts! 2023 Audience Award Winner is Serena Terry with her sketch Explaining Menopause To 6 Year Olds 🏆

This is the part where you, the audience, get to cast your comedic eye over the Chortlist and have your say! Each year, a Chorts! Audience winner is crowned based on the total number of likes and laughs on each Chort! Serena’s sketch scooped the Audience Award after racking up a record breaking 850+ likes across YouTube and Facebook 👍

Congratulations to the Chorts! 2023 winners and to the creators who made the Chortlist! This year saw record numbers of entries from across the globe, and we are hugely impressed by the variety of talent on show.

You can enjoy all eighteen Chortlisted sketches on our official playlist:

🎞️ Chorts! 2023 playlist 🎞️

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted sketches to this year’s competition. Once again we had a blast watching them all, and as always there were some great entries that didn’t make the Chortlist which reflects just how truly creatively excellent you all are.

Thanks also to our 2023 Industry Judging Panel, who were Shane Allen, Hannah Rose, Mark Boosey, Lynne Parker, and Chris Chalmers, and to Theo Critchley, Ed Kirby, and Vanessa Esposito, all of whom helped to make this year’s competition a Chorting success!

And that’s a wrap on Chorts! 2023. Chorts! will return in 2024 for more sketch comedy mayhem.

Why You Need A Comedy Writing Partner (And How To Find One!)

Comedy writing partnerships just work.

Going solo doesn’t mean you can’t write great scripts but it’s going to be a whole bunch harder. Then again, it’s also very hard to find someone who you connect with, both personally and creatively.

So at this point we’re going to hand you over to one of The Comedy Crowd’s favourite writing duos, Joanna Tilley and Krysia Pepper, to give some insight into:

– Why it’s important to write in a partnership
– How to find one
– Their latest comedy idea involving gerbils
– How their creative process works
– How to get noticed

One of the above is fanciful, the rest are crammed with good advice… and this post writer has overstayed his welcome so let’s get into 5 mins of top content…

The Chorts! 2022 Awards

Sunday 4th December saw The Comedy Crowd descend on The Phoenix Arts Club in Soho for an afternoon of BIG laughter, huge talent, and a good helping of Christmas cheer!

Shortlisted from hundreds of sketches sent in from across the globe, fifteen cracking Chorts! were screened to a rapt crowd of comedy creators & enthusiasts, each introduced with unique flair by their creators. But that wasn’t all! Matthew Snead and Lynne Parker, two of our 2022 Industry Judges, joined us for a chat on the comedy landscape in 2022, TikTok, and their thoughts on the 2022 Chortlist, of which two sketches were to be announced as winners.

These were awarded as follows 🥁

INDUSTRY JUDGES AWARD WINNER

A motley crew of dating misfits gather for advice on their latest drafts…will they flunk this semester or pass with flying colours?

🏆 The Chorts! 2022 Industry Judges Award Winner is Lorelei Mathias, Peter Lydon & Melon Comedy with their sketch Creative Writing 2.1 🏆

This year’s winner Lorelei Mathias really deserves true credit as she combines topicality with great casting and production values. It’s the full package and, as a runner up in this year’s Funny Women Comedy Shorts Award I am particularly delighted that she’s taken the prize on this one!

Lynne Parker, Chorts! 2022 Industry Judge

AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER

TikTok sketch comedy!

🏆 The Chorts! 2022 Audience Award Winner is Lucas Heap with his sketch Amanda Holden Steals My Holiday Clothes 🏆

This is the part where you, the audience, get to cast your comedic eye over the Chortlist and have your say! Each year, a Chorts! winner is crowned based on the total number of likes left on each Chort!. Lucas’ sketch scooped the Audience Award after racking up a formidable 600+ likes across YouTube and Facebook 👍

Congratulations to the Chorts! 2022 winners and to the creators of all the shortlisted Chorts! This year saw hundreds of excellent entries from across the globe, and we are chuffed to present this varied and vibrant showcase of talent.

Our 2022 Chortlist has character comedy, musical comedy, highwaymen, punks, birdwatchers & more, and you can enjoy all fifteen sketches on our official

🎞️ Chorts! 2022 playlist 🎞️

I was thrilled to be asked to judge this year’s entries and it was so great to see so many fresh and diverse ideas. Who knew there was so much fun to be had from desperate vapers, driving lessons, human resources, garden hardware – not to mention Amanda Holden. Congratulations to all entrants – it was a tough call!

Matthew Snead, Chorts! 2022 Industry Judge

A huge thank you to everyone who submitted sketches to this year’s competition. We had a blast watching them all, and there were some great entries that didn’t make the shortlist which reflects just how blimmin’ good you all are.

Thanks also to our 2022 Industry Judging Panel, who were Lynne Parker, Matthew Snead, Clelia Mountford and Anil Gupta, and to Joanna Tilley and Katerina Robinson, all of whom helped to make this year’s competition a Chorting success!

And that’s a wrap on Chorts! 2022. Chorts! will return next year for more sketch comedy mayhem.

What Brands Should Do When Comedians Attack

What is a brand to do when they find themselves on the wrong end of a comedian’s wit?  

That was the dilemma faced by Waitrose after they were the latest subject of Milo McCabe’s Greeter’s Guild series in which Troy Hawke delivers impeccably styled compliments to customers at the door.

The staff, somewhat bemused, summoned security and moved him on, but not before they checked with supervisors that Jan Molby (Scouse/Danish Football icon) had not authorised his attendance as the comedian had intimated.

After the video passed 1 million views, Waitrose chose to respond:

Faux pas! Source: @waitrose

The majority of tweets that followed, bemoaning them ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ and ‘backpedalling’, seem a little harsh, but they do reveal the cynical prism through which people view brand attempts to turn this kind of incident in their favour.

The situation escalated as Molby himself replied with tongue in cheek opprobrium, before Milo McCabe vowed to seek an apology.

The joke was firmly back on Waitrose.

At The Comedy Crowd we’d proffer the idea that if you’re going to respond in this scenario you either go all in and make something genuinely funny that (crucially) continues the joke at your expense, or don’t try to be funny at all. The Waitrose response was pitched slap bang between the two.

Here are some of our ideas illustrating the sort of comic response they could have issued:

Win the crowd! Five suggestions for comedic success.

1. The Fix

Create a montage of very short slapstick sketches in which Waitrose staff surprise customers with sudden aggressive politeness e.g. jumping from behind the orange juicer to compliment them. The customers are shocked and might drop shopping / spill drinks / run away.

The accompanying tweet could simply read ‘Fixed it!’

2. The Apology

A short documentary style apology video with a Waitrose Exec earnestly explaining their dismay at the lack of Jan Molby awareness, and the tailored Jan Molby courses they would now have to undertake. 

3. The Celebration

Purchase the rights to show 3 of Jan Molby’s best goals and conduct a poll to decide the greatest. Include in the tweet that all Waitrose staff are mandated to participate.

4. The Reasonable Excuse

Issue a tweet confession that a historic social media post espousing the superiority of Sainsbury’s chocolate covered raisins over those of Waitrose had been wrongly attributed to Jan Molby, and that Waitrose had for years been unfairly vetting staff to ensure ignorance of the 90’s Liverpool FC icon. Apologise.

5. The Epic

Commission a comedy series based around amusing, self deprecating, store openings. The first shows preparation for Jan Molby appreciation day, whereupon Jan is an invited star guest, opening a new ‘Olive bar’ at the Hammersmith branch. 

Staff are being given Molby familiarisation training in advance, including an input on how to handle aggressively polite greeters. Talking heads describe how regretful they were over Molbygate. The video concludes with Jan Molby himself entering with a bodyguard, and the hapless greeter proudly saying ‘Good morning Mr Molby’ to the wrong man.

These are just a sample of the sort of ideas we source and develop for companies looking to use comedy.
The reality is that it’s far better to get ahead of brand perception than be responsive.

That’s why some of the smartest brands are creating strategic humour campaigns that help define a unique identity that will withstand any PR bumps along the way.

If you’d like to discuss how to do this for your brand then we’d love to help. You could do a lot worse than work with the company whose 2017 Chorts Winner was none other than a certain Milo McCabe with Troy Hawke himself.

P.S. Our annual Chorts! competition to discover the best new comedy talent and characters such as Troy Hawke is back in September. We are looking for partners now, so get in touch if you want to be part of it.

Comedy is the most engaging form of content. Let’s spread some happiness.

Heart and Brain Comic Challenge: Winners and Runners up

This July, The Comedy Crowd teamed up with The Awkward Yeti creator Nick Seluk to launch an exciting new comic writing competition. We waited with baited breath to see what you comedians and funny people would come up with, and you did not disappoint!

We had heaps of fantastic entries from across the globe, just as many laughs, and probably the most fun judging process ever (and you guys sure didn’t make it an easy choice for Nick!). We’re now excited announce the results . . .

The winner of our 2022 Heart and Brain Comic Challenge is Bad Medicine, whose two brilliant comics have come in joint first place 🎉

Bad Medicine are a sketch troupe who perform and teach in Washington DC. You can follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and check out their sketches on their YouTube channel.

And that’s not all! Nick selected five fab runners up too. They each join The Comedy Crowd Top Talent Group (find out more about that here):


Congratulations to our Heart and Brain Comic Challenge winner and runners up! Make sure to check out the creators via the links above, and Nick Seluk on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for daily hilarity in comic form. Big thanks to Nick for creating the Heart and Brain Challenge comic design and for judging the challenge, and thank you to everyone who submitted a comic and made the event a great one 👏

Now, we may be wrapping up this challenge, but fear not! We’ll be back with more opportunities very soon. If you want to stay tuned with that sort of thing, plus all sorts of inspiration and how tos for creators, then get yourself signed up to The Comedy Crowd’s free weekly newsletter.

TikTok: Dos and Don’ts

by Ailish McCarty (@thesleepycomedian)

Hey everyone! Very excited to be submitting pieces to the Comedy Crowd, a fantastic platform that encourages creativity and showcasing comic talent. I’m writing a series of how comics can increase their brand online through my own trial and error. Tiktok has managed to outshine Instagram in terms of online content and can be a very powerful tool when it comes to approaching promoters and agencies. The thing to keep in mind about your Tiktok channel, is that it is a marathon and not a sprint. You will need to post a couple of videos a week, and the platform boosts creators that engage with other pages in order to boost a community online. Be patient and its better to put an idea online than to be quiet.

Ailsih McCarty – @thesleepycomedian

To get the ball rolling, I’ve listed a couple of do’s and don’ts when it comes to Tiktok to help comics boost their exposure on the platform.

DO’S

  • Unless you have been living under a rock in the last year, odds are you’ve heard of TikTok. It is a video editing application that sky rocketed in the pandemic. The app promotes short videos in order to enable users to scroll through their for you page and absorb higher amounts of content. If your videos are 7 seconds long, it has been proven that Tiktok will push your video to reach more users
  • The algorithm changes constantly. This is because recreations and sounds that go viral have a short shelf life. If you notice a sound is trending, make notes and see if you can hop on the trend while the algorithm is pushing it. If you hop on a trend too late, you will not have the same exposure as early initiators
  • Do engage with the comments on your videos. This tricks the platform into thinking that your video is topical as it is reporting high levels of activity (comments), when all that you’re doing at the end of the day is thanking people for watching your content. TikTok boosts all activity when it comes to engaging with your community, so remember to like the comments and reply to them
  • As I’ve mentioned, building a community is at the forefront of Tiktoks platform. Leave comments on other users videos and follow friends. This leads TikTok to avoid perceiving your account as a bot.
  • Use the same username as your other socials so that its easy for people to find you on Instagram, twitter, facebook and Youtube.

DON’TS

  • In the previous section, I mentioned jumping on trends in order to get your video boosted on the platform. Avoid creating a page where all you’re contributing is miming. This lowers the value of your content for followers – diversify. Post your own content as well as trends
  • For the love of god – don’t tweet on TikTok. It is a video platform that promotes, you’ve guessed it – VIDEOS! If you want to post pictures, go to instargam or Twitter
  • Don’t post reaction videos unless you have a following over 20,000. Nobody cares
  • And last but not least, don’t lose hope in going viral. I was using the app for 18 months and following these steps before I got huge exposure. Be patient and be consistent

In our next blog post, I will discuss hashtags, so be sure to keep an eye out!

Check out Ailish’ superb comic stylings on her TikTok account – @thesleepycomedian

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How To Edit Comedy

This video, by Sven Pape of the excellent ‘This Guy Edits‘ YouTube channel is an incredibly valuable insight into comedy creation through the eyes of an editor, specifically Roger Nygard, who has worked on ‘Veep’ and ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’.

He talks about a number of key lessons for editing comedy, and many of these should be considered throughout all stages of the creative process:

1. Yes, and…
How to apply the rule of improv to make sure you explore all options for creating the funniest scene.


2. Setup is primary
When a joke isn’t working, the problem is almost always in the setup, not the punchline.


3. Plot over jokes
Funny moments that emerge from situations are far more impactful than a nicely writen quip or pun.


4. Faster is funnier
Why pacing is key, and usually the faster the better. There’s a great example from Veep in the video.


5. Find the button
The button is the biggest moment of the scene, and it won’t necessarily come at the end of the script. The scene needs to be structured to optimise it.


6. Trim the fat
‘The enemy of comedy is the unnecessary pause’ says Nygard.


7. Cut Wide
Wider shots give greater possibilities for reaction and body language, but there are also times when you want to cut closer.


8. Feature every frame
In particular, how to frame a punchline to make sure it lands.


9. Keep it real
Why it’s so important to achieve authenticity in the final cut.

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Creator Of The Week: Holly Hall

This week’s featured creator is Holly Hall, the newly crowned winner of the BBC New Comedy Award’s Digital Comedian of The Year!

Click here to read more »

Creator Of The Week: Ania Magliano

This week’s featured creator is Ania Magliano, one of the 4 four regular writers on the ‘Have I Got News For You’ Twitter account.

Click here to read more »

Creator Of The Week: Izzy Radford

This week’s featured creator is Izzy Radford. Izzy is a bold, young and exciting new writer who leads the Scripted department for TV production company ‘Ten66’.

Click here to read more »

How To Handle A Heckler

This video, by the ‘Comedy Without Errors’ YouTube channel is an equally informative and entertaining piece on heckling, and how to respond.

It profiles the different types of people who heckle, and the varying responses that can blunt them. Weaved in are some classic examples of comebacks, ranging from the ‘meet fire with fire approach’ to the the more subtle but utterly devastating deconstructions of those rudey shouter outers.

As the creators says ‘defeating a heckler is less about shutting them down, as it is about keeping the rest of the audience on your side….’