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 to skip to your favourite bits, here’s a breakdown of what we discussed:

0:45 – 3:40 – How it started: from garage MC to early YouTube comedy sketches and poetry readings

2:09 – Butt Jam – not to be missed

4:00 – 5:40 – Early traction for online sketches

5:40 – 6:26 – Producing on a budget

6:30 – 8:00 – Collaborating and finding a team

8:00 – 12:34 – Character stand-up and first Edinburgh experience

12:35 – 14:55 – Entering competitions: Chorts to Musical Comedy Awards and Edinburgh take 2

15:00 – 16:14 – Building the world around the Wisebowm character

16:17 – 18:30 – Speaking to the BBC

18:32 – 20:00 – Pitching and working with comedy coach Chris Head

20:00 – 21:30 – Creating comedy for Radio

21:32 – 22:43 – Other projects, including Wisebowm mixed tape and a comedy film

22:45 – 25:17 – The one piece of advice to yourself starting out: enjoy the process, don’t focus on the result

25:18 – 26:15 – How to stay in touch with Steve Whiteley and Wisebowm

Want to become an indie comedy creator like Steve? Start by entering your 2 minute Chort here or showing us your comedy stylings on Punkanary.

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 I have always followed with my work is that I’d rather take on a smaller project and achieve it at 100% of my capabilities instead of attempting something more ambitious, over-extending my resources, and ending up with a product that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

I had these ideas very much in mind when I first optioned James Pickering’s script for All Joking Aside. I recognized in the script an eminently scalable project that could work with almost any budget I’d be able to raise, without affecting its core strength which is the relationship between the main characters of Charlene and Bob.

Set in the world of New York’s stand-up comedy scene, the film tells the story of a young woman pursuing her dreams of becoming a comedian, and the unlikely friendship and mentorship she finds with the jaded, former comic, who heckles her off the stage at her first open mic night. No one has any superpowers, there aren’t any mobsters, and Charlene never gets naked, but nonetheless, I feel that the film will have a strong mainstream appeal. This is a very conscious content choice for the first of what I hope will be many future feature film projects.

Taking Advantage of Infrastructure

I’m fortunate to live in Vancouver, Canada, where film and TV production has exploded over the last few decades into an industry worth C$3.4 billion a year, and employs around 60,000 people (like myself). While the majority of that production is in the form of shows from the US, the trickle-down benefits are significant for indie filmmakers, who get to benefit from a diverse selection of rental houses competing for business, and a very deep talent pool of artists and technicians who have been trained by Hollywood. While I can’t compete with the wages that these larger productions offer, we can provide opportunities for crew to gain experience in more senior positions within their departments, which they can later parlay into advancement within their unions.

We are intentionally shooting the film in February when the industry is traditionally at its quietest and crew is more readily available to take advantage of an opportunity. So while we will be providing some value in return for people’s time, I still think it’s really important to show your appreciation for the many days they’ll be giving to the production, which to me means a) doing as much of the prep work as I can in all departments, and b) feeding people as well as we possibly can.

Create Your Own Funding Opportunities

Apart from casting, the biggest thing that’s occupying us right now is the planning for the crowdfunding campaign that we’re launching October 10th to close the last piece of our production financing.

With the range of excellent DIY alternatives to Kickstarter and Indiegogo now available, we have chosen to bypass those sites, and are building our own WordPress site with a Woo-commerce plugin that will handle all of the perks and transactions. Our feeling is that unless we’re fortunate enough to get featured on the homepage of one of those big platforms, and can benefit from the extra exposure that can offer, we will be driving all of the traffic to our page, so why give up a percentage of our hard-earned dollars or even risk getting nothing at all if we don’t hit our target?

This way we have customized the campaign to our needs, keeping our audience focused on our website, AllJokingAsideMovie.com, as the one central repository for everything you want to know about the movie. The money notwithstanding, the other big benefit of going through this process is the way it forces you to hone in on your target audience and messaging to them, which are investments that pay off significantly once it’s time to send the film to market.

Don’t Give Up

Making a movie is always an exciting and nerve-wracking affair, especially when you’ve got a bunch of your own money on the line, but just like the comedians we’re portraying onscreen, once you’ve been bitten by the bug it’s really hard to get it out of your system. Please stop by the site anytime to see how things are coming along for us, and best of luck to all of you out there making your own films.

By Peter Wright.

You’re about to go on a journey from horticulture to comedy commissioning… buckle up, it’s going to be quite a ride (or scroll to the bottom for a summary of what we learned).

Look out for:

– Vegetable violence advocated
– Analogy creep
– Pun based callback (capitalised for easy detection)
– Mild profanity x 2
– Unnecessary timestamping

It is 11am. You are sat alone in a small, white walled room. It is featureless barring a table, sat upon which are two plates containing items that will be your focus for the next five minutes. To your left, adorning one plate, is a deep red, succulent radish. Raw. Its bulbous shape is pleasant, almost relaxing. It exudes radishy virtuosity.

To your right, another plate, another vegetable. This time a potato. Perfectly oval, unblemished. Uniformly tanned. When nudged it returns to its previous position with grace. Upon nudging it again, perhaps by accident perhaps not, you expect it to cus in your direction. But no… it is unflappable.

Two prized specimens. Your task is to pick a winner. Voluptuous radish or sturdy potato.

What criteria do you use to judge this contest? Both are patently vegetables, with a simple shared purpose. But they are intrinsically different. What constitutes pure radishness is starkly different from optimum potatality.

It seems rational to start by assessing each against it’s breed standard, prodding and poking like a Crufts judge examining an unfortunate Schnauzer. We know already that these epitomise the ideal of their respective class. So how now to pick a winner? Could you factor in the utility and popularity of all radishes and potatoes? Surely then an average potato would have a fighting chance against a perfect radish. Is that a bad thing?

It’s tricky. You might even be questioning the point of it at this stage. Stop it, we’re not done with this yet.

There’s something else to consider. The attributes of our competitors can only impact the judging process to a limited extent. The rest is you.

If you are a signed up member of the Radish Appreciation Society how does this affect your judgement? Are you pre-disposed to seek the advancement of radishes amongst all vegatables, or do you cast a more exacting, critical eye over the radish, determined that it should not besmirch the reputation of radishkind? Maybe you are partial to neither. In which case do you waste no time pouring over intricacies and simply toss a coin, happy to remain ignorant to whatever it is others might find engrossing about radishes and potatoes?

Of course any sane human would enquire as to whether there was financial compensation for this obscure task, and upon receiving a reply in the negative would pick the potato (with the sound rationale that it could be used immediately as a more effective projectile or bludgeon against the lunatic who compelled them into the room in the first place).

What was all that about?

T’was a long winded and mostly unnecessary analogy to illustrate the difficulty of ranking things which are fundamentally different. It is impossible to remove bias when judgement is down to an individual or small group of individuals passing subjective opinion on creative work.

A History degree dissertation, the Man Booker Prize, FIFA Player of the Tournament. Horticulture. Comedy.

Like when we picked 5 winners from 270 comedy videos in this year’s Chorts! competition.

For the unacquainted, a Chort! is a short comedy video, maximum 2 minutes in length. Their purpose is to show off a comedy character or idea to gauge if it has potential for further development. They are designed to be quick to make and easy to watch, unlike the traditional approach of writing a full script. As long as it aims to be funny, is under 2 minutes and not grossly offensive, then anything goes, which produces a huge variety of vegetables comedy.

Like the modern primary school sports day it’s a competition with winners but no losers.

It’s about learning how to turn your idea into something people can experience and enjoy. And if they don’t, or if the execution doesn’t quite land, understanding how it could be better. We required every entrant to specify their target audience and encouraged them to go and test it with that audience and see how people respond. If their target audience don’t love it, then a set of judges outside of their audience definitely won’t.

We planned for 5 champions, who will each be guided through a process to take the next step towards making their Chort! into episodic comedy. We have expert advice and practical support primed in areas such as production, scripting, performance and audience building.

We needed a judging process but we weren’t so courageous or stupid to do it all ourselves. Last year we recruited fellow creators to help with narrowing down a shortlist, and then outsourced the picking of a single winner to a live audience at our screening event. This year we reached out to 5 experienced and influential contacts in the industry. This, we felt, would give the result real credibility. We sought diverse perspectives on our industry panel, mindful of the variety of vegetables and horticulturalists this competition attracts.

The problem with using an industry panel is that they are busy people, who wouldn’t appreciate a spreadsheet of 50, let alone 270, videos thudding into their inbox. We needed a shortlist. So we actually gave ourselves more work this year in creating that shortlist, a fact that became apparent as we watched with delight and then trepidation as double the number of the previous year’s entries rolled in.

270.

270 needed to be whittled down to 10.

Bugger.

At this point I should introduce the team tasked with this. Jon and I founded the Comedy Crowd having written a sitcom together. We share an a very similar comic taste. We are senior millennials, weaned on single camera realist comedy like The Office, The Royle Family and Peep Show. We are part of a demographic that has an innate, if largely unreasonable, suspicion about studio comedy. We have seen ‘When The Whistle Blows’ skewer so many that came before and, astonishingly, also came after it. We have to be persuaded that an accompanying laugh is that of a studio audience, and not a button press. We need creators to answer Dave Cohen’s rallying call and show us that studio comedy can be innovative and exciting again.

In the last year we have brought a new member to our team. Omar provides nothing of value except that he brings a new perspective – that elusive Welsh Bangladeshi voice that comedy has been crying out for. We were relying on him to check our bias. (I jest, Omar is part of an excellent comedy production company and brings valuable business experience. He also does law stuff).

We were well set to cast an eye over these entries that people had put so much effort into. Apart from having zero female, LGBT, non UK based, under 30 or over 40 perspectives we had everything covered.

The breadth of entries was spectacular. Animation, mockumentary, multi camera. Absurd, realist, satirical. Feminist, Conservative and even chefs.

The astute among you will have identified our problem. We were root vegetable men being asked to judge from a basket that included more beans and legumes than we were comfortable with. We were staring at the radish and sweating uncontrollably.

Having towelled ourselves down we decided to be explicit about our criteria. We decided shortlisted Chorts! must have 3 characteristics:

– Funny as a stand alone comedy
– Has potential for series development
– Identifies a strong target audience

We now had some structure to our thinking, but each of these criteria were still highly subjective.

To start the process of narrowing our shortlist we decided that we would come to a decision on each entry independently using a simple yes or no, red or green. With two or more ‘yes’ responses going through for further consideration. We strained to ensure that we didn’t look at each others’ responses on the master spreadsheet before watching a video, but from my perspective a combination of Excel ignorance and a laptop built for simpler times quickly thwarted that.

I had been on holiday during the first week of judging, and Jon had made laudable progress. As I opened the spreadsheet of comedy joy imagine my surprise to see a column amply seasoned with yellow. I assumed correctly that ‘M’ meant Maybe. There were lots of Maybes (Maybies / Maybe’s?). Bugger. This was going to be hard.

As I started making my way through the videos, I was determined not to succumb to uncertainty that had afflicted Jon. As much as this was subjective blah-de-blah, we had to make decisions with the best of intentions and have faith that this committee would pass horses rather than camels. That’s what I told myself.

Some of the Nos are easy. Not because they are terrible (very few are), but because I understood the style they were aiming for. They just fell short on writing, performance or production. These entries are usually fun to watch, and show great potential but, unlike other genres, pure comedy has to amuse. Not necessarily make you laugh, but you certainly have to smile. An inch is as good as a mile in this regard and if it doesn’t cross that line, it can’t be considered.

Other Nos are more difficult because I don’t understand or enjoy the style. I struggle to enjoy comedy that relies on being very absurd. In these cases I end up in a cognitive struggle trying to work out whether its me or the content that’s missing the point. Ideally we would have spoken to the target audience for these shows to get their perspective, but with 270 videos and needing to shower every few days that’s a challenge.

Some of the Yeses (Yes’s / Yesses?) are straightforward. I love a mockumentary well executed, so I can spot one (have a gander at this all you ‘This Country, Office, PJDN’ fans). Easy PEASy.

On other occasions something I thought was a certain Yes, received a blunt No from my less learned colleagues. We would battle that out later.

Then there were the Maybes. How am I qualified to judge a feminist animation aimed at the LGBT community, based in New Jersey? This is well executed and there’s certainly an audience for it, I’m just not it. This sort of thing kept happening, and my well intentioned ruthlessness was utterly blunted. Our Chorting spreadsheet became a scrolling sea of indecision.

It was time for a scrum down to end it all. Our team of three scheduled a meeting for a wildly optimistic single hour. What followed was three men fumbling around trying to create a gourmet menu with an eclectic range of ingredients, some of which they didn’t like or had never tasted. The resulting platter would be put in front of Michelin starred judges. You try weighing the merits of brilliantly executed comic poetry against a dark and original silent film. And what about diversity?! Someone had to bring it up. Did our shortlist adequately reflect the entries? Were we positively discriminating? We didn’t want to.

4 hours later we had our Chortlist. There were videos in there one of the three didn’t like. Perhaps naively we saw that as evidence that we had been pretty self reflective and gave ourselves a smug pat on the back. It’s just as likely that better content had missed out. Given our experience it was no shock that the industry judges, despite being very impressed with the quality of the shortlist, came to no unanimous decision about the best (the winners all received 3 out of a possible 5 votes).

One hugely encouraging result was that so high was the overall quality that we were able to create a 50 strong longlist that we are screening at 2 Chorts! Fest events in London in September.

Overall though, the experience made us vow to double down on our plans to create a better way to recognise great new comedy. Here’s what we’ve learnt in summary:

1. When decision making is about individual opinion, new voices miss out. What we experienced is a microcosm of the mainstream commissioning process for new creators. Commissioners are subjective. They will invest in pilots and audience research but each are imperfect, and a lot more effort than simply putting that money into an established name, which is what usually happens.

2. Niche comedy can thrive. The amazing variety of entries we received indicated to us that there is a huge range of voices and perspectives in comedy. You only have to listen to a two-bit observational comedian to know that relatability is a powerful comic tool. If you’re using it to tell a story that’s personal to a particular group, especially one that hasn’t been articulated before, then that is immensely powerful. You might not garner a huge audience, but you will have a devoted one. You only need 1000 true fans.

3. There should be no need for subjective decision making in deciding which shows get recognised and distributed. The smartphone allows creators to showcase their work in a compelling way and the internet with all its interest groups and forums allows them to find their audience. Original, exciting new comedy needs to stop trying to break in using the traditional system, and instead create a new one. That’s what we’re doing.

4. It’s pointless trying to compare a radish to a potato, there are enough people out there who love each.

If you’re interested in what we’re doing at The Comedy Crowd sign up to our mailing list and we’ll keep you updated with the latest developments as we build a new platform for exciting new comedy, judged only by its true target audience.

We’re Wound Up Theatre, and our critically acclaimed, award-winning play ‘Bismillah! An ISIS Tragicomedy’ is transferring for a three week run to the Pleasance Theatre, London, following a sell-out run at the 2018 VAULT Festival. None of this would have been possible without the Kickstarter campaign that provided the means to stage it at the festival – we did a Kickstarter campaign to kick-start the project because low and behold, making stuff is tough and expensive. Especially an ISIS tragicomedy.

You know where their money to be made? Live theatre and comedy. These are the words of Michael Mcintyre’s agents, Andrew Lloyd Webber and your thick uncle who knows nothing of the industry but thinks everyone who works in ‘showbiz’ lives in an episode of the gaudy mid-2000’s MTV show Cribs. We all know there’s no money in this game, especially when you’re starting out, in fact, to get anywhere you’ll probably find yourself spending money. And if you’ve got a project that you really believe in, then as unpalatable as it may feel (and when you’ve exhausted your bank account, maxed out the overdraft and been turned down for a loan yet again from the non-existent ‘bank of mum and dad’) crowdfunding it’s a great way of getting your stuff made and getting out there, and really, that’s what it’s all about. So here’s our advice:

Make sure it’s the right project

Crowdfunding was a new five years ago and people were willing to throw their money at any old product development or show, party due to the novelty of being a part of something in a way they hadn’t been before. This is no longer the case, and now in an age of ubiquitous campaigns for every creative endeavour under the sun, it’s important to not presume that you’re going to get the funding by simply making a page. Also, if you are trying to crowdfund every idea that pops in your head, even your most enthusiastic backer with the deepest pockets and loosest purse strings are going to get sick of being asked for money. Make sure it’s the right project, something that you’re passionate about, and something that you need to make, and that you have no other means of making. If it reaches that criteria then you should ask for money, why the hell not! Though I would say turning to this means of funding your work anymore often than every 18 months – 2 years, is going to lose your support so remember to use the platform sparingly and make sure you use it for the right project.

Be realistic

It seemed for a while like online fundraising was an endless goldmine that could make any project off the ground, well, that’s not the case, and the more realistic you are with your targets and intentions the more likely people are going to be to help you achieve your goals. You’re not going to crowdfund a sitcom before you’ve made a short film. Don’t get ahead of yourself!

Choose the right platform

The rise of Crowdfunding has meant a rise in similar online platforms doing much the same thing. On the surface, they may look the same, but many have different costs, different features and may work better for some projects than for others. Look at comparable projects to your own and see what has worked for other people, this should help you work out what will work best for you!

Develop your story

Narrativise your campaign, and make it a story people can get on board with, simply saying “I’ve got this idea, isn’t it great, give me some money for it” isn’t going to cut it. Be aware that the key to this process is engaging with people. They’re investing in you the creative as much as they are the idea, so link the two things together with them up. The best way to engage with human beings is with stories, so why would it be any different in this case. Work out your story and where you and it overlap, and use that as a starting point.

Presentation

It’s worth taking time over your campaign, getting it right before your launch. The more professional the campaign appears the more likely people are to take it seriously and the more likely they are to support your project so don’t rush, invest time and effort into making it look and read as well as you’re capable. If you’re not willing to invest time how can you expect people to invest money.

Video

Campaigns with video’s raise 114% more in funding than those without, so it’s worth putting in the effort and making one. Try and make it representative of what the project will be while also giving a flavour of what you’re about as well. And remember to make it look as professional as possible, even if the project is meant to look shambling and homemade, that’s the project, you’re professional.

Rewards

Make them as personal and sincere as possible, as I said before, connecting people to the project is one of the most powerful ways of ensuring their support – and this rewards element lets people take something away from the project they’ve helped make a reality. What your rewards are depended entirely on the project, be it a script, a prop, whatever is appropriate for your campaign, but what I found was that the personal touch to all of these rewards helped to get people on board. You might get a hand cramp from writing so many personalised thankyou notes on the front of the script but that’s a small price to pay!

Who’s your audience?

It’s important to know who you’re aiming this all at – going through this with only a vague audience in mind ain’t gonna get you far. Try and build up audiences from things you’ve done in the past. Social media makes the world go round in 2018, so engage with it, to build an audience so you have someone to turn too, and one to use when you’re trying to raise funds!

This is your marketing campaign

I get it, you’re probably like me, the idea of marketing yourself or your project makes you want to vomit yourself inside out, Perhaps you’re not, perhaps you’re a member of the Insta generation and nothing gives you more pleasure than tweaking your brand. Either way, love it or loathe it, you’re going to have to market your work to get it seen, which is kind of the point, and if you’re crowdfunding you then you’ve already started doing it – engage with your campaign, not only as a means of getting your show made, but promoting it. You want to get it out to as many people as you can ultimately, and the wider you get your fundraising know, not only the more money you are likely to make, the more people are going to be aware of the project!

Bismillah (an ISIS Tragicomedy) is on at The Pleasance Theatre until 13th May. Book your ticket here.

Are you interested in crowdfunding for your show? The Comedy Crowd may be able to help. Drop us an email at theccteam@thecomedycrowd.com

All Souls Productions are a comedy film group from Manchester comprising professional actors and a filmmaker. They focus on sketch comedy and are developing a sitcom.

Meet the team in this video as they give great tips for shooting low-fi films, working as a collaborative team, and being part of the fringe comedy scene. Well worth checking out for anyone making indie comedy. If that’s you by the way, you are part of our Crowd and we salute you!

You can see the All Souls sketches, comedy content and follow them on their Facebook page – www.facebook.com/allsoulsproduction

By Jon Benoy

My current stage of “I Am Writer Hear Me Roar” includes submitting anything that I feel I can write something worthwhile for, and – in turn – anywhere that is taking submissions. Yes, you feel a little sleazy at times, and occasionally you will sob in the shower, but actually I’d recommend it as a lean work mentality for writing.

Example: When I received an email from ComedyCrowd saying that I’d won the 2017 Sketch Writing Competition, I replied with something like: “Great news! But, hey, sorry, what was the specific piece called that won?”. With a few emails exchanged, I found out that my script, “The Truthful Best Man Speech” (the longwinded name would change multiple times), had won and was to be filmed by sketch company, Fat Lady Sings, in Ealing. The bit goes that in a somewhat askew reality, people tell a version of the truth; but deal with it in a manner of British self-loathing and awkwardness. In this example? A Groom who definitely probably isn’t in love with his new wife at all, and has made a truly awful decision.

Fat Lady Sings are a London based group made up of Doz and Omar; two very, very funny and professional gentlemen who clearly relish what they get to do. In the build up to the shoot, we would send emails back and forth, Bristol to London, discussing the piece, to try and nail out the idea and gather our small, but brilliant, cast and crew. We had to find A. Best Man, and B. My Wife to be.

Both easy enough now that I look back on it – we found Tom Cray through the ComedyCrowd Facebook Group, and Angela Chapman would play my bride (Angela has performed for me regularly: so much so that when I started seeing my current girlfriend this year, I straight up told her that “Angela would always be my on-screen girlfriend.”).

The day of the shoot came, and thankfully, having learnt from a Youtube background – low budget, but earnest scrambling to poke fun at society, for an extremely minimal fanbase (find me at “Hans H.S“) – gave me enough experience to know what I wanted from the day. Having been in Hackney the night before for Redgates Theatre’s, “Gateways” (another great experience, with a deadline coming up – Google them), Angela arrived and we met up with the extremely talented, Tom (and the face of comedy group, “ShameAloha“). The shoot was breezy and enjoyable – never have I had to say the word “Cunt” so many times – and we drank a damn load of Rosé. We then spent the whole rest of the day in our suits and were asked multiple times by punters in pubs if we’d just come from a wedding. To which we would reply; “Sort of”.

“The Best Man” can be seen at: https://www.facebook.com/flscomedy/videos/793451567521313/

And I can be followed at @JonnyJonJon1

‘Those Three Girls’ are a comedy writing/performing trio who won the 2013 Sitcom Mission with their Sitcom, ‘Girlband’, which follows the fans of a 90’s pop band (check out the trailer). We asked them to put together a short video to explain how they took ‘Girlband’ from script to pilot.

Girlband is being screened at The Crystal Palace International Film Festival on Sun 12th November, 3PM at Stanley Halls, London SE25 6AB. The girls will be doing a Q+A afterwards. Tickets cost £5 and are still available here.

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The 9th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm returned to US TV in October with creator and lead performer Larry David continuing his destructive path of political incorrectness.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is clearly a well executed, smart comedy that has achieved sustained success. But what makes the show so unique?

For one thing Larry David plays himself. Albeit an extreme version of himself, freed from the social filter that prevents us from saying and doing exactly what we think.

But the real ground breaking element is the improvisation.

Unlike most major television comedies, Curb Your Enthusiasm is not scripted. Larry David sets up the plot outline before filming. The actors then make up their lines as they go based on the given premise.

Improvisation itself is not new in comedy. Many comic actors train in improv and use these skills to enhance scripts during filming.

But having an entirely improvised show creates challenges as well as the unique execution we see on screen.

Filming and production can take a significantly longer time. How do you know when you have enough material for a coherent scene? Plus there is a natural side effect of not knowing what someone is going to say – it creates spontaneous laughter. Which in turn leads to more takes.

And post production is an even greater challenge. In this article picture editors Steve Rasch and Jonathan Corn explain why this is the case. “Our goal is to make great sentences, not great edits. We make scenes sound natural — as if they were written that way.”

Piecing together different cuts and takes is a technical challenge for editors that can make or break the humour in a show. But in most cases they have a script to follow with pre defined beats identified. In an improvised show the editors are creating content as they piece together the best lines generated by the performers.

But there is a reason for using improvisation despite the additional challenges. It creates a natural effect that is almost impossible to replicate when writers provide lines to actors.

So how can comedy creators make use of improvisation?

Following the Curb approach is an option, but requires real editing and production skill. In addition the Curb actors are all strong comedians in their own right, and know each other very well. If this wasn’t the case then a fully improvised show would be even more challenging to execute.

The value of improvisation comes from the natural lines produced by the actors. One way of embracing this would be to do an improv session with actors while the script is being written, to generate ideas and include lines that the actors are naturally comfortable with.

Don’t be afraid to try something different. Curb Your Enthusiasm achieved success this way, and it is not alone. Other great comedies such as Peep Show (inner monologue) and The Office (mockumentary) used tools that were not fashionable at the time and executed them brilliantly.

If you are looking for inspiration in your comedy show, improv may just be able to help.

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By Sebastian Bance (feature image by https://www.gregdaviesartanddesign.com/)

My experiences.

Me: “We want you to draw a snakebike.” (Long pause)
Jack: “What?”
Me: “Snakebike. A snake which can shape-shift into a bike. Can you draw that?”
Jack: “Yeah, when do you need it by?”

This sort of conversation is why I love animation. An absurd idea of a shape-shifting bike luring a boy to his death that had only existed in my writing partner’s mind a few weeks before, is about to be brought to life by an artist called Jack (he’s good, see below).

I’ve always loved animation and comedy. Growing up I was hooked on The Simpsons and that style of anything can happen comedy is what has drawn me to animation. If you can think it, someone can draw it. A lot of our ideas at Gas Tank Productions start out with Adam, Greg and I coming up with ridiculous scenarios to make each other laugh and then gradually building in more and more plot points and ridiculous characters. Adam and I, then write a script and Greg draws some amazing artwork (like the snake wrapped around the boy above). We then send it to Oliver, our exec, for final checks.

We seem to have found a niche in the market with comedy first storytelling for kids. There are lots of fantastic artists out there, but not a lot of people with storytelling or comedy backgrounds. Our experience of working in comedy our entire careers really gives us a leg up on that front. Plus, it means we know lots of amazingly talented writers and comedians who we can collaborate on projects with.

Our first experience of the animation industry was when we had a 3-minute trailer animated a few years ago. The trailer was a good investment, it taught our team a lot about the world of animation and improved us as writers and artists. The trailer gave us a product to show the industry when we first went to the Children’s Media Conference and a frame of reference to streamline the development of our next shows.

We now focus on developing our concepts and making animatics (moving storyboards, with sound) to accompany those concepts. Animatics are relatively cheap to make, they don’t take a lot of time – 1 month versus 1 year – and they provide a very good idea of what the final product might look like for the people we are pitching to.

Gas Tank Productions recently won a government grant to go to Kidscreen, a huge animation festival in Miami, and will be part of the trade delegation being sent by The Children’s Media Conference and the Department for international Trade.

For more information on Gas Tank Productions or to send us an idea for a show please email Sebastian@gastankproductions.com

By James Dann

Sweetcorn is a short film written, conceived and gestated by myself, James Dann and Michael Westwood. It’s made from the cast and crew of Chicago Rice, our Manchester based sketch show. The Sweetcorn plot came from when myself and Michael were up in Glasgow sat outside a Wetherspoons and pondering the surrealness of the world. After a few J2O’s and tap waters (with lemon) we realised that the corn-in-a-cup phenomenon was one of the strangest things we’d seen all year (and we’d seen 4 strange things that year). We didn’t quite understand why a hot cup of corn was appetizing or appealing, yet still people flocked to the truck like it was the next gold rush (a name for the film we toyed with for a while, then dismissed one afternoon after ‘Gold Rush’ returned a lot of hits on Google)

So on a limited budget of nothing we went out to shoot our first short! The first stage was getting a tracking dolly to follow behind us as we’re chased by security. The way we got over this was having our D.O.P, Dan Thorburn hang out the back of our actor (Julian Leiners) car as he drove at a steady speed infront and behind us. It was then that I realised what it must feel like to be a dog and run after a car. The thrill of the chase, the heat of the moment, the exhilaration of the diesel fumes that keep you pumping and in a wonderful acting haze.

The technical crew we used were friends that have worked on numerous projects with us before. We’ve all been actors and film makers on eachothers projects at some point in the past. I found Dan Thornburn, the D.O.P, through Facebook when applying as an actor for a short film he made. Dom Old, who did the colouring, is Dan’s colleague and now we all work on films together. The sound was done by Abul Husain, who was a flatmate of Michael Westwoods (M in Sweetcorn) and did most of the sound / sound design for Chicago Rice’s sketches (www.chicagorice.com)

Sourcing the window to throw corn from was another challenge of the film. We had to door-to-door knock on buildings in the Northern Quarter until one agreed to let us do the shot. So one day we walked up the stairs of a corporate office carrying through tins of sweetcorn, pans and corn cobs.

The main thing which stands to mind is how much tinned sweetcorn actually smells and sticks on you. The water is much more dense and congealed that one might think – and every night we ended the day by rinsing and draining corn starch from our hair and bodily extremities. It’s nice like a cleansing ritual of the old, reminds you what it must have felt like to have a good harvest.

So, without further adue, you can check Sweetcorn out here! https://vimeo.com/235842221

Also please see www.chicagorice.com for all of our other sketches.

Thanks!

James Dann

by Shawn Wickens

Someone once told me, “The creation of any work of art is an invitation for people to hate it.” I can’t remember who said that, maybe a teacher or fellow comedian or a friend. But as an artist – someone who appreciates and even longs for approval, that quote rings true. We all want to be laughed at and applauded and celebrated but fear harsh rejection.

On the other hand, we’re also told to tread new ground. Remember to think outside the box, break the rules, and push boundaries. But push too hard… your audience might push back. If it’s too different, people might just not “get it”.

Approval vs. Artistic Integrity is a tough balance to maintain. In 2012, when my good friend Gavin Starr Kendall and I decided to start a theater festival – we landed on a name that energized the both of us: Bad Theater Fest. Theater is supposed to provoke so “BAD” felt right. It felt “New York City-ish”, we loved that it conveyed a certain amount of safety to the performers so they could experiment and try anything, it cleverly undersold the audience and… it got press. The name alone got us local, national and international press. But back when it was just an idea, several friends and colleagues warned us that Bad Theater was a horrible choice for a name. Five years later, the festival continues to turn a modest profit, the participating shows make a little money (most festivals won’t even give you a dime) and it easily spawned a Bad Film Fest.

When I decided to put out my own album of material, various sets recorded at different NYC open mics, I received similar advice:
– don’t do it
– that’s a horrible idea
– it’ll never work

The decision to record and release my open mic appearances was a happy accident. In January of this year, I spent a lot of time and effort to record a 15 minute set for comedy festival submissions. The video was completely unusable which was disheartening. Later that week I dragged myself out to a new open mic and overheard two comedians discussing recording their sets with their phones. “Do you ever review your material?” “Nope. I never listen. I don’t even know why I record them. I never do anything with the files.” With that, I had another “bad” idea.

I didn’t care that the recordings were a little inferior or the sets weren’t perfect. I didn’t even care that I bombed (a little… on track 5). It doesn’t matter that my very first album is not perfect because… it doesn’t have to be. Over 4-5 months I recorded over 20 sets across NYC. I chose my favorite seven tracks, my friend Marshall York recorded a song to close out the album (also cause “why not?”) and just like that… SILLY JOKES @ SORRY OPEN MICS is up on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Tidal, Youtube and more.

So far it has one review. Comedy Cake called it “Pure, unadulterated comedy at it’s finest.” Pretty good. Maybe it’ll get more, maybe not. Personally I think it’s a pretty ballsy experiment in presenting some unpolished material. Plus maybe the second album will be even better. Some people will like it. Some people will probably hate it too. Comedy is hard. Sometimes people don’t laugh. That’s no reason to give up. You just need to try harder or try something a little different.

—

Shawn Wickens is originally from Cleveland and now lives in New York City. He just sold out two shows in his Fringe debut at the Rochester Fringe Festival. It was a stand-up show called GOOD JOKE/BAD JOKE BINGO that several friends also had told him sounded like “an idea that would never work”.

@shwickens
BadFilmFest.com
and check out this brand new BOOK! Only $5.99 on Amazon.

If you want to write comedy do you have to get involved in all the performance stuff too? Stand up is daunting and surely very far removed from writing a sitcom.

Actually, that’s not true. They are more connected than you might think.

Ray Romano is best known around the world for writing and performing in Everybody Loves Raymond, where he plays a version of himself based on his experiences with family life. You may have heard of it.

Yet in a podcast discussion with fellow comedian Pete Holmes, Ray spends almost the entire time talking about his enjoyment of stand up, and how that is the true marriage and life of a comedian.

Stand up comedy and live sketch comedy allow a comedian to do something that is such a rare privilege on screen. Write, perform, cast, direct, produce and have full creative control of the comedy.

So why wouldn’t you do it?

Writing often doesn’t go hand in hand with getting on stage and performing. It can be uncomfortable, scary. And what if it turns out you aren’t funny after all?

Except that you know you are, because you understood exactly where the beats and comic timing should go when you wrote that script. The difference here is you don’t have to rely on someone else to do it right, you can make sure it is perfect yourself.

There are some obvious advantages of getting on stage too. When writing for someone else it can be difficult to get feedback. When performing your comedy on stage you get it straight away from your target audience. They are actually there and you can see the reaction to your jokes. The testing opportunities are superb. You can tweak a joke here or there and try it again the next night. Or even do exactly the same material and just test whether the audience was the difference.

It also forces you to be on the look out for funny things to include in your set. The best mindset for anyone creating comedy.

Trying other disciplines is about appreciation and flexibility. Don’t rely on someone else to do something until you have some knowledge and experience of doing it yourself. What better way to learn about writing for an actor than to experience performing your own writing, or performing someone else’s writing first?

Here’s another surprising example of comedic flexibility. Henry Normal is famous in comedy for not being famous. He is the writing and production partner of Steve Coogan, and one of the main writers on the superb British sitcom The Royle Family. He is never on screen in either, and yet Henry Normal started out in live performance reading poetry, which is where he now focusses his time.

How about Friends. The biggest sitcom of all time. Written and produced by Marta Kaufmann and David Crane, neither of whom feature in the show. They met in acting college.

And there are many more. In fact most people you can think of in comedy have tried their hand at various roles in writing, performing, directing, and producing at some stage.

There is something to be said for being a master of your specific trade. But increasingly the benefits of being a jack of all trades are coming to light.

If you want to master comedy, there is a whole world out there to explore. Don’t be scared to try it.