Chorts Simon Nicholls

Chorts Masterclass: Creating Comedy Characters and Sketches

Date Posted: 2024-12-19

Published by The Comedy Crowd

As part of this year’s Chorts competition we hosted a masterclass on creating comedy characters and sketches (all the things a good Chort needs) with one of our Industry Judges for 2024, Simon Nicholls.

If you missed the event, here is a chance to watch the masterclass session again – and we highly recommend you do, so much comedy creative gold packed into 90 minutes!

Creating Comedy Characters and Sketches

More about the host:

Multi-award-winning TV and Audio comedy producer Simon Nicholls has had an illustrious career spanning twenty years in the industry. Starting out in the BBC’s radio comedy department, Simon progressed to Armando Iannucci’s award-winning BBC TV team where he developed and produced countless TV and Audio comedy shows. Having been a Producer then an Executive Producer for BBC Comedy, as well as working at leading comedy indies, today Simon lives in Cornwall and works as a freelance producer. Currently Simon produces French and Saunders’ hit comedy podcast Titting About for Audible, Sue Perkins’ award-winning BBC comedy Nature Table and has a feature film in funded development with Screen Cornwall.

Passionate about developing new writing talent, Simon also runs Falmouth University’s award-winning online master’s in Comedy Writing, alongside a talented teaching team nurturing writers to hone their skills into flourishing careers. Thanks to the team’s industry contacts, many students have secured writing commissions from the BBC and are actively developing projects with leading production companies.

Born from Simon’s recognition of the industry’s need for new comedy voices, this online master’s degree empowers aspiring writers to refine their craft, build a distinctive portfolio, and learn the street smarts on how to navigate the industry. Students also benefit from career guidance masterclasses from the very best in the industry. Past guest speakers have included comedy legends French & Saunders, multiple award-winning writers Simon Blackwell and Holly Walsh and BAFTA-winning comedy producer Simon Mayhew-Archer. Intakes are in January, May and September and applications are open now. Explore more on Falmouth’s website.