The comedy writer with a day job and no contacts

Behind every great venture there is a personal story. This may or may not be true, but it works well for an intro to this blog so please accept it. We want to tell you our story and why we founded The Comedy Crowd.

Peter and I wrote a sitcom together. Like many old friends and comedy enthusiasts we had talked about doing this for a while, sharing ideas and making each other laugh, without ever actually trying it. Why?

1. 1. One reason was time. We both had full time jobs and family commitments, not to mention important social commitments like playing football manager. We soon realised that if you want something enough you will prioritise and find the time, even if that means failing to lead your fake football team to virtual glory. So we started writing sketches and scenes to one another, and we decided the concept had potential as a sitcom (check out our 5 tips on writing with a day job, and the productivity area of the Comedy Academy for more on making the most of your writing time)
   2. So was it any good? Well we loved it. But then our feedback wasn’t exactly objective. Our thought process went as follows: “We’ve got a script. Now what we need is a production company with a budget to invest in it and source actors and technical filming expertise.” Easy. Unfortunately it turns out productions companies with budgets don’t read scripts from people with no contacts or experience. Also it turns out no one really wants to read a script. This became apparent when even asking family members to have a read proved challenging. So we decided to film a short scene.
   3. Where do you find a project team of like minded comedy performers and people with technical filming expertise based in the same location? Well if you don’t already know these people, the answer is its very difficult.  We did manage to film a scene, but it would have been better if the project team was created based on a group of like minded people all bought into the content.

These challenges are all common problems for people starting out in comedy and often lead to wasted talent and ideas. We started The Comedy Crowd to help people on this journey and to create grassroots comedy without the obstacles. Find out more and by signing up to our free weekly newsletter for creators