Comedy writing course
ACME Comedy Writing course: 2008
This course may be repeated in August 2009 at the Edinburgh Fringe. Please email courses@standupanddeliver.com for details. If it is, there will be differences in the location, cost, times/dates and leaders.
This seven day series of comedy seminars, workshops etc takes place from Saturday 16 to Friday 22 August, during the Edinburgh Fringe 08. The timing of noon until 3pm has been purposely chosen so that many first/second-time Fringe performers, who are likely to form the majority of people attending, should be able to fit the course into their day.
The course will, in reality only be suitable for people with some experience of performing stand-up or sketches they have written themselves, as basic skills (eg joke structure) will be reprised rather than dealt with in depth.
Course leaders confirmed include BAFTA winning writers, producers, and experts such as Barry Cryer who will be talking about writing for other comedians.
The courses we have run in London previously are outlined below, and this course will include most of these elements, and some of the same session leaders and visiting experts/specialists. Exact details will not be confirmed until availability of key writers, producers and comedy commissioners is established, many of whom will be in Edinburgh for the Television Festival during this week.
Please email for details from mid-April to courses@standupanddeliver.com
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Comedy writing course 2005-2006
Part 1: Oct & Nov 05.
Part 2: Dec 05 to March 06Stand Up Comedy Course London- back to top
About the course
StandUp & Deliver's annual Comedy Writing course encompasses a wide range of comedy writing from standup through sketches, to a broad sweep of radio/television and stage shows (such as Edinburgh Fringe) - everything from topical one-liners to major writing projects, and will look at how to approach subject matter, structure of jokes and sketches (two key aspects from which all else flows), putting those into script format, plus advice from radio and television people who commission programmes, and also professional comedy writers and performers. Recommendations will be made about which programmes to watch and listen to, in order to get a feel for those shows, so that submissions you make later in the course will suit those programmes. 2004/5's course was so successful that four of the participants are now, as a direct result, commissioned writers for BBC radio.
Naturally a significant outcome is that many participants will enhance their writing skills for their own stand-up comedy and sketches too, and for many people this course will be the foundation stone for writing their first solo Edinburgh Fringe show. At the end of the course those who wish to do so can attend sketch development workshops which will have directoral and producer input, resulting in a sketch showcase (which may include some short monologues and solo pieces). Indeed A M Entertainments which is associated with AmusedMooseComedy may be willing to produce the show on the Edinburgh Fringe throughout August.
To enrol you are expected to have performed your own stand-up and/or sketches, thereby having some experience of performing material you were involved in creating. Those without any idea about the basics of writing comedy should as a minimum do a stand-up course first and perform for a while before progressing to this course (eg an Absolute & Almost Beginners comedy course - plus some openspot gigs) to get the most from it.
Graduates from previous writing courses (and this is only the third) have had radio shows commissioned for example, three participants on the last course are now commissioned writers for the BBC, and to quote David Bloom on the previous course:
I've had worked performed on Parsons and Naylor on Radio 2 and a play staged at the Hampstead Theatre, wrote my Edinburgh show for 2005, and been accepted onto the screenwriting course at the most prestigious film school in Europe, The National School of Film and Television, as well as writing and performing more stand-up than ever. I'm not sure that the course can take ALL the credit for that, but it certainly helped!
This year there will be ten face-to-face sessions of approximately 3 hours, on Sunday afternoons usually from 1.15pm to 4.15pm, followed by a short run of workshops on weekend afternoons and an evening, preliminary to the optional sketch showcase. Sunday currently seems best for the majority as it generally fits in with comedians� commitments. The comedy writing course already has built a reputation and is likely to be oversubcribed so you are recommended to enrol as soon as possible.
Those participants who want to pursue the Joke Writing and/or Improv for Sketch Development elements in greater depth can add an extension for either/both to the Comedy Writing course.
Course format
PART 1 (NB: Participants joining the course initially for all the Improv and then deciding to continue for the rest of the entire course, or who join the course just for Part 2, can enrol the following year for the sessions they missed first time round)
Sessions 1-3 are led by Sally Holloway who is exceptional for making uninspired writers pick up their pen, free their minds and get something down on paper. The first session will briefly recap how to variously structure gags, as well as the unexpected twist, callbacks and all the other tricks of the trade ... plus explaining and demonstrating what makes stuff accessible, and then moves onto topical one-liners (more demanding than the observational). These sessions develop into how to amalgamate, stretch and link those into two or three minutes of oneliners and short pieces around the same subject, as a way of building them into a really strong stand-up set for example or radio piece which may - or quite likely may not - end up being topical throughout or predominantly topical, but has used that as a starting point. Short on-line submission and feedback between the sessions.
Sally Holloway was very recently comedy writing mentor on I Want 2B Comedy, topical writer for The 11 O'Clock Show, regular panellist on BBC radio's The Treatment and many other radio shows/stations covering wacky news stories.
(There are three more Joke Writing sessions offered in addition, as an extension to these sessions)
Sessions 4 & 5: How to write "a good bit" led by Phil Whelan. Phil (who is a key member of Spontaneous Combustion and Theatresports who have international status, as well as playing bass in Bill Bailey's band, Beergut 100) has a big reputation for sketch/shortform work and brings energy an realworld experience to writing routines, sketches, scenes, character pieces and riffs in sitcoms, using improv principles and spontaneity along with more formal approaches. He will get you thinking: Who are your characters, where are they and what are they doing? � and about using status as a tool to help create characters, and using emotion as well as humour to avoid the danger of running out of steam because laughs aren't necessarily just in the jokes. And you'll learn more about breaking the routine, raising the stakes and re-incorporation, and so on. Submission of short pieces on-line between sessions 4 and 5 and after session 5, for feedback.
Phil's writing and script editing credits include Saturday Live, Jack Docherty Show, Spike Night, The 11 O'Clock Show, Recommended Daily Allowance, Brian Conley Show, Live Floor Show, Comic Relief and Your Face or Mine
(There are six more Improv Sketch sessions offered in addition, as an extension to these sessions)
PART 2
(NB: Participants joining the course initially for Sessions 6-10 or 7-10 can enrol the following year for the sessions they missed first time round)
Sessions 6 led by Dave Cohen, Comic Heritage "Best Young Writer" Award 2001, main writer on award winning Bremner, Bird & Fortune, and writer on awardwinning Dead Ringers, Sunday Format, Have I Got News For You, First Impressions, News Quiz, and 11 O'Clock Show; in 1984 he was nominated for the Perrier Award, and in 1985 he founded The Comedy Store Players with Paul Merton and Mike Myers.
Dave says "by the end of these sessions, providing some work has been done in between, participants will have something to show to a producer though it may subsequently need work, but by that stage they will have been directly introduced to the process. If the participants turn up with an idea for something they'd like to put on the radio and they can do some homework, it may be possible to develop it and even put it into the commissioning process".
Session 7 and 8: Script Development. Details tbc, but input from a script reader/doctor and commissioning editor is anticipated, and Paul Kerensa has already confirmed that he will be present --- his experience is typical as he has moved into writing/editing for the BBC from being a stand-up. Jo Caulfield may again come along to brief course participants and request submissions for her radio show, which last year resulted in three of those becoming commissioned BBC writers.
Session 9 will be led by Nick Revell, who has Sony, BAFTA, British Comedy Award and an international Emmy on his mantelpiece plus a Perrier nomination, and writing credits for awardwinning Drop The Dead Donkey, Million Pound Radio Show, Sunday Format, Friday Night Live, and The Nick Revell Show. Nick will provide an overview of everything so far, and cover general points, pulling the threads together, and talk about Open Door programmes such as Parsons & Naylor�s Pullout Sections. Plus a Q & A so the participants can cover anything that remains outstanding for them.
Nick is hopeful that there will also be some industry people who can talk sense from the other side of the desk. Nick's guests on previous courses have included Ed Morrish producer of BBC's Where Did It All Go Wrong and New Comedy Awards, and Seamus Cassidy who as Head of Comedy at Channel 4 was responsible for bringing Father Ted to our screens, and whose most recent project is This Is Ireland for BBC/ChannelX.
Session 10: The Master Class. Stephen Merchant who was such a great hit at the final session of the previous two courses may again agree, dependent on availability - with a couple of other writers from somewhat different areas of work - to share his experiences about the whole business of writing and getting your work made and transmitted. Stephen is co-writer of The Office and Extras, but before that in 2002 he directed Last Chancers for C4 Comedy Lab having appeared in 1998 in C4's Comedy Lab Golden Years which was a project of Ricky's, with a bit of very good stand-up between times.
The main focus of this session will include television/radio sitcom and possibly big project (show or play) writing, with reflective advice about submitting your work and the commissioning process etc.
Workshops/showcase (optional): Those who have attended from the outset will have priority to workshop ideas over the following few Sunday afternoons and a Saturday afternoon, including a dress rehearsal and one with a director present who will give notes afterwards and decide with the producer on the format, content and performers of a Tuesday evening "New Writers Showcase", for friends, family and other interested parties.
Venue: Upstairs at The Enterprise (home of AmusedMooseCamden), opposite Chalk Farm tube.
EARLY ENROLMENT IS RECOMMENDED AS HIGH DEMAND IS ANTICIPATED
Email courses@standupanddeliver for details of dates/fees.
