Adventures in Comedy Writing
In comedy, there is no such thing as a bad idea, just an under-developed one.
People have been telling each other stories forthousands of years. Each of us has the ability to make other people laugh. Then why do our brains seize up when we are told to be funny? How can we remove the terror at staring at a blank page and kick start our creativity? Simply put, by playing a series of games which trick us into being funny.
Participants will spend their sessions creating a series of sketches in different comedy genres and road testing them in front of the rest of the group.
Over the course of several days, the writing workshop will cover the following areas:
- Joke Structure. What makes people laugh and how can we trigger it?
- Thinking outside the box (lateralisation). Participants will learn how to mine even the most mundane idea to unlock its comic potential.
- Monologue and two-handers. Using the idea of comic flaws and social etiquette we will create funny performance pieces ready to show off to a live crowd.
- Creativity Exercises to unlock comedic ideas.
- Finessing the script. Technical tricks that professional writers use.
Skyros Writing group 2017
Although a writing course, there would be some non-writing exercises designed to encourage the participant’s creativity. There would also be writing games with group feedback and tutor led suggestions to help you build up a sense of comedic grammar and hone your comedy writing skills. By the end of the course you will know how to write jokes and will have the confidence to stand up on your own and make a group of total strangers laugh.
The teacher, Logan Murray, is a working comic and award winning director, author of ‘Teach Yourself Stand Up Comedy’, and script consultant for BBC 3. He has recently run a series of writing workshops for the Radio Four Comedy Department.
London Writing Courses tend to run several times a year in London. One in the Autumn, one in the Spring and one in early summer. Occasionally, there will be a four day intensive which happens over the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend (not in 2018, unfortunately, due to workshops abroad).
There are some lovely comedy writing retreats coming up in Europe this Summer, too!
Contact us for details of when the next one begins!