THIS TOPIC IS INSPIRED BY DISCUSSIONS IN THE FORUM about the use of pseudonyms by members of Writers’ Dock. The use of avatars is closely linked to this and it seems logical to examine this in some detail. Descent in Human Form: Avatar is a Sanskrit word rooted in the Hindu concept of ‘descent [...]
JADE CARTIER INTERVIEWS MICHEAL JACOB (Freelance Comedy Producer and Writers’ Dock Comedy Competition Mentor) JC: Having produced comedy for a number of years, what would you say are some of the major changes you have witnessed that would have an impact on writers of comedy today? MJ: In the creative sphere, there has been an [...]
WELCOME TO THE NEW COMEDY WORKSHOP COMPETITION Micheal Jacob and Jade Cartier have devised a way of giving – both the seasoned and welcomed first time/newbie, aspirational comedy competition workshop writer – the chance to place existing, well-known characters into a completely different scenario, or tinker with the existing scenario. Every month the comedy competition [...]
WE AT WRITERS’ DOCK ARE VERY PRIVILEGED TO HAVE THE CONTINUED PATRONAGE, over a number of years, of Mr Micheal Jacob, BBC producer of comedy classics such as My Family, Goodnight Sweetheart, and Birds of a Feather, and now a freelance comedy consultant for British and international comedy artists and industry. We are on the brink of [...]
PRESS RELEASE: GET YOUR COMEDY SKETCH PRODUCED BY AN AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR www.circalit.com/projects/competitions/jason Ever had an idea for a comedy sketch? Circalit is back once again helping talented comedy writers get their sketches produced and distributed. This time Circalit has teamed up with award-winning filmmaker, Jason Wingard, whose most recent short, ‘Ben and Jackie’, has [...]
ONCE YOU HAVE A JOKE, YOU CAN ADD MORE PUNCHES. Here’s one way to do that. This technique is actually Steps Three to Five of the Five Steps To Funny process. You use the punchline to your original joke as a setup: look for expectations to shatter, then come up with a substitute expectation and [...]
OFTEN PEOPLE SAY THAT THEIR HUMOUR IS SPONTANEOUS and that a structured process for generating humour feels too contrived. Spontaneous humour is great; unfortunately it doesn’t always happen. Think of the structured process that I’m about to show you as a form of ‘prepared spontaneity’. You prepare so well that, to your audience, your humour [...]
DAVID GRANIRER, PSYCHOTHERAPIST AND STAND UP COMIC, shares more of his comedy writing tips. Humour = Exaggeration and/or surprise This is the basic formula for writing stand-up comedy. In general, humour involves exaggeration and/or surprise. For something to be funny there must be some sort of surprise twist and/or exaggeration of reality. If the [...]
FOLLOWING UP ON A PREVIOUS ARTICLE IN HIS EZINE, on the use of props to connect with people (and used here to highlight comedic connection in life and in the writing of stand-up comedy), psychotherapist and stand-up comic, David Granirer, writes: I wrote about the use of props, in this case giggle balls (soft [...]
MICHEAL JACOB HAS BEEN A COMEDY SCRIPT EDITOR, producer and executive producer at Alomo Productions and BBC Television. He is now a script and production consultant. Micheal also kindly offers his time to regularly help comedy writers at the Writers’ Dock forum. In this series of articles, and with his permission, we present excerpts of [...]
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