Right now, the ConVENTioneers are attending a round table discussion called Tips On Great Comedy Material. Dan Horn is moderating the discussion which features Jim Barber, Todd Oliver, Pete Michaels, Lynn Trefzger-Joy, Mark Wade and Ken Groves. With all of this talent, you know the convention registration has already paid for itself!
We wanted to share some comedy tips with you too – and so I am pulling a clip of an interview I did with Steve Roye. In this clip, Steve talks about why re-writing jokes doesn’t work. Listen to his explanation and then check out his on-line comedy course to see what he is talking about. Steve’s comedy course offers free lessons, you don’t even need to register an email address.
You can find Steve’s Course here:
Don’t forget to share these comedy tips with your friends on FaceBook and Twitter!
This is a really good point. In the courses I’ve taken on vent someone said, “don’t try to imitate other people” or something like that. I’m not Jeff Dunham or Terry Fator or Ken Groves; I’m Miguel. So it doesn’t make sense to try to be someone I’m not. Each vent has their own characters, their own perspective on what’s funny, and their own style. But this point of not trying to rewrite their jokes is a little less obvious. Sure we don’t want to copy them word-for-word, but even rewriting their material just doesn’t seem right. Better we write our own stuff.
And BTW – thanks for the info on the comedy course! I’m definitely checking it out. 🙂
It’s on my list …problem is Tom … You keep expanding the list.
good info on some comedy writing . Thanks Gary
Always like to hear what Steve has to say…!
Johnny
Exactly.What I’m going to say will be provocative, something I’ve tried to do is take the formula or the structure of a joke and find a way to use that. I’ll think of an example. do any of y’all know what i mean?
I have read examples of others jokes that I knew where funny because of the way it was presented. But like Steve says, You read and you say, that’s not funny. But then you remember how it was delivered and you can see it. It still won’t be good for you though, if you try and copy it. You have to write your own stuff and make it you because it is you.
I like what Ken Groves says about this, too. Jokes aren’t always a question and a punchline, they are often a story. As you take people on a narrative journey you can talk about funny things that happen, even if they’re not a structured “joke” as such. I’ve seen the lessons Steve is referring to, and it really opened my eyes. It really showed how 2 HILARIOUS comics don’t seem funny when you read the script, but there is so much more to it. Combining these lessons with Ken Grove’s interview on ventriloquism weekly gives such a great start to writing comedy that goes beyond puns and standard jokes. Jokes have to work for your character, and have to be relevant to your audience.
Wish I had known this when I started writing! For the longest time, I would use joke books and script books to get started but when I did the material, couldn’t figure out why it just wasn’t funny. Took me a while to figure out that I was swimming up stream, against the current, and needed to find my own voice and way. Once I realized I needed to write jokes that fit me and my style, not force jokes to work for me, life was much easier. Will definitely be checking out Steve’s course.