Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook

More than 100 Practical Writing Exercises to Develop Your Comedy Writing Skills

Gene Perret, Linda Perret

• Publisher: Quill Driver Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781610352611
• Topic: Médias et arts de la scène
• Subtopic: Télévision

"Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice, practice." That's more than a joke; it's solid advice. Consider world-class performers in any field -- golf, figure skating, music, whatever. One thing you can safely say about each is that they achieved their level of skill through practice. To excel in any endeavor, you must work on and perfect your technique. Comedy writing is no exception. In this book, Emmy-winning TV writer and producer Gene Perret and professional writer Linda Perret have compiled a collection of over 100 comedy writing workouts that will challenge your joke writing skills and develop your sketch and sitcom writing abilities. This book suggests that talent is earned through observation, study, analysis, and repetition. The authors also encourage you to analyze your writing, discover where improvement is required, and create your own skill-creating exercises. The work can be demanding, but that's what it takes to become a success in any field, including comedy writing. If you study "Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook" -- with or without the companion volume, "Comedy Writing Self-Taught" -- when your break comes, you'll be ready.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

How to Use This Book

Part One: General Joke Writing

Exercise 1: Collect Fifty Great One-Liners

Exercise 2: Captioning

Exercise 3: A Little Tougher Captioning

Exercise 4: Captioning Words

Exercise 5: Gathering References

Exercise 6: In the News

Exercise 7: Turn Ideas into Jokes

Exercise 8: The Almost Right Word

Exercise 9: It’s All Around Us

Exercise 10: Inspired by Legends

Exercise 11: That Makes Perfect Nonsense

Exercise 12: Tag That Line

Exercise 13: Say It by Not Saying It

Exercise 14: Outside the Box

Exercise 15: Same Word, Different Meaning

Exercise 16: It Means What You Mean It to Mean

Exercise 17: Same Old Words, Brand-New Meaning

Exercise 18: Don’t Quit Too Soon

Exercise 19: Merely Fill in the Blanks

Exercise 20: On the Shoulders of Giants

Exercise 21: Relationships That Aren’t Really Related

Exercise 22: One Joke Begets Many

Exercise 23: Ready, Set, Write

Exercise 24: Assignment Unknown

Part Two: General Stand-Up Writing

Exercise 25: Take Good Notes

Exercise 26: Compact the Act

Exercise 27: What Are They Talking About?

Exercise 28: Writing a Chunk

Exercise 29: Writing for a Specific Person

Exercise 30: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part A

Exercise 31: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part B

Exercise 32: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks—Part C

Exercise 33: Now Cut Your Precious Jokes

Exercise 34: Smooth Transitions

Exercise 35: Baking a Monologue

Exercise 36: Working toward the Finish Line

Exercise 37: Now Write

Exercise 38: Roast a Friend

Exercise 39: Write Whatever So-and-So Wants

Exercise 40: That’s Handy

Exercise 41: There Are Two Sides to Every Topic

Exercise 42: Late-Night TV

Exercise 43: Be Prepared

Exercise 44: Learn to Overwrite

Exercise 45: Pick Your Best

Exercise 46: Not Done Yet

Exercise 47: Killing Dead Time

Part Three: Writing for Your Mentor

Exercise 48: Pick Your Mentor

Exercise 49: The Best of Your Mentor

Exercise 50: Let Your Mentor Mentor

Exercise 51: You’ve Been Hired

Exercise 52: Waste Not, Want Not

Exercise 53: Find the Right Formula

Exercise 54: Hello, Good-bye

Exercise 55: Tailor-Made

Exercise 56: Dedicated Chunk

Exercise 57: Where Did That Come From?

Exercise 58: Strengthen the Weaknesses

Exercise 59: Strengthen the Strengths

Exercise 60: Let It Sit

Exercise 61: Special Appearances

Exercise 62: On the Couch

Exercise 63: Talk Spot

Exercise 64: Become Your Mentor

Exercise 65: Make It Tighter

Exercise 66: Make It Tighter Still

Part Four: Sketch Writing

Exercise 67: Where Did It Come From?

Exercise 68: That’s Where It Came From

Exercise 69: My Life Is Made Up of Sketches

Exercise 70: At the Movies

Exercise 71: And the Story Goes

Exercise 72: Classic Jokes

Exercise 73: Words of Wisdom

Exercise 74: That Really Bugs Me

Exercise 75: Develop One

Exercise 76: Hog-Tied Guests

Exercise 77: Book Your Guests

Exercise 78: Bigger Than Life

Exercise 79: Boob Tube

Exercise 80: Commercial Writing

Exercise 81: There’s More to It Than That

Exercise 82: Oh That’s Good

Exercise 83: The Road Runner Sketch

Exercise 84: The Silent Sketch

Exercise 85: Words, Words, Words

Exercise 86: All Good Things Must Come to an End

Exercise 87: Curtain and Applause

Part Five: Sitcom Writing

Exercise 88: Pop Quiz

Exercise 89: Open-Book Test

Exercise 90: Who Says What?

Exercise 91: What Could Possibly Happen?

Exercise 92: Same with Sitcoms

Exercise 93: Get Your Story Straight

Exercise 94: Get Your Story Changed

Exercise 95: Get Your Story Straight—Again

Exercise 96: Another Questionnaire

Exercise 97: Add Some Funny

Exercise 98: Keep That Story Moving

Exercise 99: Put Another Bump in the Road

Exercise 100: On the Set

Exercise 101: Make It Shorter

Exercise 102: Write the “Bible”

Exercise 103: Write Your Own “Bible”

Exercise 104: Turn the Tables on Your Characters

Exercise 105: It Can’t Get Any Worse

Exercise 106: What’d You Say?

Exercise 107: Switch

Exercise 108: A Good Old Story

Exercise 109: A Good Joke

Exercise 110: A Good Old Cliché

Exercise 111: That Really Irks Me

Exercise 112: Finished Project

Exercise 113: “A Martian Wouldn’t Say That”

Exercise 114: “A Different Martian Wouldn’t Say That, Either”

Exercise 115: Just Do It

Foreword

There are no shortcuts to success. After I won America’s Got Talent in 2007, people kept describing me as an overnight success while conveniently forgetting to mention I had spent over twenty years on the road working on my ventriloquism, singing and comedy.

But trust me, I wasn’t born throwing my voice. It’s an ability I developed, but it took a long time. Luckily I had a master to learn from and a book he had written—it was Paul Winchell’s Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit. When I was ten years old I checked it out of the library and started learning about ventriloquism. So thanks to Paul I became a ventriloquist. But that’s only half the story. As I worked on my act I noticed that having the skill to throw your voice is one thing; having something funny to say is another. Luckily I found another book. I know what you’re thinking—someone in show business actually read two books! But it’s true. It was by Gene Perret and it was called Comedy Writing Step By Step. I started doing the exercises, learning from the master, and added comedy to my act.

Bottom line—I’m a headliner at the Mirage because I could rely on the two best teachers in the world in Paul and Gene. And Gene is still teaching. He and his daughter Linda, who is one of my writers, have come up with the one definitive guide comedy writers need, the book you’re holding in your hands or reading on your Kindle, Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook: More than 100 Practical Writing Exercises to Develop Your Comedy Writing Skills.

This is the book you need if you are a good comedy writer who wants to get better, a novice who wants to begin, or even an established performer who wants to learn from the best. Trust me, even though I’ve got a show at the Mirage, I’ll be using this as a guide to improve my act and make it better and funnier.

So I hope you enjoy the book and the Perrets’ brilliance as much as I do. Now start reading and keep writing!

—Terry Fator

Introduction

Writers write. That’s what we do. As comedy writers, we generate funny material and receive a paycheck in return. It’s a great system. And it’s what makes us professionals. But like the skills of any pro, those needed to earn that paycheck have to be honed, sharpened, and perfected. Even then, once you develop those skills, you must keep them in shape. All that comes about by writing.

That’s the purpose of this book—to present exercises that you can use to keep your comedy muscles toned and, who knows, maybe even develop a few that you didn’t know you had.

Good comedy should appear spontaneous and natural—but don’t be deceived. Comedy writing is hard work. It would be terrific if you could spend an afternoon reading this book and then magically become a great professional writer. It just doesn’t happen that way, darn it. You have to devote time and effort to it. You have to work at it.

The exercises in this book are challenging. They’re designed to be. As they say in the world of physical exercise, “No pain; no gain.” We want you to huff and puff a little bit. We want to get you out of your comfort zone. Because “out of your comfort zone” is where you develop new skills. And the more you work at these unfamiliar techniques, the easier they become to you.

Comedy writing is fun, but it has its headaches at times...