British Comedy Guide

How do you know when you have it? Page 2

It's not false modesty, those pants are both tight and flesh coloured.

Quote: beaky @ 7th March 2014, 10:11 AM GMT

Come now, T.W., this is no time for false modesty.

Laughing out loud

Quote: beaky @ 7th March 2014, 10:11 AM GMT

Come now, T.W., this is no time for false modesty.

Laughing out loud

When BBC 3 or other professional outlets pay you for your material.

When you show Hello! Magazine round your lovely home.

or when Hello shows you round their home.

When you're the pinup of the month in the Lady.

Quote: roscoff @ 3rd March 2014, 10:27 AM GMT

I get a little rash around my testicles. How do you know when you have it?

Yeah, I'll go with that.

Re another post, perfectionism is certainly the enemy of productivity.

Also, there is simply no accounting for taste. Write something you've crafted and laboured over for hours, days, weeks and which you think is great and no one gives a toss. Throw out a scrap of shit you knocked out in 20 minutes and suddenly everyone loves it. That's not just true of comedy writing but all forms of scribbling, including serious journalism.

At least with the rash, the cream to clear it up is fairly consistent in its effectiveness.

Can you give us an example of something shit you wrote in twenty minutes that everyone loves? Links?

Quote: roscoff @ 3rd March 2014, 10:27 AM GMT

I get a little rash around my testicles. How do you know when you have it?

I've always had to pay for it; so the appearance of mysterious welts on my credit card are often the first sign.

But this sounds like just a regular case of creative constipation. Everyone of course has that shut-off valve that keeps us from making a mess in public. But if you get psyched out by it, you can end up having trouble creating crap even in the privacy of your own home.

Conservative treatment usually starts with some kind of laxative, such as bourbon or vodka. In more serious cases, just to pry the gates open, you might start with four or five shots of Jagermeister and then lie on your left side in a fetal position for about an hour. That usually gets production rolling again.

But a long-term solution does require a change in lifestyle. I recommend taking some improv classes. Yes, that does sound terrifying, but that's the point. Improv is a nurturing environment where it's safe, and even encouraged, to be awful. After a while, you'll learn that being bad isn't so terrible after all. Once you've been through some improv, you'll find that nothing can frighten you anymore.

Basically, it comes down to this: When you get the urge, just sit down and let it loose. You can worry afterwards about where to put it. I hope that this helps.

BTW, this is my first post, so please be gentle everyone.

Share this page