Sitcom (Com)Mission Page 15

Quote: simon wright @ November 8 2009, 10:18 PM GMT

OK, here's a challenge: if you were writing the guidelines for writers who had never seen live sitcom before and you wanted to help them write next year's winning entry what would you put?

The given circumstances are:

15 mins length maximum
Simple staging-nothing that can't be done live, obviously.
Actors won't play roles unless they're worth playing. No extras, corpses etc.
No sketches. The premise has to have at least 6 episodes implicit in it.

That's pretty much it. How you steer them towards writing an exciting, original, stageable sitcom that will make the final a bidding war between commissioners is up to you.

No prize for writing the best guidelines, just a warm glow of satisfaction and the envy of your peers.

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One thing I've learned having had stuff on in the 2007 Trials (which got laughs) and the 2009 Trials (which didn't) is the importance of gags for a live audience sitcom. It's so easy to lose the audience's sympathy completely if a couple of minutes passes with no big laughs.

Live sitcom is no place for subtlety or understatement. Think of it as like performing to a regular stand-up comedy club.

That's my one tip.

Having had a sitcom at the 2009 trials which got laughs and one at the 2009 (part 2) trials which is yet to be tested, I'd echo Griff's thoughts to a degree. The main trick is to start fast (ie laughs early). You can live with a lull later on, but if the audience don't laugh in the first minute or possibly 2, getting them started is that much harder. I think it's really just the same rules as an ordinary sitcom except that it is twice as short so its twice as important. Characters need to be clearer (a bit more extreme), place need to be established immediately and plot needs to unfold quickly. I'm not sure stand up is the way I'd conceive it because of the narative burden early parts of a sitcom carry, and it might lead people into just putting in gags which in my observation of last years trials didn't get people through even if the audience laughed. Even more that in an ordinary sitcom you don't have time for lines which advance the plot and lines which are funny. They need to perform multiple functions.

I don't know that this is much different to what Si and Dec or Kev and James already say though.

Having sat through an excruciatingly laughless reading of my own emission this weekend, I have to agree with Griff and Ponderer.

Just to echo Ponderer's thoughts on early laughs:

I think that in short-form, competitive sitcom that it's vital to get the audience laughing as soon as possible. If you could write a visual joke that made them laugh as soon as the lights went up before anybody even spoke, then they'd be predisposed to laugh more for the next 15 minutes. It's almost as if they're rewarding you for putting them at their ease ('ah, s/he can write funny. Now I can relax.'), the converse of Wright's rule is that if you make them wait too long for the first laugh they'll punish you by not laughing at the later stuff-however good.

Totally agree too, about lines performing multiple functions. The holy grail of comedy dialogue is a line which:

reveals character
and
advances the plot
and
either sets up or gets a laugh

Two out of three ain't bad. One out of three ain't good enough.

Examples, anyone? Or, even better, can you think of a fourth function of great dialogue?

Totally agree Simon. My rejected trials script started with a line being sang out very loud theatrically before the lights even went up to get a laugh. Shameless cheap gag to get the audience laughing from the git go as our transatlanic cousins say. Would have worked a treat!! Ahem. Anyway the thought was there!

Quote: simon wright @ November 9 2009, 11:20 AM GMT

Just to echo Ponderer's thoughts on early laughs:

I think that in short-form, competitive sitcom that it's vital to get the audience laughing as soon as possible. If you could write a visual joke that made them laugh as soon as the lights went up before anybody even spoke, then they'd be predisposed to laugh more for the next 15 minutes. It's almost as if they're rewarding you for putting them at their ease ('ah, s/he can write funny. Now I can relax.'), the converse of Wright's rule is that if you make them wait too long for the first laugh they'll punish you by not laughing at the later stuff-however good.

Totally agree too, about lines performing multiple functions. The holy grail of comedy dialogue is a line which:

reveals character
and
advances the plot
and
either sets up or gets a laugh

Two out of three ain't bad. One out of three ain't good enough.

Examples, anyone? Or, even better, can you think of a fourth function of great dialogue?

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Agree with everyone - when I said you need lots of gags, I meant to say (but didn't) that those gags need to come from character and situation, not your cast standing there saying "My dog's got no nose" etc.

INT. A MAN, IVAN, WALKS INTO AN PET COSMETIC SURGERY.

IVAN:
My dog's got no nose...

...

Dan

That would make me laugh.

Quote: Declan @ November 4 2009, 2:30 PM GMT

Hi Bam!

We're considering doing one in Manchester, but it certainly won't be until next year. No plans to do one in Birmingham as yet, but things can change if we have enough support.

Birmingham to London's not far. At the last workshop in October we had people from Leeds and Glasgow. Allow me to present some of their feedback:

"The cost was too good to be true... I'd just like to thank you for the opportunities you provided and it was worth the travel from Glasgow."

"I travelled 200 miles to the Big Smoke from Leeds and the workshop was the only value for money I got all weekend. The feedback from the actors was great. You definitely got the impression they weren't just turning up for a 'job' but were making a genuine effort to give honest and constructive criticism."

We've got spaces available for this Saturday. You can book here:

https://www.comedy.co.uk/sitcom_mission/workshops/

Cheers, Declan

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Thanks for letting me know. I might attend one in London next year if you're running them.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ November 9 2009, 10:19 AM GMT

Having sat through an excruciatingly laughless reading of my own emission this weekend, I have to agree with Griff and Ponderer.

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The Sitcom Emission? Well, I laughed. You were the one in fancy dress, right?

Great to meet everyone at the workshop on Saturday - Kevin, Simon, Declan, Die Hard and Ennie (it might have been Ennie - no-one really knows - and if it wasn't, apologies to the real Ennie - but if it was the real Ennie, great to meet you). And actors. And lurker(s).

If anyone else is thinking of entering Sitcom Mission, well, I found the workshop fun and informative. And it's basically only £35 if you are entering anyway. What's not to like?

Quote: Badge @ November 10 2009, 1:09 AM GMT

If anyone else is thinking of entering Sitcom Mission, well, I found the workshop fun and informative. And it's basically only £35 if you are entering anyway. What's not to like?

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I'd agree with that. If you're near to a workshop (London/Leeds at the moment) then £40 is a very fair price for over six hours of pretty intensive sitcom script analysis.

We had six pretty good actors in Saturday's workshop. And Simon and Declan, who know whereof they speak. The writers are also encouraged to get involved with the development of other participants' scripts.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ November 10 2009, 1:29 AM GMT

I'd agree with that. If you're near to a workshop (London/Leeds at the moment) then £40 is a very fair price for over six hours of pretty intensive sitcom script analysis.

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Followed by intensive drinking.

Quote: Badge @ November 10 2009, 1:31 AM GMT

Followed by intensive drinking.

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Shame that wasn't included in the price, really.

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ November 10 2009, 1:34 AM GMT

Shame that wasn't included in the price, really.

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Are you sure? Simon and Declan normally includefree drinks for everyone on all their workshops. You really must have upset them.

Quote: Ponderer @ November 10 2009, 11:45 AM GMT

Are you sure? Simon and Declan normally includefree drinks for everyone on all their workshops. You really must have upset them.

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I got a free coffee, and I got to meet some genuinely talented and funny people and Kevin …kidding, you know there were plenty of laughs. Lovely to meet you all and I only hate you a little bit for being far more talented than I am.

It was a great experience and I learnt so much that I am in danger of spontaneously combusting at the thought of all the work I need to do on my script before the deadline. On the other hand I'm all fired up to do it. Yippee-ki-yay etc!