Musical Comedy

I'm interested in becoming a bit of a musical comedian. I've written some lyrics but play no instruments although I am planning to learn the piano quick-sharp. I've been inspired by people like Dan Clark in "How Not To Live Your Life" (I am gonna buy tickets to see Dan in Southampton in April. I assume his guitar will be incorporated) and recently found some videos on YouTube of Richard Digance comedic songs which I liked. I'm gonna get stuck into some "Flight of the Concordes" which for some reason I've never watched before.

Are there any musical comics on the forums who can give me a bit of advice etc? Thanks

Basic guitar is easier to learn than basic piano, for the sake of song writing purposes. Also, look at Tim Minchin if you haven't already. And David O'Doherty is a good example of a music comedian with little technical ability. Also check out Bo Burnham, Axis of Awesome and We are Klang. Oh, and Issy Sootie (sp?).

Unless you have a Keytar. Awesome.

Ukelele's are great.
You can genuinley pick up the basics in about a week (as long as you have some innate musicality - if you're tone-deaf you're f**ked)
Plus they are intrinsicaly funny.
And cheap.

Thanks to the responses everyone. I am also thinking of doing guitar after being inspired by Dan Clark and agreed, the ukelele's a great comic tool which Frank Skinner now uses to devastating affect.

Issy Suttie is a musical comedian? She's the one who's Dobbie in Peep Show, right?

I've got a whole bunch of lyrics around. Is it worth bunging in it in the Critique?

She is. Well I don't think exclusively, but I've seen a couple of songs from her.

It's always worth bunging it in critique, however songs are not the easiest to judge on paper, as so much is in the performance.

Quote: Nat Wicks @ January 11 2011, 9:46 AM GMT

She is. Well I don't think exclusively, but I've seen a couple of songs from her.

It's always worth bunging it in critique, however songs are not the easiest to judge on paper, as so much is in the performance.

View original

Yeah, not sure how it'd come across on paper, especially as it's just lyrics and there's been not been a jot of composing yet.

I've got four songs (one about that speech impediment Jonathan Ross has, one about a woman I fancy who has that same speech impediment, a gypsy kid who lives in my road and the football team I support). Are the topics I cover in them acceptable and would be it a bit over-the-top if I post them all at once? I was thinking of posting them by order of what I felt is the weakest/unfunny one to the strongest/funny one.

Hi there, I've been writing comedy songs since the 80's (that's the 1980's ), did some stuff for BBC radio 2 back then, but it's a lot harder now to get the contacts in that area. Had a couple of singles out by other artists, but I'd be writing anyway, just can't help it. Good luck in whatever you do, I play keyboard which is helpful, but a guitar is more portable.
If you're interested, have a gander at my website:

www.gidtaylor.com

Good luck,

Gid.

Quote: Jackinho44 @ January 10 2011, 1:40 AM GMT

Are there any musical comics on the forums who can give me a bit of advice etc?

View original

Sorry, not a musical comedian myself, can't even play the recorder... but check out the below website for varying levels of musical goodness. Making notes on what the acts in those videos have done right/wrong should help... http://www.musicalcomedyawards.com/

What I would say is that when you've got good, film yourself a decent video. Musical comedy videos have the chance to go very viral indeed and you can shoot to fame much quicker with a good video.

It's even got the to stage that sketch troupes have started releasing musical remixes of their hit sketches (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHDY2QpaSwU) - music is the future!

Quote: Griff @ January 10 2011, 10:30 AM GMT

*ukuleles

(Sorry. I genuinely can't help myself.)

Agreed. Frank Skinner's ukulele song about Osama Bin Laden is hilarious.

View original

*banjolele

(Sorry. I genuinely can't help myself.... f**king noisy frying pans, bringing down the name of the nice sounding ukulele)

Anyhoo, as you can probably guess, my instrument is the ukulele. A lot of people will say that ukuleles are easy to learn, and they are to a respect, but you are also a lot more limited with what you can do on a ukulele with just basic knowledge, and so many comedy songs follow a general |G|C|D| (or similar) chord pattern.

I would definitely recommend the ukulele to anyone, but my tip is not to think you're going to have mastered it in a week or two, it can be just as hard to play as the guitar (and if you have sausage fingers, even harder, but that didn't stop Israel Kameo.. Kamiko... Kamisole.... Brother Iz).

Piano will take AAAAAAGES to get to a standard to where you're writing songs, and not just badly plonking through chopsticks. If you want to learn piano, go for it, it's a brilliant instrument to be able to play, but don't expect to be performing for a good few years.

Also, re: songs about speech impediments, they can go either way, some people (like Wossy) will embrace it, and laugh about it, but for some people, it can be quite a personal and embarrassing issue. But y'know, it's your choice, if you perform it and it doesn't go down well, that tells you all you need to know. If it goes really well, you've crafted a well written comedy song

For an example of a song about a lisp (that caused much furore on the ukulele forum I go on about comedy, and what is/isn't acceptable), check this out http://ukulelecabaret.com/index.php?player=mary&clip=laterallisp

Thanks ukulelekris. Just taken a look at your YouTube vids and I'm impressed and giggling.

Ukulele's do seem to be much easier and quicker to learn, plus able to carry around in a pocket to gigs if you have a coat big enough (or most likely a nifty shoulder "man-bag").

My lyrics are pretty beginner to-be-honest but all the verses are pretty short so would probably suit a ukulele to other instruments.

I'm gonna go ahead with the piano lessons cos I had my heart set on them anyway but the ukulele is something I'm seriously considering.