Sitcom Trials So You Think You're Funny 2016 Page 3

Thanks to everyone who came to last night's Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny Heat 2 in London. A fabulous show of the highest quality. The five sitcoms in contention were

Single In The Smoke by Tash Goldstone No 74 by Victoria Reilly We Three Kings by Christian Nardecchia Sonny & Me by Baby Isako Galaxy Ball by Diane Spencer

And the winner of the audience vote was...?

Sonny & Me by Baby Isako.

Congratulations. This is the 2nd of 6 Heats, so the judges decision of which 5 sitcoms will be going through to the Edinburgh final will have to wait a while. Everyone keep fingers crossed. (And stay tuned for the video highlights of the show).

The warm up game tried to find the Best Sitcom Hairdo Ever. The runners up were Marge Simpson, Rachel from Friends, Uncle Albert from Only Fools, Nora Batty, Sybil Fawlty, Norman Lovett as Holly from Red Dwarf, Wolf from Gladiators, and Vyvyan from the Young Ones, and the winner was Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

PS: Didn't I upload the video from the last heat a month ago? Sorry. Here it is, click to play:

Heat 1's sitcoms in contention were: Father God by Tasha Dhanraj Latched On by Victoria Morris & Clare Clifford Like-A-Looks by Vanessa-Faye Stanley & Kate Bowes-Renna Singularities by Kat Sadler

And the winner of the audience vote was... Like-A-Looks.

Thanks to everyone who came to Saturday night's Sitcom Trials in Birmingham. A fabulous show of the highest quality. The five sitcoms in contention were

Naval Gazing by Rob Smyth The Cleaners by Richard Constable & Roger Saunders All at Sea by Aaron Caris Aquarius Café by Rachel Sambrooks Falling Flat by Peter Etherington

And the winner of the audience vote was...?

Aquarius Café by Rachel Sambrooks

Congratulations. This is the 3rd of 6 Heats, so the judges decision of which 5 sitcoms will be going through to the Edinburgh final will have to wait a while. Everyone keep fingers crossed.

VIDEOS - HEATS 1 & 2

You wait for the video from one Sitcom Trials Heat, and two come along at once. Here are the videos from Heat 2 in London...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSL9mziGuIM

And Heat 3 in Birmingham.

https://youtu.be/Tx4skvXcC3g

You're welcome.

Sitcom Trials #SYTYWF - The Final Five

Thanks and commiserations to all the writers, producers, directors and actors - and indeed the audiences - who've made the 6 Heats of the Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny such a success.

After deliberation and consultation, I've chosen, as the final five entries in the Sitcom Trials Edinburgh Final:

Like-A-Looks by Vanessa-Faye Stanley & Kate Bowes-Renna (London)
Sonny & Me by Baby Isako (London)
Aquarius Café by Rachel Sambrooks (Birmingham)
Agent of Lovecraft by Paul Hunt & Mat Troy (Cardiff)
Graduettes by Sean Wilkie (Glasgow)

The final is on Tuesday August 23rd, 10.30pm in the Sportsmans Bar at the Gilded Balloon, Teviot.

The quality of entries in this year's competition was higher than ever before, and I want to thank everyone for the work they've put in. Special thanks to the teams across the country who staged these scripts, and to those writer-performers who put their own performing troupes together. This made the quality of presentation amazingly high, and thus all the more galling for those who've ended up not making the final.

I'd like to invite any and all of you to enter the Sitcom Trials again. We will hopefully be running shows, not as a tournament like this, but as stand-alone showcases giving you the opportunity to test out work in front of a live audience. So if you'd be interested in continuing with that process, please keep in touch with me.

I look forward to seeing as many of you up in Edinburgh as can make it, all the very best

Kev F Sutherland
Producer
THE SITCOM TRIALS

See all videos at sitcomtrials.co.uk

The final line up for the Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny has been announced, and tickets are already selling fast. For anyone taking note of such things, three of the five sitcoms - who have made it here from 6 Heats showcasing 30 sitcoms across 5 cities - are by female writer-performers, and 4 out of the 5 have female leads.

The finalists are:

Like-A-Looks by Vanessa-Faye Stanley & Kate Bowes-Renna (London)
Kylie Minogue meets Captain Jack Sparrow in the temping job to beat all, as Valerie enters the world of Like-A-Looks.

Sonny & Me by Baby Isako (London)
Everyone around him wants Eddie to grow up and face his responsibilities. Finding he has a 15 year old son changes everything. But wait, can that really be his son?

Aquarius Café by Rachel Sambrooks (Birmingham)
Birmingham's only cafe cum therapy palace cum poetry experience cum music venue cum jazz bar cum folk museum cum wedding emporium cum flashmob cum love cafe.

Agent of LOVCRAFT by Paul Hunt & Mat Troy (Cardiff)
Cardiff's own slightly psychic investigator faces the biggest challenge yet when a maniac kidnaps a city bus armed with an electric screwdriver and a route map.

Graduettes by Sean Wilkie (Glasgow)
Three Glasgow women have recently graduated and now struggle to make their way in the world despite illness, unwanted pregnancy, and being a nutty religious zealot.

The audience will vote for their favourite and only see the ending of the winner, with the ultimate victor being chosen by a panel of judges. The winning sitcom writers are awarded their own show at the Gilded Balloon next year.

The Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny? Grand Final is on at 10.30pm, August 23rd 2016 at The Gilded Ballon, Edinburgh Fringe. Tickets here.

It's the final tonight, I trust we're all excited. 10.30pm at the Gilded Balloon.

(Full details at sitcomtrials.co.uk, on Facebook and Twitter)

Edinburgh Final: http://tinyurl.com/TrialsGB

The various casts of The Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny Grand Final 2016. (Back row) Sonny & Me, Like A Looks, (middle) Agent Of Lovcraft, (front) host Kev F, Aquarius Cafe. (We're missing The Graduettes who, sadly, had left before we called the last-minute photoshoot). Photo by Nick Steel.

Thanks and warmest congratulations to everybody who took part in and attended the Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny Grand Final at the Gilded Balloon on Tuesday August 23rd 2016. A splendid night was had by all, and as you can see, a lot of performers (and writers, also out of shot) put a lot of effort into bringing together this production.

As always, we presented five brand new sitcoms live in stage, and the audience voted for their favourite and only saw the ending of the one that they chose as their winner. Plus, with this being the culmination of a six month long tournament, following heats across the country, with the prize on offer of their own show at the Gilded Balloon next year, there was a panel of judges who, independently of the audience vote, chose the ultimate prizewinner.

The 5 sitcoms in contention, in order of appearance, were Like-A-Looks by Vanessa-Faye Stanley and Kate Bowes-Renna (winner of the 1st London Heat), Sonny & Me by Baby Isako (winner of the 2nd London Heat), Aquarius Cafe by Rachel Sambrooks (winner of the Birmingham Heat), Agent of Lovcraft by Paul Hunt & Mat Troy (winner of the Cardiff Heat), and The Graduettes by Sean and Ashleigh Wilkie (winner of the Glasgow Heat).

The judges were Rosie Holt (the previous winner of The Sitcom Trials SYTYWF), Nick Steel (Bath Comedy Festival), Kate Lennon (Funny Women) and Karen Koren (Gilded Balloon).

And the winners were...

Winner of the audience vote, and therefore the team who got to perform their final scene: Sonny and Me.

Winner of the judges vote and the ultimate prizewinners: Like-A-Looks.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all the performers who had to contend with a slightly late start and overlong warm-up from myself (Kev F, your host and producer), followed by the music bleeding through from the show next door, which was a challenge to which everyone rose maginificently. In the end the whole event only overran by 10 minutes, and a splendid time was had by all.

Oh yes, and the prize for the best audience sitcom suggestion in The Pitch Fest was a drawing of Mrs Brown by Kev F (of which, sadly, no photo was taken).

The Sitcom Trials will be continuing at venues across the country, follow it on the blog and via Facebook and Twitter for details of how to take part.

Kev F Sutherland, creator & producer, The Sitcom Trials

*Lovecraft if it's the horror writer.

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 24th August 2016, 4:03 PM

*Lovecraft if it's the horror writer.

View original

Take it up with the writers, not me. They spell it Lovcraft, and who am I to argue? And while I'm on, I've uploaded all the videos from the final:

#SYTYWF Grand Final 2016 - the videos

The video highlights from the Grand Final of The Sitcom Trials So You Think You Write Funny are now on Youtube, please click the link above and enjoy the 4 minutes of fun that give you a taste of the night plus full videos from the final and all the heats.

The 5 sitcoms in contention, in order of appearance, were

Like-A-Looks by Vanessa-Faye Stanley and Kate Bowes-Renna Final performance in full London Heat performance in full

Sonny & Me by Baby Isako
Final performance in full
London Heat performance in full

Aquarius Cafe by Rachel Sambrooks Final performance in full Birmingham Heat performance in full

Agent of Lovcraft by Paul Hunt & Mat Troy Final performance in full Cardiff Heat performance in full

and The Graduettes by Sean and Ashleigh Wilkie Final performance in full Glasgow Heat performance in full