I attended the above course in London yesterday. I’d found out about it from sitcom.co.uk
It was an introduction to writing your first sketch. I know that I’ve been sketchwriting for some time, but it’s only ever been what my interpretation of what a sketch is. This course was to hammer home the basics.
It was a good day. There were 15 of us on the course. Not many had actually put pen to paper before as regards comedy writing, but one man there had had a picture/caption piece in Private Eye just before Christmas.
Tony stressed the use of mindmapping aka brainstorming. It’s not a technique I’ve used before, but I shall certainly use it again. You give yourself more possibilities that way. It would be particularly useful for competitions where you get asked to write on a specific topic.
He also had some good advice about submitting material. He said that it’s best to send one batch of sketches off to a producer, then 2 weeks later send another batch and then send another batch 2 weeks later. That way your name will get recognised.
Unfortunately, he did say that your work can easily get stolen when you send it off. It’s practically impossible to prove this though.
Another point he made was that you won’t make your fortune writing sketches. You need a hit sitcom for that. He said that you should get around £100 for a radio sketch. As regards TV, most of his recent work has been on the continent and they pay around £300 per sketch. I think that’s quite a fair sum, but obviously you need several of these a week to be making a good wage.
In the afternoon we got down to writing our sketch (Mine can be found here: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/thread/4777 )
I’d certainly recommend the course for any beginner writers and anyone who hasn’t thoroughly been through the basics before.
