Sketch content/stand-up test?

I like both sketch and stand-up comedy; I wonder what people think of this idea.

(Not sure if I'm posting in the appropriate forum but happy for administrators to move if needed.)

Reading a lot of the Critique forum I'm really a bit disappointed at what people think will work on stage/screen, etc. I've commented on a few but got slagged, partly because of my direct language and partly, I felt, because I'm not yet part of your 'clique'.

So, the idea (and I'm not claiming it's original):

Most sketches amount to a single joke that can be verbalised far quicker. The performance aspect of characters can enhance this but the joke/punchline itself still needs to be good. I suggest that these are best tested in a 'stand-up' format to a decent, live audience to guage the strength of that joke?

Any thoughts?

The cleverest aspect is that it gives the 'link-back' or 'threaded set-up' a really good chance. By example, I recently watched Mitchell and Webb do a series of four sketches through one episode with the first three being only mildly funny but the last delivering a punchline relative to the other three that was really amusing even though it wasn't particularly clever on the surface.

Yeah, something like that anyway.

I've done skits as standup, and sometimes they work sometimes they don't. They're kinda like dogs and cats, they look similar but aren't all that close.

Imagine the Parrot skit done as a one hander, or a Ben Elton rant as a skit.

Yeah, I was gonna suggest the parrot sketch as proof that it's not always possible.

That said, in Ricky Gervais' stand-up, he does do a lot of skits.

Dan

This isn't entirely original (as you mentioned), I unfortunately can't think of examples off hand, but I know this sort of thing has been done before - I think some people posted examples anyway.

Good idea none the less, something I have always been tempted to try but I experiment enough just being on stage

First of all, I'm sorry you feel as though you've been "slagged". Complaining about a "clique" isn't likely to endear you to anyone though. I only joined a few months back and I've found the members of this forum to be very inclusive. For the most part, the people who say otherwise tend to be the type who come here looking for a tummy rub and instead find honest critique. Paradoxically they then complain the BSG is a 'mutual appreciation society' where people do nothing but rub each other's tummies. I'm not saying you're one of those people, I'm just saying beware the way it comes across when you throw the word "clique" around.

As to your idea, I'm not wholly sure I understand it. Are you asking people to prove the worth of their sketches by performing them live? While I'm behind anyone who makes the effort to take their comedy to the next step, I'm not sure everyone wants to (or indeed has the ability to) make that happen. The other problem you have is that not everything that's written in critique will transfer to stage. Or am I not understanding your idea properly?

I think the idea that sketches are based around one joke has a certain validity. Certainly, any sketch has a central premise, and the gags tend to be variations on that premise.

I think a mistake made when writing sketches is for them literally to be one joke - the punchline. No variation. If you've got an idea where you literally only have one gag at the end, you don't have a sketch. You have a joke that you could probably do in stand up.