Welcome to the second addition of Meet the Writers. My guest this week is a sketch writer from London, who recently made the break into BBC radio and is currently organising a sketch show pilot with the members of this very board. Please welcome ContainsNuts. *Applause*
Thank you for joining me ContainsNuts and is this your real name? I hope it is.
Well my Dad, Bjorn-triple, must have been smoking something naturally illegal when he named the newest member of the Nuts family.
No, I'm afraid its a pseudo name I adopted for 4Laughs after a good three seconds of thinking. I always found it funny that a packet of PeaNUTS would have the warning 'MAY contain Nuts' on it, like its a lottery or something, "sorry it may also be a bag of marbles, we have no way of knowing."
I'm also male and a bit of a loon so it stuck for this website too. Some may call it genius but I haven't met them yet.
Do you actually contain nuts? I don’t have an allergy, but I could choke. Anyway, tell me about the BSG Sketch Show, what do you hope to achieve and how are you going about it?
Choking on my nuts is not a good image.
I'm quite realistic about the aims of the Sketch show. A couple of Comedy Awards and a Bafta will do. I think the first thing to say about it is that its a sketch show using material from BCG members rather than the BCG Sketch Show, which is the official project of the site and still 'in the making'.
I've been on the site for a few years now, and I know there is a lot of talent amongst our members ie writers, performers and film makers. Probably in that order of numbers.
Also, having worked with a few sketch shows and seen the credits of many more, the theme is that one or two people organise it (ie the Producers) as a lot of decisions have to be made and you don't want to suffer from 'too many chefs'.
With opportunities being quite scarce, I thought pooling our efforts together to produce a sketch show would get us all the exposure we needed. Its always easier for producers to see things performed rather than imagining it whilst reading it.
Interestingly enough, since we've started this project a group of people doing the same have just been signed up by TalkbackThames: https://www.comedy.co.uk/news/news.php?story=000449
Which gives me more encouragement that we can do it. So send those 'no budget/location/costume dependent' sketches by June 9th to funnierthandeath@googlemail.com
Plug, plug...
Good luck with that project, I look forward to watching it develop. You’ve recently started writing for shows Tilt (BBC 7) and Watson's Wind-up (BBC Scotland), can you tell us more about that and how you got there and how it feels to hear your material performed to the nation?
Laughter is the second best feeling you can give a large audience at one time. Pamela Anderson has got the first one covered.
Its been a breakthrough year for me with those sketch shows. I always wanted to do sitcoms but heard that sketches were the best way of just getting someone one to actually read your sitcom. So rather reluctantly I started writing topical sketches. I wasn't into topical stuff either. But I started listening to Watson's Wind-up on BBC Scotland after they once asked for unsolicited material on BBC's writersroom, started listening to the news (oh God, I was suffering for my art) and, having been encouraged by the producer to send in stuff for this year's first run, I sent some in and got a number of them broadcast.
In between this I became a finalist in the 4Laughs/Baby Cow sketch competition where lots of people said I had written the best one - one of them not being the judge, but I felt I was getting better at the craft.
As WWU was finishing Tilt started and so I just adapted my humour to their spec and was lucky enough to get some stuff broadcast on there too.
It was just a case of practice plus listening to the jokes that they broadcast.
Congrats on the success. You say you’re more interested in sitcom writing, do you have anything in the works or are you waiting to hear back from anyone?
Well, I'm not a full-time writer at the moment so I've been working on a final draft of a pilot for a while. With the sketch shows being around I've focused more on that. I'm finally getting my full-time job down to half-days so I can concentrate on it more. All I can say is that its an original subject and setting so lets hope the humour is too!
I've yet to send any sitcom's off as I want it to be as good as I can get it first.
But even so I've had a couple of chats to a few production companies based on the credits I've got from the radio, so I might be asked to do more there.
I've also got another sitcom idea that I want to turn into a pilot and also a comedy series which will be one-off episodes. Again, I'll pilot it first.
Also, I've got some ideas for a themed sketch show and some sketches I'm putting together for the BCG related one might turn into something.
And don't even get me onto the film ideas I've had of late. So many ideas, so little time! But I have prioritised them all. At the end of the day its better to have too many ideas than too few!
Well it’s good to know you have ideas, maybe you could sell them to the rest of us, aye? What inspires you, who are your comedy heroes and how do they influence your writing?
Bloody hell Leevil! You've just inadvertently given me another idea for a film - that's all I need!
Its a cliché, but everyday life inspires me... the contradictions, the weaknesses, the psychology of people and breasts. Sorry, I started day dreaming again.
Writing is hard but rewarding when you hit the right note. You never know when that light bulb will flash so its always more satisfying when it does. I made the common mistake of thinking comedy was easy because I could make people laugh down the pub.
But if you look at it, a sitcom episode is approx. 25 mins long and you need to have three jokes per page, with a page roughly being under a minute long. Add that up and you are looking at around 70-90 jokes per episode. Not easy, but add the fact that these jokes are all in context to the story and there might be five more episodes and... oh I've gone crossed-eyed.
Comedy heroes of the past are John Cleese (mainly Fawlty Towers and Wanda), BlackAdder writers, John Sullivan (Only Fools), Grant & Naylor (Red Dwarf). Then Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy from way back.
I also loved Friends and the Simpsons but recently its stuff like Green Wing, Family Guy, Spaced, Nighty Night, Gavin & Stacey, The Thick of It, 30 Rock, Arrested Development.
My writing is influenced by a mixture of the Office (which is my favourite sitcom of all time), Royale Family, Early Doors, Arrested Development, Partridge. I'm not massively into one-liners, I like the subtle jokes drawn out of real-life situations.
Although I found Flight of the Conchords to be a bit hit and miss at times, the episode where they were mugged was one of the funniest pieces of comedy I have seen. The subtly in that series is incredibly funny, I think its pretty unique.
I wish I would give myself ideas… So what do you think of the current state of comedy on TV in the UK at the moment? You’ve mentioned a few recent hits above but what about the future, where is comedy going?
Well the quest for something new and original is certain to lead to more hit and miss comedies. Its a bit harsh on the genre as the demand for originality is never as high for say drama (see detective and hospital shows a plenty).
I think the UK has been going through a dry patch of late, with only Gavin & Stacey getting the plaudits as new sitcom comedy. But I think channel 4 and E4 have got the right ideas. Inbetweeners has been enjoyable and so has a lot of the Comedy Lab stuff they had on last year. New seasons of IT Crowd, Peep Show, Lead Balloon are particularly welcome too.
At the moment the US shows are pretty strong. I loved 30 Rock, and Arrested Development is still pretty new over here. They also gave us Flight of the Conchords, Family Guy etc.
So the sitcom isn't dead by any means, its evolving and finding new sub-genres within itself.
Sketch shows don't seem to be doing well over here. Man Stroke Women was the last one I enjoyed. Although I loved the early Little Britain and Catherine Tate stuff, I prefer sketch shows with as a few repeated characters as possible. It keeps it fresh.
Well it’s been fun, I can’t think of much else to ask. Is there anything you’d like to add, anything?
Aaron smells of wee.
I couldn't agree more. Thank you ContainsNuts, it's been a pleasure! And no choking either... eugh!!! currr....huhhhh... I'm OK. Thank you.
Pleasure, I hope I haven't bored anyone fatally. Good luck with your series Leevil.
Thank you, although this took us a record 5 hours, I doubt I’ll ever get around to doing it.
Join me next week when my guests will be some bint off Coronation Street, a one legged juggler and a granny, that’s right Matthew I’ll be Paul O’Grady.
Last weeks interview - Meet the Writers: Seefacts
