28 Days Later... Day 18: Esta Charkham
Tuesday 4th March 2014
1. Comedy is a very serious business. I believe comedy should be treated as drama with laughs.
2. The key to successful comedy is very ordinary people in extraordinary situations, or extraordinary people in very ordinary situations. Setting things up at the beginning and paying them off half way through or at the end is the way to make us laugh and recognise what we are seeing.
3. I also believe that comedy should be kind and affectionate - it should hold a mirror up to real life and show us what idiots/fools/egits/shits we all are. Comedy should not be laughing AT - it should be laughing WITH.
Esta Charkham is a casting director and comedy producer. Her credits include Birds Of A Feather and Nightingales.