The New Comedy Writing Step by Step

Gene Perret

Description

Three-time Emmy Award-winner Gene Perret's ""Comedy Writing Step by Step"" has been the manual for humor writers for 25 years. In this new book, his first update, Perret offers readers a treasure trove of guidelines and suggestions covering a broad range of comedy writing situations, along with many all-important insights into the selling of one's work. Perret covers all aspects of comedy writing in his uniquely knowledgeable and anecdotal fashion.

Sujets

• Social Science
• Popular Culture
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Comedy
• Reference
• Screenwriting
• Television

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610351089
• Langue: English

Extrait

Copyright © 2007 by Gene Perret All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, Inc., 1254 Commerce Ave, Sanger, CA 93657 559-876-2170 / 800-497-4909 QuillDriverBooks.com

Word Dancer Press books may be purchased for educational, fund-raising, business or promotional use. Please contact Special Markets, Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press, Inc. at the above address or phone numbers.
Quill Driver Books/Word Dancer Press Project Cadre: P.J. Dempsey, Doris Hall, Stephen Blake Mettee, Carlos Olivas
First Printing
ISBN 1-884995-66-1 • 978-1885956-66-9
To order a copy of this book, please call 1-800-497-4909.
Library of congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perret, Gene.
The new comedy writing step by step : revised and updated with words of instruction, encouragement, and inspiration from legends of the comedy profession / by Gene Perret.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-884956-66-1
1. Wit and humor Authorship. I. Title.
PN6149.A88P47 2007
808.7 dc22
2007009901
In memory of Bob Hope
My inspiration
My mentor
My friend
Contents
Foreword to the New Revised Edition By Joe Medeiros
Foreword to the First Edition By Carol Burnett
Introduction Why an Update?
PART ONE
DECIDING TO WRITE
1. You Can Write Comedy
Working in a universally practiced art…the little matter of disciplining your wit, then refining your basic comedy skills…why beginning writers are afraid…the "I’m not a joke writer" syndrome…how would-be writers defeat themselves before they start…learn how to play the percentages.
2. Yes, It Can Be Learned
You aren’t born a comedy writer…you have to learn everything somehow…inexperienced writing isn’t bad writing…why only you can teach yourself…water knowledge and wine knowledge.
3. The Skills You’ll Need
Analyzing comedy: the dissected frog analogy…preparation and practice (and practice and practice)…defining a sense of humor…the mental process of joke writing…what most jokes are…going beyond the obvious …why anyone can write a joke and why a writer can’t depend on coincidence.
4. Comedy as a Hobby
Humor and the quality of life…when the reward is in the doing …challenge, entertainment, stimulation and you can’t top it for convenience… comedy as a group effort…the pleasures of personalizing humor…and tangible products to boot.
5. Comedy as a Second Income
Doing it for money: one of the greatest inspirations…how you can fill the demand for local color…the most likely and least likely markets…selling to the subculture…how to determine what to charge.
6. Comedy as a Career
Moving into comedy: the door isn’t wide open, but is ajar…the luck factor…insatiable markets: why they’re crying for comedy…how to begin in your home town … converting potential into fulfillment…how to build small successes into larger ones.
PART TWO
BUILDING YOUR SKILLS
7. Write, Read, and Listen
The basic building block of humor…standup routines: a superb apprenticeship…the best way to learn…the next best way…how to gain confidence…why you should stick to a quota (and why that’s the soundest advice anyone will ever give you)…exposing yourself to other comics…discovering what works and what doesn’t.
8. Comedy-Writing Exercises
The three paramount comedy skills…mental sleight-of-hand: why visualization is so important…how to take advantage of thinking patterns…overcoming the tendency to quit too soon…avoiding the obvious …Gene Perret’s Patented Comedy Exercises.
9. The Value of Monologues
Showing off your material…enhancing individual jokes…the "peaks and valleys" principle…the steps to building and sustaining laughter…the most efficient way to set up jokes…how to prepare and write more material…diversifying your style…why monologues aid sales.
10. Getting Ready to Write
The groundwork of comedy writing…why you should write out preparatory work…what productivity results from…the all-important choice: finding a topic…how to free-associate…organizing comedy ideas and channeling your thinking…the secret of subtopics.
11. Getting the Jokes Flowing
The benefits of keeping a tally…the starting point: having something to say…prompting the punch line…how to ask the right questions …exaggeration and distortion: allowing your mind to play…exploiting clichés for fun and profit…getting ’em wholesale: formula jokes.
12. The Art of Routining
How to determine a logical progression…a step-by-step guide to arranging gags and smoothing the edges…what the best transitions are…the importance of flow and the final polish…making the audience think but not for too long…the most common weaknesses and how to cure them.
13. Shortcuts to Humor
How to draw out and intensify humor…making the audience identify with a truth…relaxing tension: how to get a surefire laugh…the value of shock value…attacking authority how far is too far.
14. Writing to Your Audience
Why the audience is supreme (or, why you have no choice but to please them)…making people laugh: the comic’s partnership…how to investigate the local angle…tips on how to slant material, manipulate jokes and maintain impartiality…why you’d better make sure they understand you.
15. Keeping a Comedy Notebook
Ideas: you can never have too many or remember them all…why you should keep a notebook…the categories that count…notebook hints from the pros…keeping topical comedy really fresh…easier, faster, and better writing.
16. Sketch Writing
How to construct a sketch…the whys and wherefores of programming and directing craziness… the "Uh-oh Factor"…creating and sustaining complication…generating the ending: there’s only one and it had better work…where to get ideas.
17. Sitcom Writing
The story conference: pitching your ideas…writing spec scripts…avoiding taboos and boo-boos…how to study the shows you write for…writing for characters in believable situations…guidelines to dialogue writing…formulating sitcom jokes…why you must map out your story…the way things happen in television: an insider’s insight.
PART THREE
BUILDING YOUR CAREER
18. The Proper Attitude
Why "breaks" are overrated …perfecting your skills now…how to go about being good…convincing others you’re good…the "Send the Limo" syndrome…expecting rejection…why you have to be better than the established talent…figuring out what you’re worth and what experience is worth to you.
19. Getting Your Career Going
Trial and error…how to research the business…the importance of dialogue: letter-writing…how to make contacts…networking…how much help is too much to ask…overcoming fear of rejection…enduring setbacks.
20. Practicing Your Trade
The one way to get samples of your work…what to put in your portfolio…knowing what a comic faces…delivering your own material and how it benefits your writing … tips on overcoming writer’s block…why you should save your work…how to reuse your material.
21. Completing Speculative Work
Discipline, discipline, discipline…putting the product on paper…mental games to get you through an assignment…outlining and setting goals…how to avoid getting trapped in preparation…deadlines and being nice to yourself.
22. Marketing Your Material
Concentrating on the positive…working for free…sidestepping disappointment…the easiest markets to begin with…the morale boost of a sale…how to contact comics local and national…how to submit television material…using the proper script formats…why it’s important to market yourself along with your work.
23. The Answer to the Question Everyone Wants to Ask
Those who are serious about a writing career have this question lurking in the back of their minds…the answer to it is practical and realistic…it’s also easy and quite possible.
Sample Movie Script
Index
About the Author
Foreword to the New Revised Edition
W hen Gene Perret asked me to write a foreword to this new version of his book, he said in his quipping, good-natured way, "Make me look more intelligent and powerful than I am."
To me, Gene’s credibility doesn’t need to be artificially inflated. I can say unequivocally that if I hadn’t benefited from Gene Perret’s advice and comedy writing knowledge, today I wouldn’t be the head writer of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, TV’s number one late night talk show.
I can trace the steps that took me here from January 1983. I was working as a copywriter in a suburban Philadelphia ad agency. During one lunch hour, I went to a bookstore in a local mall and stumbled upon Gene’s book, How to Write and Sell Your Sense of Humor, an earlier edition of the book you have in your hands right now. (Literally I stumbled because I accidentally knocked it off the shelf.)
Reading the first few pages, I was astounded to see that Gene was an ordinary guy from Pennsylvania who started writing jokes in his kitchen and ended up working in television. That’s what I wanted to do! And this guy did it. I’m from Pennsylvania like he was. I have a kitchen. How hard could it be? So I bought the book. Step One.
Well, it turned out to be harder than I thought because if I wanted to become a big time comedy writer like Gene, I’d have to work at my craft every day. Luckily, Gene’s book wasn’t filled with a lot of comedy theory and show business war stories like many of the books I’d bought before. It had practical exercises in it. They were difficult at first, but became easier the longer I kept at it. Since I had a fulltime job and a family, my joke-writing time was limited. I sacrificed sleep by g