Using our book, The Comic Hero’s Journey as a launching point, Pilar Allessandra, TV writer Ellen Sandler, and I discuss the journey, goals and drive of main characters in comedy features and TV shows.
Monty Python “Any particular tips for approaching sketch writing? In particular, any advice for coming up with strong endings? Endings for sketches are tough– that’s why Python used to simply skip to another sketch or make a joke about the fact that...
Disaster Movie (2008) Q: What can an actor do to help a comedy script/scene/moment that is just badly written or structured? What do you do when the writing is bad, but the director wants a laugh? A: One approach is not to worry about what...
Mark Twain said that comedy is “tragedy plus time,” but where’s the comedy in the middle of the tragedy? And we’re all familiar with the concept of whistling past the graveyard. But how can you create comedy when you’re stuck in the middle of the graveyard, and there...
