MutuallyReclusive
Member
Hey fox, good to see you on the forums again.
Let me start by saying that you're being very modest; your writing would be amongst the strongest on these forums and probably only a hair's breadth away from the biggest and best youtube channels. You also have a natural ability to deliver punch lines through double entendres in your art which is perfect for the style of comedy you're doing.
I myself am very inexperienced as I've yet to make my first video, so forgive my audacity in sharing my thoughts. Scripting comedy is very different from telling a joke amongst friends or making the odd quip at the pub, it can, as I'm sure you've discovered, feel very tedious and exhausting.
Most people talk about finding your comedic 'voice'. The best way to do this, I find, is to exaggerate the one emotion or tone that feels most natural to you. Are fastidious like Zero Punctuation in that impatient exasperated way? Perhaps you're grossly sarcastic and satirical like Jon Stewart or cynical like Letterman? Are you logically pedantic like David Mitchell? Or grumpy and resentful like Charlie Brooker? Experiment with different tones and find the one that feels most natural. You don't have to overdo it, but having a slightly exaggerated emotional foundation really helps.
To say that the joke just writes itself from then on is probably optimistic though, writing comedy is hard effing work. You basically sit there for hours and hours stressing over every wording and second guessing the quality of everything you write. At least the good comedians do. My advice here is to do it when you're in the right mood. If you're tired, and you came home after meeting a hilariously quick witted dude, that made you feel slow and dim, and feel that you can't possibly compete with some of the comedy shows you enjoy watching, don't do it then. But now and then, you come home after making 80% of the best calls at the pub, you switch on your favorite comedy program and see most of the punch lines coming, and a small subconscious part of your brain whispers 'Maybe, I'm the best person ever!', that's when you get your a$$ in front of the keyboard and start pounding away.
Have multiple topics open in your document concurrently. I'd much rather speed 2 weeks writing 4 pieces than three and a half days on one. Sometimes your best lines will come much later when you're suppose to be writing for another topic entirely.
Write at night if possible. I feel so subjectively strongly about this that I'm going to make it objective. People are just more creative at night.
Remember, as Stephen Fry once said, the secret to any comedian isn't just being funny, it's being likeable. I like to add that the secret to a lasting career in comedy is being insightful. The very best comedians always make me feel like the comedy was just a bonus, that their views were genuinely remarkable. They're the ones that make the strongest impression on me.
I hope some of this is helpful. It's quite unlike me to drag on like this, I must feel that you have extraordinary potential. I hope to see your subscriber base grow by 6 or 7 digits one day.
Let me start by saying that you're being very modest; your writing would be amongst the strongest on these forums and probably only a hair's breadth away from the biggest and best youtube channels. You also have a natural ability to deliver punch lines through double entendres in your art which is perfect for the style of comedy you're doing.
I myself am very inexperienced as I've yet to make my first video, so forgive my audacity in sharing my thoughts. Scripting comedy is very different from telling a joke amongst friends or making the odd quip at the pub, it can, as I'm sure you've discovered, feel very tedious and exhausting.
Most people talk about finding your comedic 'voice'. The best way to do this, I find, is to exaggerate the one emotion or tone that feels most natural to you. Are fastidious like Zero Punctuation in that impatient exasperated way? Perhaps you're grossly sarcastic and satirical like Jon Stewart or cynical like Letterman? Are you logically pedantic like David Mitchell? Or grumpy and resentful like Charlie Brooker? Experiment with different tones and find the one that feels most natural. You don't have to overdo it, but having a slightly exaggerated emotional foundation really helps.
To say that the joke just writes itself from then on is probably optimistic though, writing comedy is hard effing work. You basically sit there for hours and hours stressing over every wording and second guessing the quality of everything you write. At least the good comedians do. My advice here is to do it when you're in the right mood. If you're tired, and you came home after meeting a hilariously quick witted dude, that made you feel slow and dim, and feel that you can't possibly compete with some of the comedy shows you enjoy watching, don't do it then. But now and then, you come home after making 80% of the best calls at the pub, you switch on your favorite comedy program and see most of the punch lines coming, and a small subconscious part of your brain whispers 'Maybe, I'm the best person ever!', that's when you get your a$$ in front of the keyboard and start pounding away.
Have multiple topics open in your document concurrently. I'd much rather speed 2 weeks writing 4 pieces than three and a half days on one. Sometimes your best lines will come much later when you're suppose to be writing for another topic entirely.
Write at night if possible. I feel so subjectively strongly about this that I'm going to make it objective. People are just more creative at night.
Remember, as Stephen Fry once said, the secret to any comedian isn't just being funny, it's being likeable. I like to add that the secret to a lasting career in comedy is being insightful. The very best comedians always make me feel like the comedy was just a bonus, that their views were genuinely remarkable. They're the ones that make the strongest impression on me.
I hope some of this is helpful. It's quite unlike me to drag on like this, I must feel that you have extraordinary potential. I hope to see your subscriber base grow by 6 or 7 digits one day.
