Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook

Linda Perret, Gene Perret

Description

"Can you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "Practice, practice, practice." That's more than a joke; it's solid advice. Consider world-class performers in any field -- golf, figure skating, music, whatever. One thing you can safely say about each is that they achieved their level of skill through practice. To excel in any endeavor, you must work on and perfect your technique. Comedy writing is no exception. In this book, Emmy-winning TV writer and producer Gene Perret and professional writer Linda Perret have compiled a collection of over 100 comedy writing workouts that will challenge your joke writing skills and develop your sketch and sitcom writing abilities. This book suggests that talent is earned through observation, study, analysis, and repetition. The authors also encourage you to analyze your writing, discover where improvement is required, and create your own skill-creating exercises. The work can be demanding, but that's what it takes to become a success in any field, including comedy writing. If you study "Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook" -- with or without the companion volume, "Comedy Writing Self-Taught" -- when your break comes, you'll be ready.

Sujets

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

Informations

• Publié par: Linden Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781610352611
• Langue: English

Extrait

Comedy Writing Self-Taught

WORKBOOK

More than 100 practical writing exercises to develop your comedy writing skills

Gene Perret and Linda Perret

Fresno, California
Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook
Copyright © 2014 by Gene Perret and Linda Perret. All rights reserved.

Published by Quill Driver Books
An imprint of Linden Publishing
2006 South Mary Street, Fresno, California 93721
[phone] / [phone]
QuillDriverBooks.com

Quill Driver Books and Colophon are trademarks of
Linden Publishing, Inc.

ISBN 978-1-61035-240-6
eISBN 978-1-61035-261-1

135798642

Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file.
To the many great humorists of tomorrow you know who you are.
Gene

To all my Round Table Friends a great group of writers and performers.
Linda
Contents

Foreword
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Part One: General Joke Writing
Exercise 1: Collect Fifty Great One-Liners
Exercise 2: Captioning
Exercise 3: A Little Tougher Captioning
Exercise 4: Captioning Words
Exercise 5: Gathering References
Exercise 6: In the News
Exercise 7: Turn Ideas into Jokes
Exercise 8: The Almost Right Word
Exercise 9: It’s All Around Us
Exercise 10: Inspired by Legends
Exercise 11: That Makes Perfect Nonsense
Exercise 12: Tag That Line
Exercise 13: Say It by Not Saying It
Exercise 14: Outside the Box
Exercise 15: Same Word, Different Meaning
Exercise 16: It Means What You Mean It to Mean
Exercise 17: Same Old Words, Brand-New Meaning
Exercise 18: Don’t Quit Too Soon
Exercise 19: Merely Fill in the Blanks
Exercise 20: On the Shoulders of Giants
Exercise 21: Relationships That Aren’t Really Related
Exercise 22: One Joke Begets Many
Exercise 23: Ready, Set, Write
Exercise 24: Assignment Unknown
Part Two: General Stand-Up Writing
Exercise 25: Take Good Notes
Exercise 26: Compact the Act
Exercise 27: What Are They Talking About?
Exercise 28: Writing a Chunk
Exercise 29: Writing for a Specific Person
Exercise 30: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks Part A
Exercise 31: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks Part B
Exercise 32: Writing in Bite-Size Chunks Part C
Exercise 33: Now Cut Your Precious Jokes
Exercise 34: Smooth Transitions
Exercise 35: Baking a Monologue
Exercise 36: Working toward the Finish Line
Exercise 37: Now Write
Exercise 38: Roast a Friend
Exercise 39: Write Whatever So-and-So Wants
Exercise 40: That’s Handy
Exercise 41: There Are Two Sides to Every Topic
Exercise 42: Late-Night TV
Exercise 43: Be Prepared
Exercise 44: Learn to Overwrite
Exercise 45: Pick Your Best
Exercise 46: Not Done Yet
Exercise 47: Killing Dead Time
Part Three: Writing for Your Mentor
Exercise 48: Pick Your Mentor
Exercise 49: The Best of Your Mentor
Exercise 50: Let Your Mentor Mentor
Exercise 51: You’ve Been Hired
Exercise 52: Waste Not, Want Not
Exercise 53: Find the Right Formula
Exercise 54: Hello, Good-bye
Exercise 55: Tailor-Made
Exercise 56: Dedicated Chunk
Exercise 57: Where Did That Come From?
Exercise 58: Strengthen the Weaknesses
Exercise 59: Strengthen the Strengths
Exercise 60: Let It Sit
Exercise 61: Special Appearances
Exercise 62: On the Couch
Exercise 63: Talk Spot
Exercise 64: Become Your Mentor
Exercise 65: Make It Tighter
Exercise 66: Make It Tighter Still
Part Four: Sketch Writing
Exercise 67: Where Did It Come From?
Exercise 68: That’s Where It Came From
Exercise 69: My Life Is Made Up of Sketches
Exercise 70: At the Movies
Exercise 71: And the Story Goes
Exercise 72: Classic Jokes
Exercise 73: Words of Wisdom
Exercise 74: That Really Bugs Me
Exercise 75: Develop One
Exercise 76: Hog-Tied Guests
Exercise 77: Book Your Guests
Exercise 78: Bigger Than Life
Exercise 79: Boob Tube
Exercise 80: Commercial Writing
Exercise 81: There’s More to It Than That
Exercise 82: Oh That’s Good
Exercise 83: The Road Runner Sketch
Exercise 84: The Silent Sketch
Exercise 85: Words, Words, Words
Exercise 86: All Good Things Must Come to an End
Exercise 87: Curtain and Applause
Part Five: Sitcom Writing
Exercise 88: Pop Quiz
Exercise 89: Open-Book Test
Exercise 90: Who Says What?
Exercise 91: What Could Possibly Happen?
Exercise 92: Same with Sitcoms
Exercise 93: Get Your Story Straight
Exercise 94: Get Your Story Changed
Exercise 95: Get Your Story Straight Again
Exercise 96: Another Questionnaire
Exercise 97: Add Some Funny
Exercise 98: Keep That Story Moving
Exercise 99: Put Another Bump in the Road
Exercise 100: On the Set
Exercise 101: Make It Shorter
Exercise 102: Write the "Bible"
Exercise 103: Write Your Own "Bible"
Exercise 104: Turn the Tables on Your Characters
Exercise 105: It Can’t Get Any Worse
Exercise 106: What’d You Say?
Exercise 107: Switch
Exercise 108: A Good Old Story
Exercise 109: A Good Joke
Exercise 110: A Good Old Cliché
Exercise 111: That Really Irks Me
Exercise 112: Finished Project
Exercise 113: "A Martian Wouldn’t Say That"
Exercise 114: "A Different Martian Wouldn’t Say That, Either"
Exercise 115: Just Do It
Foreword

There are no shortcuts to success. After I won America’s Got Talent in 2007, people kept describing me as an overnight success while conveniently forgetting to mention I had spent over twenty years on the road working on my ventriloquism, singing and comedy.

But trust me, I wasn’t born throwing my voice. It’s an ability I developed, but it took a long time. Luckily I had a master to learn from and a book he had written it was Paul Winchell’s Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit . When I was ten years old I checked it out of the library and started learning about ventriloquism. So thanks to Paul I became a ventriloquist. But that’s only half the story. As I worked on my act I noticed that having the skill to throw your voice is one thing; having something funny to say is another. Luckily I found another book. I know what you’re thinking someone in show business actually read two books! But it’s true. It was by Gene Perret and it was called Comedy Writing Step By Step . I started doing the exercises, learning from the master, and added comedy to my act.

Bottom line I’m a headliner at the Mirage because I could rely on the two best teachers in the world in Paul and Gene. And Gene is still teaching. He and his daughter Linda, who is one of my writers, have come up with the one definitive guide comedy writers need, the book you’re holding in your hands or reading on your Kindle, Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook: More than 100 Practical Writing Exercises to Develop Your Comedy Writing Skills .

This is the book you need if you are a good comedy writer who wants to get better, a novice who wants to begin, or even an established performer who wants to learn from the best. Trust me, even though I’ve got a show at the Mirage, I’ll be using this as a guide to improve my act and make it better and funnier.

So I hope you enjoy the book and the Perrets’ brilliance as much as I do. Now start reading and keep writing!

Terry Fator
Introduction

Writers write. That’s what we do. As comedy writers, we generate funny material and receive a paycheck in return. It’s a great system. And it’s what makes us professionals. But like the skills of any pro, those needed to earn that paycheck have to be honed, sharpened, and perfected. Even then, once you develop those skills, you must keep them in shape. All that comes about by writing.

That’s the purpose of this book to present exercises that you can use to keep your comedy muscles toned and, who knows, maybe even develop a few that you didn’t know you had.

Good comedy should appear spontaneous and natural but don’t be deceived. Comedy writing is hard work. It would be terrific if you could spend an afternoon reading this book and then magically become a great professional writer. It just doesn’t happen that way, darn it. You have to devote time and effort to it. You have to work at it.

The exercises in this book are challenging. They’re designed to be. As they say in the world of physical exercise, "No pain; no gain." We want you to huff and puff a little bit. We want to get you out of your comfort zone. Because "out of your comfort zone" is where you develop new skills. And the more you work at these unfamiliar techniques, the easier they become to you.

Comedy writing is fun, but it has its headaches at times. As a professional writer, you will be asked to supply material quickly, on topics you may not be familiar with and sometimes under less than desirable circumstances. Now is the time to prepare for that sort of pressure. After completing the exercises in this book, you’ll be ready to face these situations. You’ve already conquered the tough challenges here, so you know you can do it.

A pro golfer doesn’t just walk out to the tee and hit the ball a ton. Oh sure, it may look that way on TV. But that golfer has practiced. He’s spent years going to the driv