Comedy Writing Self-Taught Workbook. Gene Perret
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Exercises can do that for the writer.
One comedy writer began each day by writing a humorous limerick. His philosophy was “When I’m sharp enough to create a funny five lines of poetry, I’m ready to begin writing real comedy.”
So the way to use this book is any way you want to. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say any way you need to. There is no strict order to the exercises in this book. If you want to start at page one and complete all the exercises in progression right to the last page, that’s commendable. However, you can also randomly select an exercise and work on that. You may find an exercise that emphasizes a technique you’ve never tried before. It might be fun to give that one a try. You decide where you need work, find an exercise that helps develop that skill, and devote your time and efforts to that one. The choice is totally yours.
This book has a limited number of pages, and we could include only a certain number of exercises. However, that shouldn’t restrict your practice time. You should keep this volume handy and use it often. Many of these exercises can and should be repeated several times. You don’t practice the scales on a piano just once. You can return to any exercise in this book anytime you feel that specific skills need fine-tuning, or for whatever reason.
In some cases we will offer specific items to work on; for instance, in Exercise 5 we ask you to come up with new punchlines for the old gag “What’s black and white and red all over?” You can always return to this exercise and generate new gags for the same setup. You are also free to create a new setup for the exercise. Pick a new “old” joke (forgive the oxymoron) and generate new and unique punchlines for that.
This collection of exercises is extensive, but it’s not exhaustive. It doesn’t contain every possible comedy writing exercise imaginable. That’s where you can add some creativity to your self-education. You can devise new exercises. Using the exercises in these pages as a springboard or going out completely on your own, you can design comedy writing practice sessions to build your skills. The possibilities are endless.
The main thrust of performing exercises is to keep you writing and keep you learning. As we’ve mentioned, many experts feel that there are three ways to learn to write. They are to write, to write, and to write.
In the following pages you have many and varied exercises, so now is the time to write, to write, and to write.
Have fun with them.
Exercises 1 to 24
The exercises in this section are designed to help you develop creativity and general joke writing techniques.
Collect Fifty Great One-Liners
You just read how we want you to write and the purpose of this book is to get you to write. Now we are on to our first exercise and guess what? We don’t want you to write.
Your first assignment is to collect fifty great one-liners. These should be jokes that in your opinion are above all others. Not just lines that make you laugh, but ones that make you say, “I wish I had written that.”
Even though you won’t be writing right now, this exercise is important. If you were building a house, you wouldn’t just start nailing walls together. First you would need to lay the foundation. But even before the foundation you would need to do some groundwork. You need to decide what style of house you are going to build. Will it be one story or two? What will it look like? You need to draw up plans. Consider this exercise the blueprints for your future writing.
You may be saying to yourself, “Can’t you just give me a list of great jokes to use?” The easy answer is yes, but then you would miss out on the benefits of this assignment. Also you would have a list that was geared toward us and not one that is your own.
There are a number of benefits to tackling this assignment and devoting care to it. Don’t just pick the first fifty lines that make you laugh. There is a difference between enjoying a comedy performance and analyzing it. We want you to do the latter. Look at the material with a critical eye—at least while doing this assignment. Afterward you can go back to just enjoying the humor. Watch all kinds of comedy—young comedians, old comedians, newcomers, and seasoned professionals. Record some comics on TV as well as go to a few live performances. Read various joke books. Immerse yourself in comedy and capture the lines that really stand out.
You may not realize it while you are doing this, but you are actually learning quite a bit about comedy. You are focusing on it and absorbing it. You are learning what makes you laugh. You’ll start to pick up on the different styles of comedy and develop an awareness of what kind of comedy you prefer. You may find you like the rapid-fire one-liners of the old-time comics or you may prefer a storytelling type of delivery.
Your list will provide you with a database of great material to refer to when you need inspiration. If you were a painter, would you like to paint like Van Gogh or your eighth-grade art teacher? You want to strive to be the best. And your list will do that for you—consider it your very own Comedy Louvre. Anytime you like, you can relish in or surround yourself with the great lines that you want to produce. Surrounding yourself with great comedy can inspire you to write the same.
This is a valuable tool when you are hit with writer’s block. At one time or another we all struggle with that blank sheet of paper. When that happens, take a gander at your list. See what has been done and know that you can do it, too. Use these lines to springboard new ideas.
Most likely your list will contain jokes that use different formulas and styles that you can draw from when generating your own material. Your list may have a “series-of-three joke,” a “definition joke,” and so on. Whatever you are working on, try generating the same style of joke, that is, a series of three, a definition, and so on. It gives you a starting point to generate material on a given topic.
Your list can also be used as a comparison for your own writing. Sometimes we write a line and know it has all the makings of a great joke, but it just isn’t great yet. Compare it to the lines that are on your list. What do they have that your line is missing? Or what have they cut out that you are including? Use the great lines to influence your own material.
So start collecting. Look for great gags. Keep the list going. Whenever you hear a great line, jot it down.
Oh yeah, this may be a good place to mention that if you wrote a joke that you think is superb, put it on the list. We don’t want any false modesty. If the joke is great, it deserves to be on your list. Seeing your own line among other great lines can be the best encouragement of all.
This exercise is also in the companion book, Comedy Writing Self-Taught. We felt it was important enough to include here. However, if you completed this exercise while reading the other volume, there’s no need to repeat it here . . . unless, of course, you want to.
Get ready, though, because now we are going to get you writing.
Cartoons are an excellent starting point for learning to write solid