BUILDING YOUR SKILLS: Exercises in Comedy Writing Step by Step

Gene Perret's is a how-to book with suggestions for beginners, exercises for sharpening your comedy skills, but "the genius must come from you." (yeah, okay)

He says, if asked, "Should I write if I don't feel ready?"
Answer must be, Certainly, that's how you get ready. What gets people warmed up to write? Writing.

You will improve with repetition. Ie. practice, write, study, practice, etc.

Persevere and complete these exercises and pretty soon, what first seemed "impossible" becoems doable and then, fun.

Good writing is a kind of skating which carries off the performer where he would not go. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

What's another way to practice comedy writing? Listening, reading, watching TV
-tape and type out monologues of comedians, study for form and style (for me, since I'm writing a novel, I'm typing and studying transcripts of TV shows)

How do you know if the joke works? By the audience/readers' laughter
Ie. you might like it, but the audience doesn't give it a laugh--then throw it out, get a new one




JOKE FORMS:

The form stimulates the mind, goads it into filling in the blanks.

Ie.
You all know what the trickle-down theory is, that's (fill in the blanks)

There should be something funny about that, you know... Ronald Reagan as a liberal Demorat. That's like (fill in the blanks)

It was cold today that... (fill in the blanks)

Do meanings for initials.

Ie.

With the new season going the way it is, NBC stands for (fill in the blanks)

Assignment: Listen and study other comedians