I love the holidays, but every year we hear stories about how stressful the holidays can be.
Suicide rates go up, family arguments occur, anxiety and depression increases, crime increases and so do heart attacks.
That's not fake news, those are facts and I know it sounds drastic, but as a comedian I say, "Comedy Gold, right?!"
One way to be sure you're keeping your sense of humor is to remember to keep
So you're writing and you get a premise down on the page and then... it just doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Does this happen to you?
I was Skype-coaching with one of my students today and he said, I've been trying to write, but I keep feeling like I'm getting stuck."
It can be super frustrating, especially when you’re just writing to put something, ANYTHING, on the page.
So how do you take that idea and make it into something?
Here's a sure-fire way to develop that idea further to get to the jokes.
This could be the most important 9-minute comedy lesson of your life.
In the next 9 minutes you're going to learn a lot! I mean a ton! I'm calling this article my 9-minute Comedy Mastermind Session.
When it comes to comedy writing and theory, my argument always focuses on structure.
"Structure is king!" I'll usually say.
Getting to the point and getting the laugh with a strong point of view while saying something that actually means something is crucial but structure is where the laugh occurs, not just...
In the vast horizon of possibilities of where comedy can come from, why would anyone who's taken any time to study this art make such a definitive and limiting statement about comedy?
Not only that, just look around! Jerry Seinfeld, "What is it with bugs?!" or "I don't know if horses really know they're racing. I think horses are sitting at the starting gate going, 'I know there's a bag of oats at the end of this and I wanna get there first.'"
Does that sound like it comes from the depths of Seinfeld's soul?Or take Anthony Jeselnik: "The best way to break up with a girl is like I take off a band-aid, slowly and in the shower."
Depths of his soul? Or just a incongruous association joke about breaking up with a girl?
Of course there are pieces the "depths of the soul" comment that make sense. It's cathartic to talk about things that are deep and you have an emotional connection to. But how limiting is that statement?
It's missing something, like, where the laugh comes from!