What’s Up?

January…

Comedy Craft / Story Fiending

I have never been in a physical fight. My ex-navy dad did teach me how to make a fist so that you don’t break your thumb, but, thankfully, this life advice remains untested.

I also avoid a lot of violent scenes in films, series, or books. Depending on how menacing I’m finding it, I’ll leave the room for a bit, jump forward, or stop watching it completely. (If I don’t, I feel physically sick, even though I know it’s fiction.)

Even the old slipping on a banana peel example is more likely to make me wince than laugh.

BUT, stories need conflict, and I love the potential of physical comedy. I actively enjoy writing scenes with altercations, and scuffles and spats. I’m just super particular about how they’re framed and crafted. And I prefer that they have a strong tang of the absurd or ridiculous.

If I come across a scene like this—one that actually makes me laugh—I pay allllllll the attention.

To the use of…

🖊️Location, including any objects. What role are these things playing?

🖊️Dialogue—what is said or not said. How does this reveal the characters motivations?

🖊️Motivations—intention vs result. What are they actually trying to do? What happens? How much is intentional, and how much is accidental?

🖊️Any framing devices that help me to read the scene in a particular way, and affect my experience.

🖊️The pacing—what kind of tension is or isn’t being built and released

🖊️The choreography. What’s the physical style of these humans.

A couple of examples that have stuck with me are:

If you’ve got any favourite comedic scuffles or spats, please send them my way. 💛

Comedy quote

‘The thing is, you want your audience to be involved. You want them to be rooting for something, so that when it happens it's an emotional experience. And that's what people forget about comedies. They think, well, emotion, that's for drama, but comedy, comedy's fun. No, comedy tells the truth about people and people go through a lot of pain in their lives.’

– Steve Kaplan, Episode 18 of Comedy Masterclass.

Steve is the author of these two very helpful books:

And his quote leads me to…

Stash: things I love

There’s an equation building this month…

Succession water bottle scene + Steve Kaplan’s quote = Georgia Pritchett

Georgia is a multi-award winning writer whose credits include Veep, Miranda, The Thick of It, and….Succession, including the episode with said water bottle altercation.

I re-read Georgia’s memoir this month, and it is painfully, funnily truthful.

In her memoir, you will also learn how Georgia is responsible for THIS GEM…!

Fun, based on truth.

Dare Bears

Shoutout to Jayme for this rec—the writer Hanif Abdurraqib

In checking out his work, I found this creative prompt (posted on his Instagram @nifmuhammad).

What would yours be? I’m going to muse on mine tonight, and I’ll report back.

Within the same Instagram cluster, he also said this, which I love!

Here’s to being alive and feeling things.

And to the creative dares that lead to connection.

Until next time,

PS: Thanks for reading my Seriously Ridiculous letter. All feedback is welcome, as I only want to do this if it’s useful or fun for you to read. You can hit reply and it will wing its way to me.

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