What This Book Will And Won't Do
It is impossible to teach someone to be funny. It just can't be done. So if you don't really believe you're funny, this book can't fix that. But obviously, since you're reading it, you must think you've got some funny in you. Deep down inside, you think you're a funny person. The goal of this book is to make you know you are funny. Using the exercises in this book and learning to let go of your inhibitions will get you started on the road to being a comedy writer. It will act like a coach, teaching you to trust your comedic instincts and encouraging you to get your comedy out there to the world.
You'll mostly be working with sketches and stand-up in this book. They are the most immediate use for your ideas, but of course, your ideas can be used for anything. This book will ask a ton of questions. Asking yourself questions is the key to good comedy. Questioning everything is the only way to get ideas. This book won't make you funny — but if you're willing to put the work into it, you'll make yourself funnier.
No Shortcuts
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice! Some people are just naturally funny. If you're one of them, congratulations. But the rest of us have to work at it. Comedy writing is a lot of work, coming up with ideas, working through them, writing them effectively, and performing, refining, and polishing. If you do it properly, no one will even notice all the work.
It's different for everybody, but on average only 5 percent of a comedy writer's ideas work as a joke, and probably only one out of 100 jokes works really well. You have to sift through a lot of rocks to find a nugget of comedy gold.
But if it works, it's all worth the effort. A well-crafted joke is something you will be really proud of.
Rules? We Don't Need No Stinking Rules!
You won't be learning comedy by “filling in the blanks” with a bunch of comedy formulas. None of that: “He's so stupid, he thinks !” Why? Because your end product will sound like formula writing. You want material that's fresh and unique — stuff that's “you.” Why start by imitating stuff that's already been done?
What is the difference between a comedian, a comic, and a comedy writer?
There's an old saying, usually attributed to radio comedian Ed Wynn: “A comic says funny things; a comedian says things funny.” But for all practical purposes, there is no difference between a comedian, a comic, and a comedy writer. And, unless you're French, never use the word comedienne for a female comedian.
You won't be learning a lot of comedy rules in this book because there are no hard-and-fast rules in comedy. Remember, comedy is all about breaking the rules of society, so don't get bound by them in your writing. You'll approach comedy writing from a more organic path, from an idea-to-idea basis. You'll learn how to come up with good ideas and make them better using some very simple techniques. You'll figure out which ideas work for you and which ones don't. The goal here is to help you develop comedy that reflects your own unique and original point of view.
