Monday, August 7, 2023
Small Business Start Up Financing
Friday, July 14, 2023
Writing Stand Up Comedy - Point of View
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When writing stand up comedy, consider the point of view you use in your stand up act. Comedy writers who use different characters are completely into the character point of view and comedians who use observations use the narrator point of view. However, most comics tend to use a variety of all three points of view.
The following exercise can improve your success at writing stand up comedy because you will learn to utilize the three points of view through four different stages. In stage one, you will be you as yourself in an argument. In stage two, you will become the other person using the you as other character point of view in the argument. In stage three, you will argue back and forth between the other character and you. In stage four, you will use all three points of view for writing stand up comedy. In particular, you will use yourself as the narrator to set the scene and make remarks throughout while the you and other characters point of views are arguing back and forth.
As a setup for this exercise, here are some guidelines to follow:
• You must create an argument between you and another adult.
• The other adult needs to be someone you can personify because you will only be this other adult in stage two.
• You must argue standing face to face.
• Multiple problems need to be included so that the argument will last for three to four minutes.
To help ensure the success of this exercise and writing stand up comedy, base this argument on a real argument that you have had. You do not need to reenact the exact argument, rather use it as a beginning point to get you started. Have fun and let the argument become whatever you want it to. You can even use this as an opportunity to say all those things that you wish you had said before.
Just as a caution, try not to use a recent argument or one that is close to your heart. This exercise is meant as a tool for learning and writing stand up comedy, not to analyze your life.
Using these guidelines, choose your argument. Now that you have chosen your argument and understand the different roles, you can get started with the exercise. One more thing; you may want to have a pencil and paper handy for notes. Successfully writing stand up comedy depends on many factors and choosing an effective point of view is a crucial consideration.
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Source by John Halas
https://4awesome.streamstorecloud.com/writing-stand-up-comedy-point-of-view/?feed_id=37865&_unique_id=64b1b3cf86365Monday, June 19, 2023
Small Business: Growing Your Business
Thursday, June 15, 2023
The Rule of Three in Comedy
Have you seen a comedian, or comedy troupe, repeat a bit over, and over, and over, until the blatant unfunniness was painful to watch? In recent years, that's become almost the norm, especially on shows like "Saturday Night Live." If the comedy writers had known about the Rule of Three, and better yet had followed it, they could have avoided the problem and actually had the funny skit that they had intended.
In short, the Rule of Three is: don't repeat a bit of comedy more than three times. When done right, the first time can be funny, the second time funnier, and the third time can build up to a crescendo of comedy. A fourth time, however, and it's the comedy equivalent of beating a dead horse -- the horse doesn't react, and neither does the audience -- at least not in a good way.
Think of the great comedians of the past -- whether you think of individuals like Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, W. C. Fields and Jimmy Durante, or comedy teams like the Three Stooges, the Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy -- can you think of them "beating a horse" in that way? No; it was something that they learned the hard way, performing in front of live audiences and adjusting their humor based on the audience's reactions.
This doesn't mean that a comedian, humorist, speaker or clown can't repeat a mannerism more than three times -- obvious examples are Jack Benny's slow, elongated, "Well!" or Baron Munchausen's "Was you there, Charlie?" which they repeated hundreds of times during their careers -- but rarely more than 3 times in a given performance, if that many.
Variety is the spice of life, but the old saying that "brevity is the soul of wit" still rings true. It doesn't matter if it's performing in front of children or adults, in front of a Rotary Club or national television, the Rule of Three still holds true.
It should also be mentioned that the Rule of Three isn't limited to verbal humor. If you're doing slapstick comedy -- anything from throwing or receiving a pie in the face, or a kick in the posterior like Charlie Chaplin, or even the Three Stooges' patented eye-poke routine -- the Rule of Three still applies. How long would a Three Stooges short film be funny if Moe began poking Curly in the eye, then Larry, then Curly again, then Larry again... on and on for fifteen minutes?
In summary, everyone needs to apply the Rule of Three to keep their humor short, funny, and memorable!
[ad_2] Source by Tom Raymond https://4awesome.streamstorecloud.com/the-rule-of-three-in-comedy/?feed_id=37412&_unique_id=648b3c8bcd57b