Everyone needs different things as they dig and claw their way up comedy writer mountain. Some people are trying to figure out how to become full-time comedy writers, if that’s realistic or not, given their life situations, their talent level, their connections, their samples, the state of the industry, etc. Others are trying to figure out what exact types of comedy writing they’re good at, and if they’re good enough at those to get paid, and/or compete with pro’s, and, if not, how do they get good enough at it. Still others just want to write jokes, why all this talky talk, let me make fun of celebrities, that’s all I really like to do!
And round and round the mountain we go, monkey’s chasing career weasels, waiting for Pop! goes the weasel (whatever that song means. Is it a good thing that the weasel pops? How even does a weasel pop? Why do we teach these odd acid-stories to our children?).
So, as an example/template for what’s possible, I’m just going to lay out one of the first conversations I had with a client, so you can see one variation of how someone approaches their comedy writing career.
The client doesn’t live in Los Angeles, or NY. But does live in a city that has improv, standup, theater, classes, and even some film and TV production going on. He has gotten out and involved in the local scene, done standup and taken standup classes, gone through improv training and done a couple of years of group improv, acted in a local TV news parody show, written sketches that have been produced on that show and which now live on the Internet.
That’s really not a bad little resume for someone who does this in his leisure time while running a “real life” business as his main occupation, and having a family (w kids, even). It shows he can be productive even when circumstances aren’t perfect (that’s a pro criteria). He’s motivated, works hard. He works across a lot of different comedy forms. And he gets things done, actually produced and on “air.”
Excellent.
But like a lot of people who progress locally, you come to standstills. Ends of the local roads. You’ve done those, know what they are. Now what? How do you keep progressing, learning, evolving, and, most important to so many people, can you get paid to do this as a job, can you somehow, some way, do it full-time?
So, here are some questions we’re working on as I figure out how to “mentor” this client.
() Is what he has learned applicable to professional media? He’s done a lot, but all in an amateur setting. If he was suddenly on a pro show, would he feel totally under water, or would he be generally okay, able to pick things up quickly and be useful, productive? Pro shows move fast -- very fast -- and there’s not much room for someone who has to process and learn. How close is he to that level?
() Can he rearrange his life to get to a city that has a professional comedy industry -- production companies, television work, film work, even paid internet work? Or is he anchored where he is, period?
() Is what he has done high enough quality? This one’s a problem. It’s a problem for anyone who is learning, and wants to leap up into the pro ranks. Your stuff has to be FUNNY. It has to be professionally funny -- meaning pro scripting, pro actors, pro shooting, pro directing, pro editing, etc. It’s so hard to get amateur things to actually work (hell, it’s hard to get pro things to actually work). You end up with produced samples that took a ton of work -- which is impressive -- but end of the day, they aren’t funny when compared to great pro work. So the real question in job-seeking becomes can your samples compete with fully produced LA or NY comedy? And, even more importantly, can it compete with not the bad or mediocre product in those cities, but can it compete with the stuff that really, really works. People often look at mediocre work and think, “I can do that good.” But do you look at the absolute best stuff and think, “I can hit that level. Consistently. Even better than that.”
It would be great if the answer to this last set of questions is a big old “Hell, yes.” And you had amazing stuff to point at that blew doors open. That’s the dream scenario. But unless you get lucky and find a young actor who’s freaking amazing and overcomes all the production issues that happen in amateur productions, or you get lucky and get in with a nice little production company that will basically for free make a great product with you because, well, just because (maybe your brother runs the place), unless you get some stars to align, your produced samples aren’t going to compete well.
So we go to the next step back. Are your written samples amazing?
I’ll talk about that next time.
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