Six Tips for Writing Sketch Comedy

So you want to do improv, do you? Take it from someone who’s been bruised, battered and knocked around for about a year at the Second City Training Center in Chicago, but FINALLY got something on stage. Here’s 7 tips that can help you get on stage.

1. Yes… And

This principle is what makes improv work. It's not just making things up on the spot, it's building off what your fellow performers come up with. If someone comes up with an idea, then you HAVE to say "yes... and", at least in your head. If someone says, "I want to bring my gorilla to the bar", your response is, "Yes, and you can bring your cheetah."

2. Writing is nothing like improv.

Here's the thing about the writing sketch comedy: It is VERY serious. I took one improv class. The rest of my time has been devoted to writing a sketch. It takes serious commitment to figure out what works in these sketches and what doesn’t. Suck it up and get your brain ready. You will have fun in improv, but when you have to write a sketch every single week, you will get stressed out. Speaking of which,

3. Be creative, but smart

When writing a sketch, think about what you're writing. Don't be offensive, it's too easy. Try to be relevant, instead. Even then, there's difficulty. Making fun of a political sex scandal is always relevant. Making fun of some news story that might not be relevant in three months isn't. One thing you can do is make fun of everyday life, like a couple arguing over their love life or even writing a parody of a TV show or movie. Oh, but know this:

4. Be prepared for criticism.

If you can't take criticism, DO NOT write comedy. You need to write a sketch every single week and then bring it in front of someone you trust. They will then critique the sketch based on whether it follows the scene structure, if the characters are realistic, or if this can be staged. Sometimes, the sketch you thought was perfect will be TORN TO SHREDS.

5. Be prepared for rejection, too

And when you are submitting your sketch to an agent, you will need to be prepared for rejection. If your sketch follows the right structure, has human characters and is stageable, it will pass. If not, good luck finding another agent!

6. It's all worth it in the end

You've been working for a year, you've written upwards of 50+ sketches, you've had ideas torn to shreds, but when you get the right one, it will be performed live on stage at The Second City. Now you just have to see if the audience will laugh at your sketch...

Yes, it's blunt, but in this world, perhaps we need to be straight-forward. If you want to have fun taking a class at Second City, take improv. If you want to take writing, go ahead, but good luck. You're gonna need a lot of it.

Studying at Second City

So you should know by now that I take classes at The Second City Training Center. To be specific, I'm in the writing program, not improv. Having taken improv and writing classes at The Second City, there are definite differences between the two. While I'm going to discuss them, I'm going to tell you how much you might not expect from The Second City.

First off, The Second City may be a fun thing to do on a Friday night, but the writing classes are dead serious. You have to write a sketch every single week, bring it in and it is read for the class. You are critiqued on the sketch, given suggestions on how to improve it, some of which might change from class to class. At times what you think is the perfect sketch has so many holes that you might end up hating the final product.

And this isn't something to be taken lightly. You go through six writing levels, and you learn how to write a sketch in each one. The first level doesn't involve actually writing sketches until the end, but by the end of Writing 5, you're holding auditions for a show. In between you learn about sketch formats, parodies, clash of context, center-and-eccentric, satire, clothesline, blackouts, and jokes.

The thing about the writing course is that it's a bit more competitive in some way. When I did improv, a lot of it was basically the classmates doing something because it was fun, and that's not a bad thing, I had fun doing improv, too. But in order to get into the fifth writing level, you have to write a sketch and submit it. It has to follow detailed guidelines--is it written in the correct format, is it stageable, and are the characters human? Trust me, it's not that easy. And even worse, it's a pass/fail assignment and they don't even tell you why if you failed.

I did one script the first time I got into the fifth writing level, and I got rejected. I had to go through the same fourth level writing class unsure if I was going to get into Writing 5. Well, I did and as you might know, I have a show coming up in October. I'm helping with the marketing of the class.

If you want to get into the Writing program at The Second City Training Center, go ahead, but be warned, it is not easy. Good luck (you're gonna need it).