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.

Native Bechdel Test: Brilliant!

Okay, first off, for those who don't know, the Bechdel Test is a test, thought up by Alison Bechdel in the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. In it, one character comes up with their criteria for watching a movie: 1. It must have two or more female characters, 2. who have at least one conversation, 3. about something other than a man or men. While not the end-all-be-all of strong female character litmus tests, it is a good way of ensuring that your women characters are independent and well-represented.

Now then, on to the focus of this blog post. I was on the website Tumblr recently and I came across this post by a user called wolfpangs, who's come up with that they refer to as the "NDN Bechdel Test". It goes like this: "1. Is there an NDN (Native American) in this work of fiction? 2. Is this set in the 20th or 21st century? 3. Is the NDN character just a regular person livin' life (as opposed to serving the protagonist as a spiritual advisor)?"

I gotta say, I loved it immediately. There could probably be a couple changes (like if there is no Native character), but other than that, I think this might be a great idea to ending common cliches when it comes to depiction of Native Americans.

If you've read my blog you've probably noticed my review of "People of the Longhouse" by the Gear family, where I praise them for their (violently) accurate depiction of Native tribal life. I have also written short stories about the Native character Ritchie Metoxen, whose main focus in life is to be a hockey player.

Now, like the original Bechdel Test, this is likely not the end-all-be-all of depictions of Native Americans. But, it's a great start. If you look at a lot of depictions of Native characters (outside of Native-produced media) they usually fall under the "mystical" Indian or "noble savage". Think Pocahontas.

I hate those depictions.

In their attempts to positively portray Native Americans, writers end up perpetrating another stereotype. If you're going to positively portray a Native character, do like I did and just show them to be a normal, every day average Joe more worried about their grades than whether or not their spirit advisee is succeeding.

So, props to wolfpangs for coming up with this idea. I think more authors and scriptwriters should take this into account when writing Native characters--or any other ethnic character, too! The best way to write any character is just to show them living life as we all do! What's so hard about that?

Things I Don't Like: Unnecessary Conflict

Sometimes when I'm watching a movie or TV show, I'll find myself begging the characters not to do anything incredibly stupid. And then I find them doing something incredibly stupid. It just grates on me so much when you see characters who one moment are incredibly smart, but another second cause drama that's completely unnecessary.

Now, we're human. And we're gonna make stupid decisions every now and then. But some of these stupid moments and unnecessary drama can make anyone go "WHAT AN IDIOT!!!" To be fair and honest, I can't think of specific examples. But moments like a jealous lover plotting to off a would-be rival during an emergency can get on my nerves. It's like these characters have no idea what kind of fiction they're in.

This is always the fault of the writers. Sometimes it can be because the author was lazy, forgetting to really foreshadow or set up the drama in the first place. Other times, it's just bad decisions. The lover offing a rival? That's a bad decision on both of their parts. These conflicts have to have a reason to them. You can't just use these conflicts and say, "but it's conflict!" It won't work!

The situation of a lover offing a rival during an emergency can work like this: if the lover is like the Glenn Close character in "Fatal Attraction" and they find that an emergency is the best time to off them. Not because they "had to". It won't make sense at all.

Necessary conflict and drama is a big part of fiction. It's usually one person vs. another person or it can be a group of people vs a group of people, etc, etc. You can't have fiction without necessary drama or conflict. In order to turn an unnecessary conflict or stupid decision work, it has to make sense. Is it within the personality of this particular character? Then it works!

At the same time, a writer can excuse this type of behavior by explaining that yes, people do make bad decisions. But at least make the characters realize they've royally screwed up instead of having them remain totally blind to their failure!

Oh, and another thing, not only can it derail a character, it can derail a plot. When you're engrossed in a plot, you want things to go well. When a character makes a stupid decision that derails the plot, it's not going to go over well.

Your characters are not stupid, and neither are the viewers/readers. Treat both of them with a degree of respect and you'll go very far. If you're going to have personal conflict, it cannot be made by genre blind idiots unaware of what kind of work they're in. I cannot stress this enough, but there has to be a reason for the drama. If it's totally unnecessary, it's not that the audience doesn't get it. You're just a bad writer.