In episode 36 “Live Comedy Writing Session” our producer (and aspiring comedian) Gavin Miller brought in a few concepts to brainstorm. After he pitched a few ideas we decided to work on one that was inspired by a friend of his. In a nutshell, the friend wanted to give homeless people easy access to Facebook so they could feel more connected to society.
For the better part of forty-five minutes we went back and forth offering up ideas and angles for where this loose premise could lead. This is a process I call “EXPAND”.
When we recorded episode 36 we encouraged you to participate and offer your ideas to Gavin via Twitter, FB, etc., It was fun to hear the ideas suggested. In fact, a couple of ideas are now key parts to his joke.
Fast forward to today’s episode. I asked Gavin to come back in with an update on where the brainstorming led. From there we began to “CONDENSE” his material and start creating set-ups, and punch lines.
Throughout this process we discuss:
- Allowing some concepts to fade out for the betterment of the joke
- One angle we should have seen the whole time
- Why giving details is important
- Avoiding ambiguity in your punch lines
- When introducing an antagonist can benefit a joke
- The challenge of writing jokes and being on the air at the same time
Please let us know if you enjoy this type of comedy writing session episode. I will record more with more established comics in the future if these are helpful.
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