Continue reading]]> Well, I finally finished putting together my generic Late Night Comedy Writing packet. I finished it back in November, and now have a potential sample that I can tweak if I decide to look for Late Night writing jobs.

I can thoroughly recommend buying a copy of late night comedy writer, Joe Toplyn’s book, Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV. Which is reviewed here:

Comedy Writing for Late Night

Whether you want to pursue the Late Night Comedy writing path, or not, the book provides you with a ton of useful skills you can add to you comic toolbox. Skills which are transferrable to different mediums.

I’m not going to re-create the content of his book here but I will say he recommends having a page of monologue jokes, not written as a monologue, but single jokes. At least one sketch. As well as ideas for desk pieces, audience participation, etc. A generic packet should be about 8 pages in industry standard Courier 12.

Once you’ve put all the initial work in creating a generic packet, your job then becomes a little easier to tweak it to a specific late night show.

I’m glad I went through the process and have another writing sample for my portfolio (in addition to a short film and an original sitcom pilot I wrote earlier this year). But as I put it together, I learned something about myself.

Cue: generic info graphic of someone reaching to the sun with an out of context quote mis-attributed to the Dalai Llama.

What I learned is this… I’m not sure I want to write for other people.

Now, I know that comedians who create their own content Jerry Seinfeld, Ricky Gervais, Donald Glover, Louis CK, Woody Allen, etc. have all, at some point, had jobs writing for others. But ultimately, they moved on from those jobs in order to create their own shows, movies, etc.

In the past, having written material for a couple of sketch shows, I’ve been frustrated at not having performed the material myself. I guess that’s the problem of being a writer-performer.

I’m not going to discount this path yet, as that would be foolish.

But it is something I need to think about. Do I really want to put a lot of energy in pursuing a job where I create material that I’m ultimately either not going to perform or that might not even see the light of day?

What about you and your comedy journey?

Continue reading]]> Here are a few sitcom pilot scripts traps I’ve experienced myself, and some potential ways to escape.

This is not an exhaustive list of traps by any means. And I am writing from the perspective of a first-time sitcom pilot script writer. Here’s a little background, and then I’ll go over some traps and escape plans.

I managed to finish writing a draft of my sitcom just after my second son was born. I guess, because, I’m a crazy person. It was a challenge to keep within the required script length, as I’ve only previously written full-length feature scripts. At the time of writing, I have actually completed three drafts.

Trap: Your Story Sucks

However, I have run into a problem. I think, fundamentally, I have a problem with my story. It feels a bit overdone. Unfortunately, I didn’t resolve this problem before I wrote the script. It didn’t seem too much of an issue then, but I realise now that it is.

Escape Plan

Before you begin writing your script, make sure you have really worked on the story as much as you can in the outline stage. Work out your script on 3×5 note cards.

It’s also easier to fix a story at this stage as it’s only about 2 pages or so, rather than a 30-odd page script. It’s the age-old way to fix a script, before it’s written. Get feedback from someone whose opinion you trust. You need someone to be completely honest with you, rather than just saying “yeah that’s great.”

Is it too late, and you’ve already written the script? You’re creative, go back to the drawing board and start over. What you’ve written doesn’t have to be completely thrown away. You might have some good ideas, jokes, character moments, etc in there. But you probably should still go back to the note card stage

Trap: The execution of your script sucks

I’m also not fully in love with the way I executed the script. It doesn’t feel genuine or honest to me. It feels as though I am trying to mimic someone else’s comic sensibility rather than using my own. Granted, I feel I’m still finding out what my comic voice is, but something doesn’t ring true. Some of the script works, some of it doesn’t.

Escape Plan

But sometimes, it’s still easy to gloss over and you can think that the story is in place. Perhaps I needed to rely on my second pair of eyes more, in the form of my wife? Still, fixing a 30-odd page script, is much easier than fixing a 120-page feature film script.

Trap: The jokes are lousy

You wrote what you thought were some killer punchlines, but upon review all you can think is; “urgh, what was I thinking? I’m just not funny anymore.”

Escape Plan

Hold your horses there. It might not be because you’re not funny anymore. You can put placeholder jokes, or what John Vorhaus author of The Comic Toolbox calls “joke-oids” in your script. They look like jokes, but aren’t funny yet. Often they contain the raw material of a joke that a rewrite and polish can bring alive.

Conclusion

I’ve put the third draft of my sitcom pilot to one side for now. It needs an overhaul storywise. Whilst the third draft was the tightest, it seemed to lose its way somewhat. I need to have a rethink about what the story should be, and how to execute it. I also need to spend some time thinking about my sense of humor and if I’m trying to put a square peg in a round hole, and trying to do something that’s unnatural. That’s what it feels like right now.

Continue reading]]> I’ve been on comedian & author Jerry Corley’s mailing list for a couple of years now. I really enjoy what he has to say. And there’s a lot to be learned, for free, on his blog. He’s always entertaining and insightful. If you’re not sure who he is, Jerry is a comedian and comedy writer who worked the road for a number of years, and also worked the corporate comedy market. Not only that, but he wrote for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for eight years.

Now, before you think “urgh, Leno? But he sucked.” Well, he obviously didn’t suck for a large number of people because he hosted that show for 17 years. Not only that, just think of how great the competition is to get a job writing on staff. In my experience living in the U.S. these last 6 years, broadly speaking, if a comic isn’t aiming to get their own sitcom or movie career off the ground, they frequently aim for being a performer or writer on SNL or one of the Late Night shows.

Anyhoo, the meat of his teachings can be found in his eBook, Breaking Comedy’s DNA.

I have to say, much of what he spoke about in his eBook, such as reverses, the rule of three, etc, I had come across before. But sometimes it’s useful to read someone else’s explanation of a technique. Someone else’s explanation might provide you with the clarification you’ve been seeking.

However, for me, I felt that some of the sections were a little thin on the ground. I wanted more examples, and more techniques to build some of the jokes. For examples, benign retaliation was brand new to me. It really resonated with me and I really got it. But there was only one example of how to create a comedy bit using this technique. I wanted a couple more ways to create material using benign retaliation. I’m sure they exist.

Also, on Jerry’s blog he analyzes slices of different comedians’ stand-up act. I’ve seen Bill Burr, Amy Schumer, and Daniel Tosh on there so far. Now, whether you like those comics or not, reading the breakdown of a segment of material is super useful. It could even provide you with a structural template for your own comedy bits. But I wanted more of this analysis in the eBook.

He also has two very, very useful videos so you can watch him write jokes. The first is a general one about writing topical jokes, and the second specifically deals with writing material for the corporate comedy market. For me, I wanted either additional videos available via links in the eBook or maybe transcripts of the videos that he already has on his blog.

I do completely agree with him when he says that as comedians and comedy writers we cannot just always wait for things to happen to us, or for us to observe events before we write comedy about them. That way, you might end up forcing yourself to go on weird adventures or have outrageous experiences just to be able to write about them later.

Instead, we need to be able to create material as well as live our lives and write about them. If you get a job writing for television and you have to wait around to experience life before you can write comedy material bout it, you’re not going to have that job very long.

I’m all for writing about what you know, but I think it’s also useful to write about things that you want to know. For example, I have strong opinions about politics. But by writing about them I get to know and understand better what they are, without necessarily having to wait around for, say, an election.

Earlier in the year, when I bought the book, I wrote a bunch of comedy material following along some of the exercises in Breaking Comedy’s DNA. I found them quite useful. I just need to work on them on a more regular basis in order for them to become second nature.

Personally, I intend to use these techniques for generating comedy material alongside the techniques I already use, and others I am learning at the same time.

Ultimately, I found the Breaking Comedy’s DNA eBook thoroughly enjoyable, even though I was nitpicking a little bit. And at some point I would love to purchase one of Jerry’s Skype comedy coaching sessions. But there are a few other comedy goals I need to complete first. If you’re in the market to purchase a book to learn comedy writing, or stand-up material, you would be wise to purchase this book. Even if you’re a veteran, you might learn a new insight.

Continue reading]]> Note: This is a version of a review I posted on Amazon.

I don’t believe you can learn to be funny. Some reading this (when I say some I mean all one of you), will disagree with me. Some suggest you can learn to be funny. In my experience, people like this, myself included, have been stuck using techniques that stifled their own sense of humour. Once they break out of that, and learn to effectively capture their sense of humour, then it seems as though they learned to be funny.

What you can learn, however, are methods to structure your funny.

And that’s exactly what you learn from Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV. So far I have only read as far as the chapter on monologue joke writing, but that’s because I am in post production on an indie feature I wrote and produced last year. And I wanted to write an original sitcom pilot I’d been meaning to write for a while.

Oh, and I’m a stay at home dad to two kids. No biggie. But more about my film in a minute. Anyway, that chapter blew my head clean off with its clarity. I read it in bed, and I woke me wife up with my enthusiasm as I tried to explain my huge paradigm shift, but all she said was “that’s nice”.

I have read 13 books and I have done 2 courses on stand-up comedy and comedy writing. I don’t think this puts me at a disadvantage with doing comedy, as some comedians think. I originally did stand-up for a full year tweaking the same five minutes without any understanding how to judge if it was working at a high enough level, what that high enough level should be, and also how then to move and develop another five minutes.

Some comics are able to latch on to mentors they meet on the circuit, and they can provide them with the hard-earned advice they developed through experience.

I learned my skills by a small set of books that I found worked best for me out of the large number of books I’ve read. I then put those skills into practise both by generating material and by delivering that material in front of audiences.

I have worked as a stand-up, an MC, a sketch comedy writer and performer, and a joke writer. And been paid. I think you do what you can to model what has worked before.

But the problem with a lot of books is they try to cover too much ground. They want to show you how to write jokes, monologues, stand-up, sketch, solo shows, sitcoms, and screenplays. There’s no way one 300 page book can cover all those.

The best ones just focus on one area. That’s exactly what Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV does.

The section on monologue joke writing was the clearest explanation I have ever read. Typically, in other books that cover this, you get lessons on how to pick topics, generate ideas, but then you have figure out how to structure them yourself.

You get something like “the punchline is your own reaction”. Huh? I have to make a sarcastic comment on what I’ve written. But not all comedy’s sarcastic, so then what do I do? Other times, the advice you follow allows you to write a joke for a comedian in 1983. But not now. This book explains how to write contemporary comedy.

Also, you won’t learn exercises that exist by themselves as some comedy writing books have you do. These often leave you scratching your head as you try to figure out how to turn them into comedy material. With Joe’s book, you learn how to write usable comedy material from the get go.

Yes, you will learn the formulas regularly used by late night comedy writers. They are used because of the sheer amount of work involved. You may also think, “this guy wrote for Leno? Urgh, Leno’s not funny.” You may substitute Letterman for Leno in that sentence depending on your preference.

But you know, whatever you think of those guys and their late night perspectives remember in order to work as a writer on those shows, you have to be able to pump out 70-150 jokes (sometimes more) a day. A day.

Some stand-ups write a couple of jokes a day for a year and have an hour long show at the end of it. And if that’s your goal, then great. But that many jokes will get you fired from your late night position.

While volume may seem like a negative, the more you practice the lessons learned in this book, the more your quality level will increase.

Right now, due to time constraints of looking after two kids, I can generally write around 10 jokes. Not enough yet to work at a high level on TV, but a good starting point.

If you want to learn stand-up comedy writing, comedy screenplays, solo shows, or sitcom writing Joe’s book isn’t for you. Sure, the mechanics of laughter are the same, but with those different genres I just mentioned there are other things you need to learn as well.

In Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV, you will learn every facet of producing material for late-night, which not only includes monologue jokes, desk pieces, etc but sketch comedy too. So if sketch comedy is your thing, then you can certainly learn a lot about how to write sketch comedy from this masterful book.

I mentioned earlier about being in post-production on my first screenplay. While I wrote that script before I bought Joe’s book, the techniques I have learned so far and will learn once I finish the book will help me on my next screenplay. The skills you learn are absolutely transferable, whether stand-up comedy is your ultimate goal or screenplays. The skills from this book can help you edit and hone your comedy in both stand-up and script writing.

In case you’re wondering, I do not know Joe and I gain nothing from writing this lengthy testimonial. I refer to him by first name, because of the experience I have had in reading this book so far. It has made me feel like I am getting a personal tutorial. So I feel I can refer to him by his first name, even though I have never met him.

I thoroughly recommend Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV. Buy it, but more importantly, read and implement its lessons.

Note: There are affiliate links in this article. If you buy this book via one of my links I would make a small commission. 

Continue reading]]> My second son is nearly 4 months old at time of writing.

I cannot help reflect back three years and think about the crummy guidance a nurse gave us when we had our first son. “Your life is now on hold for the next 18 years”.

Huh?

Naturally, we panicked.

We felt we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what we wanted to do. My son had only turned two a couple of weeks when we wrapped filming on “Falling for You”, our first feature film.

It took a lot of work and planning to get it all done in 52 days or thereabouts. We shot over evenings and weekends, but we did it. Of course having a second baby is harder than having one.

But that doesn’t mean we have to stop doing, or trying to do, the things we want to do with our lives.

You can find a way. We’re now working on finding a new way whilst still being the best parents we can be.

Don’t take no for an answer.

Continue reading]]> You’ve had an idea for a sitcom. You need to find out not only if it has legs for a pilot but also for a series. Now, you don’t necessarily have to write al the episodes, especially if you’re trying to get an agent. You just need a pilot script. But it would benefit you knowing if it would work as a series. Particularly if you get to the point where someone wants to know more information about it and whether it would work as a series. Or if you decide to produce it yourself.

Here’s what I did.

After exploring the information provided by Dan Harmon on The Hero’s Journey, which I have prior experienced with, as well referencing Ellen Sandler’s book. Both of these are mentioned in a previous post. I after a lot of research, began working an idea for an original sitcom pilot which I’ll call Untitled Jason Peck Pilot (UJPP). Technically, I have 3 ideas for original sitcom pilots, but this is the one that has resonated the most with me right now. I may go through this process again at a later date.

1. Write an Outline

I plotted out an outline. My outline is 2 pages long, as I’ve left in the act the act breakdowns in. I think one page should be enough. And if you need to know, the font is Courier and the size is 12. This is the industry standard. In fact, I used Courier Prime create by screenwriter John August as it’s a little thicker and easier to read than regular Courier. I figured this is only for my information, so what does it matter?

2. Write a Treatment

I then expanded this into a treatment, which is currently 2 pages. I think that’s about the right length. I did this so I am familiar with the process, and so it provides me with enough information I’m not winging it when it comes to writing the script.

3. Write a Series Overview

I also decided to write a series overview. This was originally because I was considering entering into the Sundance Episodic Storytelling program, but I didn’t enter in the end. I didn’t enter because I didn’t want to rush the project for the sake of the contest. However, it provided me with a lot of useful information so I could see if the project has legs for a full series.

Here’s the breakdown of what I included in the 5-page document, which is about the right length:

Premise
Show’s Themes
Central Characters
World of the Series
First Season Episodes: Plot Synopsis
Season One: Story Arcs & Character Arcs
Future Seasons (Broad plot outlines for each season)

This is all useful information to help explore the idea of your sitcom pilot. I am in the position now of having done all this preliminary work, and have now written the Cold Open for my pilot. But, to borrow from Neil Gaiman, I just have to finish the damn thing. Whatever you’re working on just finish it.

Continue reading]]> I’ve Never Written a Sitcom… Yet

Please note, I am writing this not from experience of being a professional sitcom writer, but from the perspective of having read and researched a lot about it. Not claiming to be an expert by any means. Sure I’ve probably read more books, and websites on the subject than you. Although, it depends on who you are.

But despite what some suggest, reading a bunch of books on a subject, doesn’t make you an authority or an expert. Neither does have a blog that ranks number one on the search engines for certain keywords. If I read 5 books on medical practices, would you really want me to operate on you? Probably not.

I am simply passing along information that I’ve found, and providing you with some food for thought.

If you want to attempt to become a sitcom writer, then you’ll need sitcom scripts. No excrement Britain’s top fictional consulting detective.

For the longest time, wannabe sitcom writers had to create two spec sitcom scripts based on an existing show. I know this was the case way back in 2000. Now agents and producers want to see original sitcom pilots too. Originally sitcoms created by you. A nice added layer of challenge. However, I’m not sure when this trend changed.

From what I’ve learned it goes in circles. Agents wanted to see original pilots, then they didn’t and now they do again. So this will change again at some point. Here’s what you’ll need:

What Sitcom Scripts are needed?

2x original pilot scripts
2x spec sitcom scripts

A lot of work, isn’t it? Well, not really. The estimated number of pages for a sitcom script is around 30 pages. It varies depending on your source. 4 scripts roughly totals 120 pages, the same length as the average screenplay. If you’ve written a screenplay before, like I have, then in theory you can write 4 sitcom scripts.

In theory, because like life it’s never that straightforward.

For the spec scripts, you have to capture the voice of the show.Usually, you don’t get hired for the show you write a spec for. At time of writing, if you write a spec script for Modern Family, you’re unlikely to get hired to write for that show based on your script no matter how good it is. The writers of that show know it better than you do. But it could help you get hired on a different show like, say, New Girl.

Before you leap into watching Modern Family from the first episode until now, know that this is one of the over-specced show. Check out the blog A TV Calling, it has up-to-date lists on the hot shows to spec. It tells you which shows are over-specced, mainstream (which show scripts are currently being read), wildcards (not quite widespread), outsiders (cable shows), and gamblers (risky shows to spec).

If You’re Not an Expert, who the Hell is?

Ken Levine, he’s one. Now, he may poo-poo me calling him an expert, comedy writers can be like that. Maybe not I don’t know, never met or spoken to the man. However, I’ve been a reader of his blog for a long time though. This guy wrote for “MASH”, “Cheers” (for which he shared an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series), “Frasier”, “The Simpsons”, “Wings”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”, “Becker”, and “Dharma and Greg”. Check out his blog: By Ken Levine.

He also runs a seminar in L.A. called The Sitcom Room, where you get to spend two days living the life of a sitcom writer. It’s frequently sold out. I’m not sure if he’s going to hold another or not. I think it’s a couple of thousand dollars, so it’s well out of my price range. There are lots of cool information on his blog about sitcom writing and other thoughts on TV and life.

Ellen Sandler is another. She wrote for “Coach” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” and has created original television pilots for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox Family, Oxygen Network, and the Disney Channel. She has a book, The TV Writer’s Workbook, as well as consultation services. I own this book, and while it’s great it leans more towards helping you create a spec script than an original pilot.

Dan Harmon as well. He created “Community”. He has some free information as it relates to The Hero’s Journey. This is something that resonates with me the most as I first read about The Hero’s Journey in 1992/93. Check out his story structure wiki: Dan Harmon: Hero’s Journey.

If you’re in the UK check out the BBC’s Writer’s Lab.

Continue reading]]> The talk show packet is supposed to model a late night talk show of your choice. At the time of writing, we have pretty much finished a major shake-up in Late Night TV hosts. As writers, we have to try to capture the unique voice of the show’s host.

Current Late-Night line-up as of 2018

Across the U.S. networks the hosts are as follows; Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, James Corden, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Seth Myers. Some writers often include “The Daily Show” as well, even though the format isn’t strictly the same. In which case, you could probably add (whoever is in the slot after The Daily Show now) and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”.

A typical Talk Show Packet contains the following:

Character and commentary monologue
pitch concepts for desk piece
remote ideas
various segment ideas
two parody sketches

I think it would make more sense to write for a show that you enjoy watching, rather one you don’t. This may seem like the sucking eggs analogy, but I do occasionally think about writing something I don’t enjoy. But why would I want to waste my time doing that?

Freelancing?

It used to be, that you could try to submit freelance jokes to Leno and/or Letterman. Faxing in jokes was what the process was called long after people stopped faxing jokes in. If they bought one you’d get $50 from Leno and $75 from Letterman. Probably not out of their pocket though. The concern for some about doing this is that it takes away writing jobs from union writers, because if you’re “faxing in” you’re non-union. I am not sure if that is something that still happens with the new hosts.

Resources

Again there are some brilliant resources out there for learning how to do this. Well, to be honest, I am guessing they’re brilliant as I haven’t actually used them myself. Once again, both iO Chicago and iO West (L.A.) have a course that covers this. The cost of the class is $305 and is 7 weeks long. But I think in order to do it, you have to have completed some of the other classes too. Good for networking, but right now I cannot find any info about the teachers.

There is also a book I am very keen to buy called Comedy Writing for Late Night (not an affiliate link) by Joe Toplyn. He wrote for both Letterman and Leno back in the day. The book is currently priced at $19.69 for the paperback. I think it only comes in paperback.

Not only that, but there’s a workshop you can take with another former writer for Leno and that’s Jerry Corley. His workshop, based in L.A., is The Late-Night TV Comedy Writing Workshop (also not an affiliate link). At the time of writing, it’s $99 for the online version of this course (regular price is $297). The in-person version of this workshop would be good for networking too.

And in case you’re thinking “this guy wrote for Leno?” While I’m not exactly a fan of Leno’s, Corley probably got paid $4,000 a week (at least that’s the current going rate) to be a writer, and he routinely pumps out up to 80-120 jokes a day. If I had the money, I’d take his online class in a heartbeat.

Additionally, in 2014 NBC created a Late Night Writer’s Workshop. It’s every January and, judging from this year’s submission dates, the doors open Jan 1st.  I haven’t submitted yet, as this not something that should be rushed. If you getting admitted, you go to NYC for a workshop and they don’t guarantee you a writing position. If you Google Late Night Writer’s Workshop, you can read about the experiences of people submitting to this workshop. Note that, at time of writing, there is an emphasis on diversity.

Conclusion

For me, personally, I am thinking about picking up a copy of Joe Toplyn’s book, because that’s the only one I can afford right now. Creating a Late-Night Talk Show portfolio is definitely something I’m interested in doing. I think the very process of going through it will make me a better writer.

Other than being able to generate enough material on a consistent basis, some of these resources would teach you how to lay the material out on a page. This is something that is equally as important.

Certainly, having such a portfolio with some of the other additions mentioned in other posts could be a good way for you to land an agent.

But with thousands of comedians and comedy writers submitting to only a handful of shows and hardly any staff writer position openings I’m not going to hold my breath. I’ll probably still apply, but I have o keep things in perspective.

Continue reading]]> Saturday Night Live Writer’s Packet info

This is a follow-up to my previous post.

So here’s a further breakdown of the comedy writing portfolios agents expect you to have. Bear in mind, I don’t have direct experience doing this myself… yet. This is just research that I’ve conducted and figured I’d share. Typically the sketch show packet is modeled after “Saturday Night Live” (SNL).

Here’s the breakdown for you.

SNL packet:

cold open
Host monologue
Weekend update material
Two commercial parody sketches
Digital short
TV show parody sketch
Movie parody sketch
Cast scene with six or more characters

How Do I Learn to Write This Stuff?

There are classes you can take if you live in the U.S. Both iO and Second City teach this stuff.

The iO course, whose website I compiled this list from, takes you through different writing as mentioned in my previous post. Second City, however, only teaches you how to write sketch comedy with a view to creating a revue show. To be clear, I haven’t taken any of the classes.

Saturday Night Live? Really?

Look, if you hate SNL it might be wise to skip this packet. I’m not a fan per se, I certainly watched the show when I was younger. These days my taste is more towards “The Daily Show”. However, they have been running for more than 40 years so they must be doing something right.

I do have experience writing and performing sketch comedy back in the UK and I’ve seen a lot of it both there and here in the US. Right now, I’m not sure if I’m a fan of the medium. I think I’m not a fan because, with something like SNL, the sketches go on too long. 5-7 minutes for a sketch is waaaaaaay too long. And with all the budding comedy writer-performers coming out of Chicago training centres, as well as NYC, L.A. and Toronto there just seems to be too many sketch shows that are the same.

When it gets to nearly ten minutes I think, just write a scene. Or it’s a very under-developed short play. I know it’s not a popular point of view.

I get that perhaps it’s easier to 12 five-minute sketches or 6 ten-minute sketches it fills out the hour timeslot easier than 2-3 minute sketches and once you’ve built a set, on a TV show, you want to get as much use out of it as possible. I get that.

Also, as a performer I prefer performing my own material, rather than have someone else perform it. Unless it’s a stage play or a screenplay.

So, for me, it would be a challenge to be able to just create this packet.

Continue reading]]> Other than working and getting paid, I mean.

Here in the U.S. comedy writers are expected to have certain calling cards in order to get work or get an agent, which don’t always go hand in hand.

I’ve procrastinated on my own writing samples long enough. Admittedly it has been tough having a kid, and working a day job whilst trying to leave that day job for something less soul destroying. That and making my first feature film last year.

This is something I’ve wanted to take care of for a while. Not because I want to necessarily work in each of these areas of comedy, some are more appealing to me than others.

But mainly because I think it would be good for me as a comedy writer to know these things and to have experienced writing them. It can only improve my overall writing ability. It may help you too.

What follows is a list of writing samples that the average U.S. comedy writer is supposed to have in his or her portfolio:

– A sketch show packet
– A Talk show packet
– Screenplays
– Sitcom scripts (both original pilots and spec scripts)

If you know this already, then apologies for telling you something you already know.

Anyway, I will break this information down further in future posts. Hopefully.

I don’t know that every single comedy writer or performer has a writing portfolio. But I suspect the vast majority do or did at some point.

If you want to get hired to write for a sitcom, a Late Night show, SNL, or if you want to sell a screenplay then you will need some combination of the above.