How Do You Comedy?

In the 1970’s, comedy legend John Cleese co-created the critically-acclaimed series, Fawlty Towers. In Fawlty Tower‘s DVD commentary, he tells the story of his inspiration. He and his creative team stayed at a hotel whose owner treated them with disrespect bordering on hostility. In disgust, members of Cleese’s party left for more hospitable lodging. Cleese had the opposite reaction; he felt drawn to the man, interested in learning what could possibly motivate someone to treat paying guests thusly.

Cleese’s hunch paid off. The contentious hotel owner inspired the series that many consider to be the funniest of all time. We should all take a valuable lesson from this story–if you pay close attention to the douches around you (though on some level, douchiness exists within all of us), then you might gain some serious inspiration. Personally, I feel blessed, because my idea well will never, ever run dry.

Job Markets

When I was your age and no job market existed, we went ahead and created one out of sheer hard work. We scaffolded it, molded it, and erected it. We toiled, with grunts and groans, with bubbling callouses and deep, bloody scrapes. Upon completion, our job market stood alone in all of its glory, a sort of Eiffel Tower, if the French had made the Eiffel Tower out of money and insurance paperwork.

You, a Millennial, might not like to hear what I have to say. You might even complain about the accuracy of my advice, saying: Your description does not actually tell us how to build a job market. A job market doesn’t physically exist. To that, I will say that you need push your rolly chair away from the computer, stick your nose into your own armpits, and inhale the acrid stench of mediocrity.

And after that, you should go out and get a job.

Leonardo DiCaprio: The Worst Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio loses his shit in every movie. Red faced, throwing stuff around, raising his voice to a crescendo… He believes that the louder he screams, the more emotion he conveys. At peak moments in scenes, the only discernible noise is the “Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” from his mouth.

Unsurprisingly, Hollywood loves him, continuing to cast him in high-grossing movies. Honestly, you could substitute the rage-filled Nicholas Cage into every DiCaprio movie, and it would not make a difference. The reason that people laugh at Cage and revere DiCaprio? DiCaprio still looks cute, and Cage lost his looks long ago. On a side note, Cage is adorable in the 1987 Cohen brothers film, Raising Arizona.

Take a look at the evidence that proves Mr. Leo DiCap’s lack of talent. Huffpost compiled a series of his screaming fits in various films: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBefVykN8_M

Another hilariously bad series of clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p53CZtamFsU

AND MORE viewing enjoyment from youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWxr0UMysww

Comedy Research

I enjoy performing improv, and my brother likes to perform stand up. Thus, watching several episodes of Parks and Rec in our parents’ living room counts as comedy research alongside a professional peer.

Some corporation must have a vested interest in this work. I’ll be sure to write these hours on my time sheet!

Stage Presences

Fleetwood Mac, a band that started in the 60’s and continues on today, had members of both genders during their peak years. Some of their videos are particularly fun to watch, because the videos give all of the members screen time, and you get to enjoy all of their talent.

Improv has many egalitarian aspects, because everyone involved has a chance to completely change what happens over the course of a performance. Even when two isolated performers take the stage, they still want their partners to walk on and add characters, or change the location of the scene. They trust their partners to make every scene better than it started out. The help and the trust should spread.

This isn’t to say that every improv group works together properly; Unfortunately, the group Death by Roo Roo held a UCB show this summer where the power seemed very unbalanced.  In this instance, the exasperation of one of the more powerful members showed through. At two times in a show they held over the course of the summer at UCB, the most strong player yelled at his partner to ‘get out of the way’ during one scene, and shouted, ‘That’s a different guy!’ when the weaker performer confused two characters. By yelling, he interrupted the scenes and broke character.

In contrast, I remember a distinct time when I made an awkward comment onstage during a performance. I asked a distracting question that reviewed some already-established event. One of the players next to me simply answered my question,  addressed what I had said, and the scene moved on past that awkward moment. Today, I love working next to her, because she opens up to her fellow actors onstage.

One hopes when one collaborates with other performance artists that everyone will learn to work as a pack of equals.  So often, certain members take over the pack, and it ends up a lopsided affair. Unfortunately, when when one or more performers hold onto the power of narrative too tightly, it noticeably diminishes the energy of the rest of the onstage performers. Watching someone ignore their onstage partners comes at a price.

 

Watching musicians, you can get a sense of what stage presence can really mean. As  you age, the intense swagger of many rock stars starts to seem cocky and pointless. Even the cute, over-emphasized closetedness of many shyer indie bands starts to simply look precious.  As someone once said, everything cool starts to seem stupid in just a few years. It’s simply not enough to just compile a string of cool-looking movements and pretend that those images have emotional sway.

Watching performance years after its creation, you’d like to see the feeling or the meaning behind the actions. At art’s best, the visual effects have something to do with the telling the story. This is why someone can still watch Fleetwood videos and appreciate Stevie Nicks’ stage presence; You still understand exactly what she sings about.

 

Smooth Comedic Moves

Having the right moves onstage makes you feel powerful. As you stand there, you know that you can make people laugh. After finishing your set, however, the cravings for power begin again. You ask yourself, How can I deliver it next time in a way that makes people laugh more? You then cackle to yourself, excited at the prospect of manipulating people into behaving the way you desire.

The masterful John Cleese made a comment about a particular artistic choice in the “Gourmet Night” episode of the Fawlty Towers TV series. In the seminal scene of the episode, the character of Basil Fawlty screams at his broken down car, runs out of frame, and returns with a tree branch. He then thrashes the car. Cleese explained that they filmed the scene with different sized tree branches, all in an attempt to find the funniest size of tree branch with which one would thrash a car. It seems that we as comedians are designed to keep thrashing the car until we find the tree branch that gets the results we need.

Similarly, stand up comedians live for the delivery. Most repeat their material night after night, making it stronger simply by changing pace, inflection, or pronunciation. A thousand witchy details separate the funny from the almost-funny.

Think about the level of commitment that makes people try and try again, finding the right fit. Think about the person who finds that his imitation absolutely requires more nasal inflection. Think about the person who decides that name dropping Michelle Foucault instead of Sarte would upgrade the joke.  People work hard for their laughs.

In contrast, comedic improvisers will not return to the created material. You can never, ever repeat your performances. Thus, you have only one shot to make it good.

In other forms of comedy, you doctor the work by diagnosing the problems and then deciding whether to perform surgery of medicating it to make it better.  In improv, you have to use preventative care; Exercise and eating healthy will ensure the healthiness of your jokes. In other words, you only have a few, distinct options for making your improv better. Some well-known tips include: Pick the brains of your scene partners, to get to know their strengths; Practice making bold decisions; Learn to speak in different accents; Develop a repertoire of characters.

The work continues.

 

 

 

Keeping Comedy Real

Recently, fasttocreate.com published a video interview where Ricky Gervais discusses a defining moment in his creative career. In his early life, a teacher challenged him to stop copying the style of television shows, and actually write a true-to-life story. Following this, Gervais realized the power of writing about everyday life. He says, “… being honest is what counts. Trying to make the ordinary extraordinary is so much better than starting with the extraordinary, because it doesn’t really connect…. whereas if something is real for one person, it’s touched their life.”

Clearly, he took the advice of his teacher. Gervais co-created and co-wrote “Extras,” a show that follows two characters as they navigate their miserable, stalled careers. He had a similar hand in “The Office,” a show about the ins and out of bland work life. Others reinforce this idea; The funniest programs keep it relatively down-to-earth. The notable Larry David used cues from daily life to produce “Seinfeld.”

“Flight of the Conchords,” a brilliant show about two musicians, illustrates life as unrecognized artists. The jokes acknowledge the experiences of living broke, creating art that no one consumes, and trying to get by in a world that considers them losers. The fact that the show truly embraced these themes before other shows made “Flight” remarkable; At the time, no one else would include penniless weirdo characters. The creative types in my circle rejoiced, happy to watch something that commemorated their reality.

Hopefully, as we all create our art, we can take some of Gervais’s advice.

The video of Gervais:

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3016916/creation-stories/ricky-gervais-tells-a-story-about-how-he-learned-to-write

Short article on David:

http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/people/personal-story/larry-david

Broadchurch

Broadchurch is a miniseries recently imported from the UK. The series starts with a murder of an 11-year-old boy in a small town, leaving two detectives to slowly sift through the evidence. The series paces itself, at times revealing new information, and at times showing the drama of the family who lost their son. The creators leave enough mystery to keep you guessing until the end of the series.

At no point does this miniseries forget the perspective of any of the characters; their actions all fall within the spectrum of their personalities. The characters are rich and varied, and they all have complex lives. As the series reveals more information about the people, it shows complicated forces at play. Because of the sophistication of the people’s’ stories, you get bombarded you with information. However, the creators of the show reveal the information in such interesting, impactful ways that you end up remembering most of it.

It’s important to note that the series was extremely well-cast, and the actors did an incredible job.  The two detectives, played by Olivia Colman and David Tennant, change deeply as the series progresses; The former loses her naiveté, and the latter learns to reach out to others. As they change, they develop a sense of true camaraderie. Luckily for the audience, the detectives grill the townspeople, and they writhe in discomfort as their pasts are dragged out into the light. Meanwhile, the family continues to rebuild themselves, and you see the slow progression as they struggle to regain a sense of daily life.

Interestingly, as an American watching the series, its lack of guns shocked me. Virtually every American series about detectives contains a great deal of gun violence. For this reason, when tension rose between characters I always expected someone to pull one out. No one ever used a gun, including the detectives.  When two characters came face to face, the characters simply ended up talking. Viewers get treated to a more personal look at the action. In focusing on the characters and watching them squeeze themselves through tough situations, you get a truer sense of what is happening.

My only critique of the series is that it takes a little too long for the series to start, but if you sit through the first two episodes, you will find yourself hooked. If you like mysteries, please do yourself a favor and watch this miniseries; You won’t feel disappointed.

The World’s End

The World’s End is the latest comedy starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. This is their best movie to date. Simon Pegg stars as Gary King, the head of a brat pack who claimed the small town of Newton Haven as their stomping ground in 1990. Gary, now older, desperately wants to relive his glory days, so he gathers his old friends to hit the bar circuit in the town. On the way, they encounter a form of extraterrestrial life that threatens their lives. The movie has good balance between narrative and situational humor. The constant goofiness keeps things funny, but the characters keep you invested.

Pegg nails the part of the scatterbrained alcoholic Gary, who thinks and acts like his 18-year-old self. He leaps around in a black trenchcoat and untucked black shirt, alternating between frantically cajoling and manipulating his friends to go along with his scemes. A great many of the jokes in the movie happen at Gary’s expense, which is incredibly satisfying. Despite his toxic behaviors, there exists something lovable about Gary, and you would never want to see anyone else to eat as much shit and leap back up again for another helping.

The moment when Gary’s friends cannot tolerate him any longer, the aliens enter into the movie. This bad luck forces the group to stay together. As the events play out, the characters show blunt, realistic reactions to the situations. For instance, Andy, played by Nick Frost, is so incensed that he does not notice a dead alien on the floor.  Next, as the group grows increasingly drunk, they begin to blow their cover with their loud, curious remarks. Members of the group make callbacks, even in the most difficult of moments.  Of course, all of these very human reactions contribute to the humor.

As the narrative continues, a mix of perfectly-delivered slapstick, silly wordplay, and sarcastic jabs keep the movie moving. The jokes are truly funny, and fast-paced. Even during the numerous action scenes, the comedy continues unabated, through physical comedy and through light banter.  All in all, the movie lives up to its humor potential, and is definitely worth seeing.

As a final note, I’d like to add that The Fawlty Towers reference toward the end of the movie was a very nice touch.

Underdogs

I recently read a story about a journalist whose name I unfortunately don’t remember (gah!).  He did poorly in high school. He then failed out of a writing course in community college, and got a C the second time around. In time, he became a writer and won a Pulitzer. Similarly, Larry David worked at SNL for a year, and during a whole season only one of his sketches aired.  Today, people hail him as a creative genius.

Sometimes, it’s difficult to imagine a bright future. But, as someone recently pointed out to me, every successful person was told at one point that he/she couldn’t do it.  After all, opinions are like assholes; everyone has one. Some people defecate in inappropriate places. Trust me; I work at a pool.

Sometimes, it’s hard to attaining any success with my writing. I studied anthropology in college, I struggle with footnotes and bibliographies, and I harbor resentment toward the producers of academic journals for charging exorbitant fees to read their pages.

I have to digress. The public should have access to peer-reviewed journals! Why, for the love of God, would you deny society accurate, current information? Remember the 2011 breakthrough, where gamers solved an extremely important, molecular problem that scientists couldn’t solve themselves? By offering access to information, you open your work to new ideas from outsiders, and you reap the reward of a better-educated population.

Today, public opinion got shoved in my face, forcing me to look at the facts. I don’t have the right degree. I don’t have elite friends to fund me. I don’t have a brand. I don’t have a following of people fawning over me, though a couple of my amazing friends offer me support. I might not even have material that appeals to most people. So, as this life progresses, I cling to my most important asset: my strong faith in my own abilities. One has to just keep working. Only time will reveal the results of the hard work.

P.S. I realize that I sometimes start sentences with conjunctions, but I’d rather approximate actual conversation than follow every grammar rule.