- Week 9 of the workshop busted its way into the world like a group of ICE agents tearing through a Portland daycare. Somewhere around 20 people, and it rocked.
- we had visiting comics from Evansville, Montreal, Milwaukee, Poland, and the Ukraine. International day at the workshop.
- this is our third week working on standup-izing stories. we had comics go on stage and tell stories about getting licked on the face as a bouncer, having childhood cancer, being from Jeffrey Dahmer-ville (Milwaukee), being from the meth capital of the US (Evansville, IN), using porn to hide smoking weed from parents, being from Poland, first day as a barista, and trying to not get arrested for being pedophile while not speaking English very well.
- after every story the workshop piled in and “devved” or improved the story. asking for clarifications, clearing up confusions, expanding characters, suggesting different directions, throwing in jokes, adding performance tips -- you know, devving standuppery
- we also got more people involved and broke into small writing staffs and worked on stories as groups
- I talked about the value of story skills: () for standup, it instantly expands your material/time, connects you and the audience, and makes you memorable (people remember stories way easier than jokes); () for industry, being able to develop great stories is a core money-making skill, to be used in sketch writing, sitcoms, short vids, films, etc. It’s a super-skill, story. And it takes time and effort to get really, really good at it. but it pays off in many, many ways, especially if you want to make real money from comedy.
- here’s a short outline of types of stories that you can poach from to start gathering your standup-worthy ones:
* types of stories (categories)
() People
- self, family, friends, coworkers, celebrities, enemies, neighbors,
demographics, animals, heros/villains/victims,
() Settings/place
- living: neighborhoods, towns, cities, regions, farms,
- work:
- social: bars, leisure, sports,
- professional: services, stores, gas stations,
- orgs: military, legal, leisure, sports,
() Events
- partying, celebrations, battles, big/famous culture, sporting,
disasters,
() Cultures
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() Deviance
- crime, sex, drugs, alcohol,
() Transitions/changes
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() Ironies
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() Supernatural
- ghost, religious, tele, monsters, aliens, super odd coincidences,
dreams, etc
- This week’s writing challenge/exercise is to write up a standup version of any supernatural story you’ve been around. Meaning you had a supernatural experience, or someone you know, etc. (Have a relative who got alien abducted? perfect)
- Next week 3 - 5 pm again. See you there.