Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright! Week 8 of the Pro Joke Writing workshop McConaughey’d itself into existence down in the heart of ATX. Here’s the summary:
- we talked about adapting the workshop more toward writing standup, with writing for talk shows as a side piece, because most people in Austin are trying to get great standup script together first, and then go careering toward TV writing after that. so we’re adapting
- this was week 2 on incorporating story into standup; yes, standup is about jokes, but it’s also about narrativity; and stories get you waaay more script/time than just standalone jokes, so good to have them (plus, audiences -- and media execs -- love great stories, stories have value beyond just the laughs -- easy to remember, yield new stories off those stories, etc)
- we talked again about the major and minor elements of stories
* elements
() Major
- characters, dialogue, plot (beats/happenings), major punch, big emotions, things/objects, surprises, settings, events, behaviors, arc, climax,
() Minor
- language, asides, images, details, minor characters, appearance, thoughts, ideas, associations, smaller emotions,
- everyone got a change to go on stage and tell a story that was then workshopped by the entire group; we heard stories about applying for unemployment, bad coworkers, and growing up Indian; good stuff
- we finished out with a career session -- essentially asking how do you design a real career (where you make money, maybe even make comedy a full-time job, and move beyond just Austin); how do you get from where you are right now to where you want to be in the future; how do you prep for that now; what do you need to learn, what skills do you need to pick up, what material do you need to develop so you are ready when opportunities open up
- assignment next week -- write a setting-based story. meaning a story that happened in a location, where the location has a major role to play in the story. can be a building, a region, a room, a swimming pool -- whatever, wherever -- but the story happened because of WHERE you were; write it up, give it a begin-middle-end, add some comedy flavor, and bring it in next week