Shayne-Michael.COMedy

Writing About Relationships - by Shayne Michael

Sitcoms are not about situations they are about people. Since most comedians are interested in writing sitcoms about themselves, they need to understand how to write about people. Writing about yourself and your own quirks is not enough to get you a sitcom deal. You must be observant of other people and their quirks to build characters into your own act that other writers will be able to relate with and add to later.

The problem with writing about relationships is most comics don't have any. They become limited to writing about the girlfriend they had for two days. Or the parents they stopped talking to when they were fourteen. Here's what you need to realize now if you want a successful book, sitcom, or movie.

People identify with characters that are well developed. They look forward to hearing about their own adventures. They want to know about the other characters those characters hang around with. And, they miss those characters when their gone.

For that reason start focusing on building characters at the lowest part of comedy. Before you start doing open mics, ask yourself: how many people can I include in this act that I do.

Creating Characters That Are Funny

The obvious starting points here are husbands, wives, kids, coworkers. Start where you spend the most time. I would highly discourage you from focusing within the world of comedy. Don't write about other open mic comedians you hang around. You need to deal in relationships that the general public is familiar with.

Last time I checked, my students at the school where I teach does not plan on doing an open mic with me Saturday. Therefore, they would never be able to relate to a sitcom based on characters who did.

On the other hand, a lot of people could relate to a sitcom about a teacher in a second rate school for drop outs. And so could most of my students

Overanalyzing Interaction

What's interesting is how you interact with these people. How do your own problems get magnified when other people step into your life? How many times has your father driven you to therapy? How many times would your mother have driven you to therapy if you could afford it? What friend has played the part of your therapist because you can't afford it? When does that friend intend to start charging you the going rate for the therapy he or she is providing? At the very least when is that friend going to start prescribing drugs for you so you'll waste less of his time? Or, when is he going to connect you with his drug dealer so that he won't have to?

When you write about relationships, don't just exaggerate the people you are writing about. Exaggerate their relationship with you. In other words, I wasn't overemphasizing any one person's unusual behavior. I was overanalyzing their unusual interactions with me.

My Family Is Still Boring (It's your fault I'm this way)

I know you're still the interesting one. Reality though is, if you're a weirdo, then someone is making you that way. So, here's a simple formula for making those characters interesting. Take all your little quirks; Take all those things that make you so damn strange. Take all those things your wrote about on the first level about yourself, and blame them on somebody.

That eating disorder was your father's fault. You need to fill in the why. But it WAS your father's fault. If you have to stretch those reasons, that's even better. The further the stretch, the more outrageous the connection the funnier the material.

I'm not trying to put you in a personal irresponsibility mode. By blaming your issues on other people you're doing something else entirely. You're forcing yourself to make connections between characters and the focus of your act, which should be yourself (or rather those things that make you odd).

How have those people contributed to who you are? Why is you are their fault just forces you to draw some outrageous conclusions. And the truth be know, responsible people, don't make great comedians.

But My Family Isn't The Only People I Want To Blame

The more people you can blame for who you are, the better. By all means, don't stop there. Blame your politicians. It's your doctors fault your ugly. He should have caught that wart earlier. Sure you had a mirror and could have caught it yourself. But you have other things to do, and catching facial discoloring early is a doctor's job. Why else is your insurance paying him?

It's your governor's fault that you didn't vote. Last time you voted for someone else and he was still elected. That proves that your vote doesn't count. It also proves your theory on alien abductions. You're not sure why, but you will know why within a week.

The more lines you can draw to your from your own personality to the people you interact with, the easier this will become.

Make it a game. Find someone who has no connection to you at all. Find a neighbor that you never talk to. Find a neighbor that never leaves his house. Find a neighbor that leaves the blinds closed. Why is that person destroying you by making you a catatonic through a combination of reverse psychology and peer pressure?

How Much Is Too Much?

After you have two pages about one single character, take the things that you have written, and place marks next to where you believe the laughter should come. You don't need to break everything into set up punch, set up punch, set up, punch. However, you should realize where the laugher should come.

That's the only way you can judge the material's performance against your own expectations.

When you're developing characters, you need to spend time on them. One liners are fine about characters. However, when you deliver a one-liner about a character I suggest that you be familiar with the story behind the one liner, even if you are not planning to deliver it to your audience.

Editing That Information Into An Act

Obviously, you would start editing by asking yourself if the things that you believe are not funny need to remain within your act. You already marked the things you expected to get laughs in the last section. However, you shouldn't always cut material because it isn't funny. Nor should you keep everything that is funny. You need to keep in mind the following rules.

The jokes, stories or material you write should be tailored to your preferred delivery. If you are a one liner comic, look for one-liners. If you're a story-teller, look for stories.

Jokes contributed to a single character should not contradict the expected behavior of that character. Even if the joke is hysterical. Try rewriting the joke until it becomes believable.

Some information may be needed for audiences to understand the character and the nature of that character's relationship with you. Even if it's not funny, you may not be able to eliminate that material.

Each joke should give insight not only that character, but that characters interaction's with you (The person who should be the center of your act.)

An example. This is an old joke of mine that always seemed to be missing something. It does fit into my one liner style. It also gives insight into my mom's behavior. I can't eliminate that she's negative, even though it would shorten the joke. Eliminating the background is not the answer to making the joke better.

My mother is so negative. To some people the glass is half empty. To some people it's half full. To her it's a drowning hazard.

If I eliminate the background, the joke would read:

To some people the glass is half empty. To some people it's half full. To her it's a drowning hazard.