learn comedy storytelling

 

Why have I made it my mission to fast-track the next generation of comedy talent?

​

You've probably seen the same thing...over the last few years I've noticed a real drop in the amount of actual laughing I do when I tune into comedy. It's no secret the industry is in a bit of a mess!

​

Let me explain - There was a boom about 20 years ago, comedy was the new rock 'n' roll, clubs opened everywhere, whole TV and radio channels were dedicated to new writing and the free-fringe made Edinburgh accessible without selling a kidney.

​

But just like at the end of the actual rock 'n' roll boom of the 60's and 70's, what we're now seeing is that clubs are closing, radio and TV channels aren't developing shows - and the strangest thing about it all is that it's not because there isn't an audience!

​

Comedy has never been more popular and that means there's a lot of money sloshing around that producers and promoters want to get their hands on. They are just desperate to find new talent that can i. make people laugh ii. make them laugh out loud and iii. make them laugh a lot!...but for some reason there's a drought of new talent ready to take the limelight...and I can explain why.

​

Two entirely separate comedy industries have opened up...

​​

On one side there's DIY comedy: open mics and low-ticket price gigs, sketch video for social media and an army of aspiring narrative writers working away on their passion projects in their spare time.

​

Then there's the Pro industry: A few dozen big-time comedians (plus a support staff in the 10s of thousands) are sweeping up 99% of the industry's income in stadium gigs, comedy specials and insanely high-budget dramedy projects that don't pack the punch of straight comedies and rarely hit the pathos of a drama.

​

I'm calling it... the industry has entered the late-1970s Rick Wakeman prog-rock era of comedy. Production is king, marketing is queen and while I'm sure it makes a lot of money, a lot of it just isn't funny!

​

The problem...

 

The reason producers and promoters can't get the talent they need to make new, exciting and...funny! shows, is that in the DIY industry (where the new talent is coming from - that's you!):

​

​

i. There's precious little nurturing of new talent...because you gotta D.I.Y.

iii. There isn't the access to the on-the-job-training required to take anyone - in any walk of life - from being good, to being a master of their craft.

iii. There's very little money to pay people, so even professionals are forced to treat it like a side-hustle.

​​

I've got a cunning plan...​

 

First the bad news, I've been rather ill of late with post-covid, I'm fine now, but have had to drop performing for a  good long while.

 

The good news is that while I was staring death in the face I had a good long thing about the industry and worked out precisely what the core skills are that new talent need to progress through the industry.

​

Now that I'm recovering I've worked that up into a syllabus designed to nurture, train and professionalise the next generation of comedy talent and help put the breath of life back into our failing industry (or at very least we'll have a damn good time trying!).

​

Lots of the courses come with a blog posts about the topic that lays a lot of the groundwork for the subject. If you like what you read let's set up a discovery call and if you aren't ready to take the class right now be sure to do me a solid and join the mailing list to help me spread the message and get more articles direct to your inbox as they go live (blogs also come with an audio reading from me, so you can put them on while you're doing the dishes).

​​

CLASSES

​

Classes are one-to-one. That's in-person in Central London, or on-line from anywhere in the world.

​

Classes are modular and built around the key areas of any artist's development. Meaning, they'll unlock the next level of your evolution so that you can go and do the real work putting in the hours behind a keyboard or microphone...(like you were going to anyway, but now you'll know better what you're doing, feel more confident, have more fun with it and get more laughs).

 

Stand-up and Narrative

(TV, Radio, podcasts, sketch, etc)

​

I'm talking big fundamental topics:

 

- The 'tight-five' for stand-ups, or 'how to write sketches (aka scenes)' for narrative writers. Both of these are the foundation of everything else you'll ever do - an hour of stand-up is basically 12x five minute bits tied together with a theme and a half hour sitcom is something like 10-15 scenes (aka sketches) tied together with a narrative. Spending a couple of months really getting to grips with how they work can be like doing a year or two of other writing.

​

At the other end of my development process with youI'll be there to help pace and edit your fringe show, or with that most crucial element of all long-form writing, perfecting the Hero Journey and Act Structure of your episodes and series. You need to be on top of this stuff if you're writing anything longer than 15 minutes. If you think these things are confusing and intimidating - that because you haven't had me explain them to you - you can read  all about it in my course outline for that class.

​

You can take just the one class, like getting a power boost in Super Mario Kart. You can take a series of classes to daisy-chain your way round a track while everyone else is still trying to work out what the buttons do. Or for a select few students I do a tailored one-year writing journey as you prepare multiple long-form projects ready to present to industry. That one's a little bit like getting the cheat codes...but also a bit like having your own personal drill-sergeant, because if you want a producer to risk £100k on your tour, or £10 mill on your TV series, you don't need me to tell you...your work has gotta sing!

 

Musical Comedy

​

Speaking of singing I'm *probably* the only musical-comedy teacher in the world.

 

As a folk and jazz singer I've written more than 500 songs and I'm one of the (genuinely) few people that can combine proper songwriting with stand-up level lyrics. (The industry background on that one...musical comedy used to be on every mixed bill on stage, screen and radio, but people stopped learning to play piano and guitar. Writing and production techniques have become increasingly digitised, which doesn't lend itself to comedy lyric writing...and let's be honest, in a world of EDM, synth heavy pop and Hans Zimmer, musical comedy in the wrong hands can be, well, just a little bit naff).

​

 - If your songs are funny but not musical: I'll teach you how to structure them (intro, chorus, bridge, etc.) so that they work better for your audience . You're not auditioning for The Voice, you're there to make people laugh. No-one cares if you sing like a stray dog howling at the moon...BUT...trust me they will get bored as all hell if your intro is longer than 15 seconds and you don't counterpoint your chorusses with a bridge (your song will have all the bits you need, I'll just help you to structurally rearrange them so you hit the punchlines to get more laughs).

​​

 - If you're musically trained but need a bit of work on the comedy: we'll get straight to work on teaching you how to work on your comedy lyrics (my favourite thing in all comedy). Then we'll dial-up your performance as a comedy performance to turn those beautiful melodies into killer comedy songs.

 

 - Parodies are a lot of fun too, I can turn out a dozen short parodies in an afternoon - I'll can teach you how it's done.

​

I also do Song Doctoring which is a consultancy where I'll (royalty free) help polish your finished songs to get that extra bit of power out of your top-line and squeeze every last laugh out of the lyrics and performance...which is always the bottom-line.

​

​​

Sounds good?

Whether you're beginner or semi-pro

in it as a hobby or climbing the career ladder

writing stand-up, sitcom, dramedy, song, podcasts, radio, poems, sketches, films 

or indeed anything from one-liners to 6hr mini-series'

​

Here are my demands...

1. You want to make people laugh!

2. You want to make them laugh out loud!

3. You want to make them laugh a lot!​

​

Excited?

 

I know I am...but I've got ADHD, I'm excited about everything.

​

​

i. Choose your comedy art-form from the links below ii. that'll take you through to the page where you can peruse the individual classes and read some blog posts on your craft...and then iii. set up a discovery call so we can have a quick chat and plan the next thing that you're gonna to be awesome at!