| Storyboarder Suggestions on comedy
Lauren, you are telling a story. It is structured like a novel or Doonesbury. Small episodes, each a story in itself, string together to make a long story. The long story is your quest to become a stand-up comic. You want to bring out the long quest in every episode and you want to get your audience pulling for you on the long quest. Think of the original "Rocky." Every episode should have a story structure. That means it has a mini-quest which is clear to the audience in the first 30 sec. It becomes the organizer for the rest ot the episode. It is resolved at the end. Because it is a miniquest, it takes on value from the long quest. That means it needs to contribute (as seen by the audience) to the long quest. Here, the generic miniquest for an episode is to entertain the audience for 6 min. Generic is not entertaining. So let's get concrete. You are going present several short segments in which you take an unfamiliar view of a familiar experience. Here are some segment categories: About Lauren-- backstory, history, general views. The av's view of SL -- restarts, updates, persistent bugs, The av's view of the Lindens. Philip a a god, other Lindens as angels Selected narratable experiences (like having a baby. Note that this is a story, with start, quest, resolution, and end. A female av's view of the experiences in SL. A female av's view of what she understands about RL. Subcategories here -- sex, work, school, socializing. Note that she may have a complete misunderstanding about what happens. She may, for example, not understand why togetherness is sometimes so important in sleep. Think of each segment as a separate package. You will choose which ones to use for a specific show (considering audience interest, previous exposure to your material, etc.) You will develop additional content for each segment over time. You may even invite the audience to give you suggestions for segments. Each segment should have a segway into it. Arrange the content to have a rising trend of humor. Funnier material toward the end, with a really funny close. Plan a laugh pause at the end of each segment. If you don't get a laugh there, you need to rework the segment. You will probably want to order the segments in a rising trend also (assuming a 6 min. show). You want to end on a strong laugh. Put your thank-around in a notecard. Just thank the audience for helping you on your quest. And get off the stage. Invite audience questions and comments to be sent to you via text IM. Turn on logging (in preferences) and review the logs later. You will probably find ideas for new material. Use comments, both negative and positive as advice about what material works with what kind of people. Even God can't please everybody. |
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| Under development |
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The Thinkerer
05/01/2008 Copyright (c) D. F. Dansereau & S. H. Evans |
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