Structure Short-cuts

Last week (driven by curiosity and more than a little 'What if?') I sat in on a class on stand-up comedy. For a MASTER'S course.

Pretty cool, eh? You didn't know you could take university courses on stand-up, did you? (I didn't, anyway.)

The lecturer has a doctorate, and looks just like the guy you'd think would be doing stand-up; laid back, lanky, walking the line between 'geeky' and 'cool'. (He has the greatest Doctor Who t-shirt ever.) He's got seven in the MA program(me); during their seminars they try bits out on each other and give feedback, and then they run a comedy show on campus Thursday nights. It was a pretty riveting seminar, actually - some of the pieces were funnier than others, naturally... but the fascinating part was the feedback. It was all dramaturgical! Ollie (the lecturer) would suggest that a particular joke be moved earlier (or later) in the set to strengthen the overall story; he'd focus on a certain word or phrase and ask the student to mine that idea for more material; he'd get them all brainstorming additional jokes or ways to tell stories or other options for what was presented. It was like a shorthand seminar on how to act as dramaturg (and/or editor) for a theatre production!

The class demonstrated an exercise called 'Find the Link' - one person offers a topic, the next counters with a totally unrelated topic, and the third person comes up with a link between the two. (Fantastic for playwrights, improv actors, comedians, and theatre students in general. Try it.) Another exercise was to ask the comic to go back over their routine and cut out every unnecessary sentence or word - only that which is STRICTLY needed to be funny/tell the joke is kept. Things become concise, you get to the joke much quicker, and the pace really picks up. (Think monologues, scripts... right?) Along with that, though, you also need to consider 'atmosphere' - as differentiated from 'filler'. If it helps to paint a clearer picture and so makes the punchline more effective/interesting it can stay, even if it's not totally vital to the joke.

And so on... All I'm saying is, playwrights and dramaturgs should definitely look into classes on stand-up comedy. Structure, flow, storytelling, hitting punchlines and buttons, layering, character development - in a condensed form, everything you need to write a play is right there.

And you might just feel inspired to go for that open mic, as well...