Getting comedy write
Ahead of the annual NZ International Comedy Fest and the Auckland Writers Festival, six comics and writers tell Ethan Sills how they make their work funny
ROBERT WEBB Author, actor, screenwriter
On getting the comedy/drama balance right in his book How Not To Be A Boy: In a way, the material itself guided me between the lighter and darker moments. There were a series of memories, which I turned into scenes, if you like, and then linked them together in a way that made narrative sense. I wanted the book to be entertaining but obviously when you’re writing about your mum dying, then there’s a decorum to be followed there. I’ve had 28 years to get used to the idea but I can’t just drop bombshells on the reader with a bunch of gags.
On using comedy to make a point: Jokes can sometimes get under our skin before we’ve had time to examine the point being made with what we fondly think of as our “logical” minds. The book is for everyone but I admit feeling a special pleasure in hearing men say, “I hadn’t thought of it like that.” It’s not that women are easier to persuade, it’s that men are conditioned not to admit they’ve been persuaded.
On advice for rising comics: Write what makes you laugh. Don’t give up. Unless no one else is laughing. Then give up.
Robert Webb talks with Noelle McCarthy at the Auckland Writers Festival (AWF) on Friday, May 18 at the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre.
AMANDA KENNEDY AND LIVI MITCHELL Musical comedy act The Fan Brigade
On writing comedy: Livi: We don’t really have a set structure; it’s different every time. Sometimes we can spend weeks and weeks agonising over words in one song and out of nowhere we’re hungover and come up with a great song out of nowhere.
Amanda: Typically we’ll get together and talk shit over a couple of drinks. And then we’ll flesh it out and we’ll write everything we can think of about that thing.
If we get an idea that sticks and we get heaps of material, we’ll find some music that fits it.
On advice for aspiring comics: Livi: Listen to the experienced people. Take in the advice of people that have been in the industry for a long time.
Amanda: But also be true to yourself. Go and do your own comedy. People imitating other comics, you can see it straight away and that’s not the recipe for success for anyone. The Fan Brigade performs at Q Theatre, May 15-19.
JEFF KINNEY Children’s author
On writing for kids: So many children’s book authors write down to children. You can always sense that adult behind the child character. It was important to me that the character felt authentic so that kids couldn’t sense the adult behind Greg Hefley [the central character in Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series]. It was all about remembering; I took about four years trying to get into the head of myself as a kid and pass everything through that filter of how I experienced things for the first time and what was my interpretation of things.
On writing comedy: I trust myself on that kind of thing. I don’t typically run my jokes past people. Usually when I know I’ve got some good material, a slow smile will creep across my face and my first thought will be, “No, I can’t do that.” And then I’ll think, “Yes, that’s perfect.” Jeff Kinney speaks at the AWF on Tuesday, May 1 at the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre.
BRYNLEY STENT Actor, writer
On creating her latest show: I’m quite a bad writer in the sense that I’m more about ideas generating and am more likely to improv than I am to sit down at a computer and write a script. Often it begins with brainstorming the concept, then asking what are the things we want to play with and what are the jokes that come out of it. And then from that, the jokes came out, and [asking] what’s the situation that comes out from it? Often I will do a lot of recording on my phone, either voice or videoing it.
On trusting your comedy: Most of the time you think you have nothing and then you show someone and you go, “Oh wow, that was an hour and a half.” You just have no clue, you have to trust your instincts. You’ve probably got an okay sense of what it is. One thing that has really helped me is “cover banding”, which is that everyone is too scared to copy but if you think of it as cover band, it doesn’t feel as bad. You go, “What’s a show I really like, how do I do it but through me?” It might feel like copying but it’s not copying if you are doing the jokes through yourself. Obviously don’t write down their individual jokes, but I think people are scared to say it’s already been done — [but] everything’s been done. Brynley Stent performs in Why Does This Feel So Good? at the Basement Theatre, May 16-17.
PETER HELLIAR Writer and comedian
On writing prose rather than stand-up: The big difference is my stand-up is very segmented. I have jokes and routines and they can be any length. I’m not trying to weave a narrative over an hour. I’m certainly trying to make things transition smoothly and hide the gear changes from the audience as much as I can but the first routine of the show does not have to connect with the 10th routine. In writing kids’ books, chapter one should relate to all the other chapters in the book.
On the differences of writing for kids rather than adults: Not a big difference to be honest. Obviously content, my
latest stand-up show I talk a lot about my vasectomy. Unsurprisingly, vasectomies don’t get much of a run in the Frankie Fish series but the structures and rules of jokes don’t change too much between the two.
Peter Helliar joins Kura Forrester, Oscar Kightley and Kanoa Lloyd at the AWF Heartland Festival Room on Saturday, May 19 to talk about the art of the comedy write.
JAMES ROQUE
Actor, stand-up comedian, writer On the differences between stand-up and sketch writing: The one I enjoy the most is stand-up because I feel like you can put the most of yourself [in], as narcissistic and egotistical as it sounds. In stand-up, you really can just be honest and true to what you want to say. There is no editor standing between you and your audience, there is no filter, it’s just you. It’s more pure and raw in a way.
On knowing if something’s funny: One of my favourite things about writing stand-up is it’s a cycle. You write new material and you don’t know if it’s any good; that feeling of going ‘is this going to work?’ And then you stand it up on stage and you have to find out, you have to sink or swim. You can workshop a bit but that first time you do stand-up, there’s something really fun and electric about it.
James Roque performs in Legal Alien, May 8-12 and with Frickin’ Dangerous Bro, May 9-12 at Q Theatre.