Comedy is an art form with its own aesthethic, rarely agreed upon
Definition:
Comedy is the art of telling the truth about what it’s like to be human
Drama helps us dream about who we could be, but comedy helps us live with who we are
The Comic Equation
Comedy is about an ordinary guy/gal struggling against insurmountable odds without many of the require skills and tools with which to win yet never giving up hope
Tools
Winning
Comedy gives you the permission to win
Winning = whatever character thinks is positive or achieves goal for him in any situation
Do what you need to do in order to “win”
Humans aren’t always logical, rational and appropriate - act truthfully
Non-Hero
Hero = Characters with every skill necessary to win
Non Hero = An ordinary guy/gal struggling against insurmountable odds without many of the required skills and tools with which to win yet never giving up hope
Basic fault in many comedies is that the characters simply know too much → Non-hero can’t know
Comedy exists in the gap between expectation and reality, “not knowing” of character creates that gap
Metaphorical Relationship
Relationship below the surface relationship
Character’s unique way of seeing the world
Writer’s unique way of seeing a scene aka Frame
Characters have to be the master of their own disaster
Positive (or Selfist) Action
Everything your character does is in the hope or belief that its going to work and make their lives better
Negative action creates dramatic instead of comic moment
Active Emotion
The emotion that naturally occurs to the performer simply being in the situation is the right emotion
Straight Line/Wavy Line
Is
One who does see and one who doesn’t
One blind to or creating the problem, and the one struggling with the problem
The essential dynamic of comic focus, not character (shifts between characters based on focusing in the scenes)
Script Dev
Archetypes
Comedia Dellarte - italian 1500s theater form with simple premise and then improvised → Relying on distinctive character types
Implication?
Character creates plot
Character creates action
Character creates movement
Comic Premise
A lie that imagines an impossible or improbable world that could never happen - but what happens next?
Once the premise is established, you cannot tell another lie
All actions flow honestly and organically from the premise, based on the character
Characters are brought on through need and theme
Premise is the engine, theme is the rudder
Characters determine Events and Structure, Events and Structure should not dictate character
Other characters’ needs are as strong as the main character’s