Righteous Insanity

Want to be a sketch writer? Here's what you need to watch

If you want to be a comedy sketch writer, here are the people you need to watch:

  

Nichols and May - Best sketch comedy duo ever. Period. The two were known for building hilarious sketches with the audience giving them only the first and last lines of the scene. They released three albums of their work, and a number of sketches are popping up on Youtube lately. They are the gold standard.

 

Monty Python - After SNL, probably the most famous sketch show ever featuring an incredibly talented ensemble. Versatile, clever, unpredictable, the Pythons pushed the bounds fo sketch comedy further than it had ever been pushed before. If you want an extra treat, look up At Last the 1948 Show, a sketch show with John Cleese, Graham Chapman, and Marty Feldman that preceded Monty Python.

 

Saturday Night Live - The current cast seems to have hit a groove and realyl connected with an audience. That said, you need to check out the original cast (75-79) and the second golden age cast (87-93) that include Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, and Chris Farley. I'd also recommend looking up the 84-85 season when Martin Short, Christopher Guest, and Billy Crystal came in for a year. Lorne doesn't play a lot of that stuff because he wasn't the boss then, but they made some of the funniest sketches ever including my all time favorite, the male synchronized swimmers.

 

The Kentucky Fried Movie - The first feature film from the guys who went on to make Airplane and the Naked Gun movies was a sketch compilation featuring some hilariously over the top stuff. The 80's film Amazon Women on the Moon is sort of a follow up to this one. It's not as funny but still has some memorable bits, including the funeral roast and David Alan Grier as a man born without Soul. Both films are rated R for a reason. Not for the easily offended.

 

Piper's Pit - Rowdy Roddy Piper set the standard for every other wrestler hosted chat/sketch show that followed. No one is his equal. Roddy's stuff was usually unscripted. He knew how to provoke a guest and an audience. Very effective at working a crowd. The Rock was probably the one other man who could move a crowd in the same way. He never had a "show" like Piper, and most of his bits were solo, but many of his promos are legendary and worth a look.

 

In Living Color - This show was really the anti-SNL. It featured an African American cast with two token white cast members - one of which happened to be Jim Carrey. It was also taped, and unlike SNL, upstaging and improvisation were encouraged. Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier, and Jim Carrey became overnight stars when the show premiered, but In Living Color really peaked in season three with the arrival of Jamie Foxx and the show's funnest character, Ugly Girl. Word up!

 

The State - The show that influenced me the most in my early years of writing. Shades of the Pythons and SNL can be seen in their work, which is loud, over the top, self-deprecating, and shameless. Cast members went on to produce Reno 911, Viva Variety, and Wet Hot American Summer, and Thomas Lennon and Ben Garrant are two of the hottest screenwriters going today.

 

Mr. Show - The crudest of the shows listed here by far, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross put together a show that took sketch writing to a new level as an art form. Other cast members included Sarah Silverman, and Brian Posehn, and the voice of Spongebob, Tom Kenney. Their sketches flow together much like the Python sketches did, and repeated viewings give you a much broader picture of what each episode is really about. These guys also took profanity to new levels, so again, not for the easily offended.

Writing with Maps

I pulled up a map of New Testament Israel last night, all in the name of comedy.

 

I was working on a scene at the Inn in Bethlehem. A couple from modern times is dropped into the bodies of the innkeeper and his wife, and they have a house full of complaining guests. The scene takes place at dinner, and there's a bit with a pair of customers complaining about the dinner. The customers were from out of town (in for the census, of course), and I needed a dish from another part of Israel that they could complain and say, "This is not how it's made."

 

Looking at the map, I saw that Galilee was to the north of Bethlehem. So I settled on Galilean Sea Bass.

 

Of course I didn't bother to do further research and see if Sea Bass was ever served in Galilee. Once I settled on Galilee as the source of the dish, Galilean Sea Bass just hit me and I ran with it. It sounded funny, and if any NT scholars were in the audience, none of them would be taken out of the story by my poor knowledge of geography.

 

Point is, maps can be a big help, whether you're plotting a course for Hobbits in Middle Earth or chronicling the footsteps of Jesus. And thanks to the Internet, maps of Jesus' time are a few clicks away. It's also a really insightful tool when reading the gospels to see where he traveled. Really makes the stories come alive.

Sleepwriting

It's always interesting when you fall asleep at the laptop. One time I fell asleep in the middle of a script. I woke up and read what I had typed in my near-sleep state. I should have saved it because it was a pretty random stream of consciousness piece of writing. It was gibberish, but it was a lot more fun than the time I woke up to a 100 page document - 80 or so pages of which was just "ZZZZZZZZZZ..."

 

Last night I fell asleep editing a scene for the new Clive the Zombie short, "Zombies R Forever." I remember trying to make myself quit because sleep-editing can be dangerous. You can delete things or cut things in the wrong place and generally make a lot of work for yourself when you go back to undo your mistakes. Today, however, I found I had cut several clips that I needed perfectly in my half-asleep state. Not sure how that happened, but I was able to finish the scene I couldn't finish last night in about 20 minutes.

 

The most embarrassing sleep-computing story would definitely be the time I fell asleep on Facebook. I woke up and found that I had posted a link to my book Company Man about 20 times on my writer page. Three people deleted themselves from my fan page - all because I sleep-spammed them.

 

Anyone else have a fun story to share?

Bed Times Stories and Mixing Things Up

Bed time stories are now a well-established ritual at my house. Some nights it's Bible stories, some nights it's fairy tales. The favorite fairy tale of late has been the Three Little Pigs.

It could easily get boring telling the same story every night, but I've found little ways to keep it interesting. My kids not only know the Three Little Pigs, they also know the Land Shark sketch from SNL. They know parts of it word for word. So some nights the little piggies hear a different voice from the Big Bad Wolf: "Candy gram!"

My kids also know comedian Brother Dave Gardner's story about the haunted house. It's a bit more oscure than Land Shark, I know, but their daddy was well versed in comedy (thanks to his daddy), so they got to learn "Is you gonna be here when John gets here?" early on as well. And some nights, the monsters from the haunted house show up looking for John in place of the Big Bad Wolf. The monsters have also turned up in several bed time stories involving another night time favorite, Scooby Doo.

The kids love when characters from other stories pop up in the three pigs, but they also love the completely random. My son's favorite villain lately has been the Big Bad Chicken. Sometimes the Chicken gets burned in the chimney. Sometimes he falls in a frying pan and gets turned into fried chicken. He's also been eaten by the Big Bad Wolf, the Land Shark, and the monsters looking for John.

Every night there's a new twist. It's never the same - except for the times when they demand it. It's always fun.

Variety doesn't mean you have to completely change everything every time. A little twist here, a surprise there, you give kids just enough change up to keep them listening - and learning. Something to think about when planning your ministry programs.

Current writing projects

A quick run down of writing projects I am working on at the moment:

Shell Game, a novel - A sequel to the first novel I ever published, "The Shell Collector." This one picks up a few decades after the first story, and like it's predecessor, it's an action/sci-fi story that looks at the moral implications of human cloning for medical and other purposes.

Martian movie - Still in development, this feature film (being produced by Fluffy 3 star Benjamin Wood) is an invasion film told through web vlogs, news reel footage, commercials, public service announcements, and other "found" footage.

Attack of the Resurrected Americans! - Formerly known as "Psycho KIller from Outer Space," this alien invasion script with a strong Christian theme is being rewritten specifically for the resurrected American known as Clive the Zombie. In short, more zombie puppet action that can can also be used as a ministry tool.

If you're looking for skits, film scripts, play scripts, VBS or camp materials, or any other creative ministry endeavor that calls for a script, I'd be more than happy to push some of this to the side for a bit and assist you. Email me for more information on custom script writing:

john@righteousinsanity.com

Kevin Smith on writing

Love Kevin Smith, and love his thoughts on writing in the post below. These thoughts tie in nicely with the sci-fi book I just released, Cave World, in which a teenager gets to know what it's like to "play God" when he enters the fictional world he created. 

Warning to those not in the know: Kevin's a little vulgar, and not for the easily offended (although this post is pretty mild for him). But I still thought it was worth sharing for (1) those not easily offended and (2) those who love him like I do. 

Kevin Smith on Writing

Do you need a writer?

If you've never looked into Righteous insanity's script writing services, here are a few reasons to do so:

 

1. Save time - Finding the "perfect script" can be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Whether you're browsing an online catalog, looking through periodicals, or throwing caution to the wind with a Google search, it's time you could be spending on other preparations.

 

2. The price is right - Knowing how tight budgets can be in a church, we keep the prices for writing new material extremely low. $30 will get you a 5 minute skit, a bargain compared to what some resources will charge you for individual skits; Longer scripts range from $100-200, depending on the scale and complexity of the project.

 

Here are a few projects tackled (so far) in 2011:

 

Power Labs - A four part drama series used to help present the message for a children's retreat in Viet Nam. A fun but challenging project with lots of puns and word play thanks to characters like Anita Hugg (I need a hug) and Ken U. Sey (Can you say).

 

Never Give Up On You - A one act play for a marriage retreat held in the Dominican. A story about a bride and groom, both children of divorce, who desperately want a marriage that will last.

 

Uptown Live - Wrote a series of stand up comedy monologues for a late night talk show themed children's curriculum for Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, KY.

 

Snoopy Johnson - A video script for Richmond (VA) Community Church depicting a self-absorbed, materialistic celebrity showing off his many nice things.

 

So what's on your agenda the next few months, and what can I do to help?

Character-driven humor and Community

Character based humor happens when you set expectations and then meet them. The old improv game “Here’s Roger Now” is a great example of how this works. Three actors begin the scene discussing Roger and describing his many quirks. They create an expectation in the audience that is paid off when the fourth actor enters, playing Roger, and acts out the quirks that have been assigned to him.

Dan Harmon has taken this to a whole new level on Community. He’s created a delightful core of three-dimensional, fully-realized characters that his audience knows very well. Having done so, he can take those characters, drop them in any situation he wants, and make us laugh by hitting our expectations.

Community is a show that rewards its faithful viewers. It doesn’t matter if the characters are caught a post-apocalyptic paintball battle, facing off with over-achieving high schoolers, trapped in a space shuttle simulator, facing a zombie apocalypse, dwelling in a blanket fort city, or even playing D&D. We know who these characters are, and we have our expectations. Harmon and his staff repeatedly meet and exceed our expectations, giving us what we expect and in doing so giving us the unexpected.

The old rule about murder mysteries is that if you want a character to fire a gun in the third act of a play, you have to show the audience where that gun is in the first act. If you want me to laugh at your character, you first have to reveal who that character is. Once you do that, you can take them where ever you want. So long as you stay consistent, you're going to make me laugh. 

Summer Plans?

No sooner is Christmas over, a new year arrives, and with it will come Valentines, Easter, and of course, summer events like camp, VBS, and more.

Are you ready for summer?

Righteous Insanity is here to help with your planning needs. We write skits of all kinds for summer programs, and we can write small and large group activities and curriculum to go with it. We'll run with whatever theme you give us. And we also have several drama/curriculum sets of our own ready to go in our online store. 

The blizzard will be gone before you know it, and summer will be right behind the sunshine. Contact John Cosper if you're interested in learning more about our writing services.

NaNoWriMo

Like many writers, I decided (at the nudging of a friend) to sign up for National Novel Writing Month. It's been a fun challenge, and it helped me to break through on a story that's been languishing for a long, long time. I am now 22,000 words in - a bit behind pace, as the goal is to write 50K words by the end of the month. Not sure I'll make it, and I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't.

Here's why: the good part about something like NaNoWriMo is that it does get you writing. The bad part is, in the process of writing what you should be working on (in this case, the novel), you can easily get side-tracked and writing on hundreds of other things. Not a bad problem in my case. I've had a few writing jobs this month, and I also started writing a new season of episodes for The Sensitive Christian Man. But then all this time working on side projects has hindered my progress toward completing a 50K novel by November 30.

Like, I said, I'm not going to beat myself up. It's been a good month so far, I'm happy with how this story's growing, and very happy the other little projects came along. And really, the purpose of NaNoWriMo is to help writers do what they should be doing regardless of whether there's a prize on the line or not: keep writing.

Parting thought: In the time I wrote this blog, I could have easily knocked out 100-200 more words on that novel.