Comedy Masterclass

Danielle Krage interviews novelist Ruth Leigh. They focus on her delightful Isabella M Smugge series, and what it takes to create a comic character that you can develop and sustain across multiple books. Ruth is also the author of the Jane Austen-inspired book A Great Deal of Ingenuity, and The Little Book of Unexpected Poetry.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:57 Origin Story of Isabella M. Smugge

06:48 Creating a Funny and Complex Character

09:45 Developing a Series and Balancing Character Arcs

11:34 Turning Up the Comedy in the Setting

14:06 Using Conflict to Drive the Story

17:30 The Importance of Setting in Comedy

20:23 Writing Process and Balancing Comedy and Heart

25:23 Favourite Comic Influences

29:43 Prompts and Exercises for Writing Comedy

32:19 Building a Writing Community and Getting Feedback

34:38 The Impact of Reader Feedback

35:27 Real People and Names in the Books

36:47 Overcoming Fear of Events

37:31 Starting Small and Building Confidence

38:58 Finding Comfortable Opportunities

39:06 Where to Find More about Ruth Leigh

Links

https://www.ruthleighwrites.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/ruthleighwrites

https://twitter.com/Ruthleighwrites

https://www.tiktok.com/@ruthleighwrites

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

Hey lovely listeners. That's the end of Season 5. I'll be back on March 6th with more fabulous Comedy Masterclass guests. 

Danielle Krage interviews Scott Dikkers, founder of the renowned humour site, The Onion. Scott is a New York Times and Amazon best-selling humour author. He has won a Peabody Award, the Thurber Prize for American Humor and over 30 Webby awards. Plus, he has consulted for top entertainment companies like NBC, Comedy Central, and Pixar.

Scott’s How to Write Funny series is packed with helpful insights and frameworks for getting humour onto the page. In this episode, he shares both craft and career advice for comedy writers.  

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:21 Building a Brand and the Importance of Stick-to-it-ness

04:18 Crafting Reliable and Repeatable Quality

08:31 Balancing the Clown and the Editor

12:39 The Importance of Titles and Introducing Comedy in Writing

22:36 Misconceptions about Writing Comedy

30:31 Favourite Types of Characters to Write

33:13 Satire and its Impact

36:00 Where to Find Scott Dikkers

Links

https://howtowritefunny.com/

https://scottdikkers.substack.com/

https://twitter.com/ScottDikkers

https://www.instagram.com/itsscottdikkers

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

In this episode, Danielle shares the writing advice of Ray Bradbury, a writer who has influenced her own writing process. She introduces Bradbury and his book 'Zen and the Art of Writing', highlighting his practical and joyful approach to writing. Danielle discusses two main practices recommended by Bradbury: the 52 Short Story Challenge and the Thousand Nights Challenge. She shares her own experiences with these challenges and offers tips for making them doable and enjoyable.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Ray Bradbury

02:08 The 52 Short Story Challenge

15:38 The Thousand Nights Challenge

23:12 Committing to Challenges

SHOW NOTES

Zen and the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Writing-Essays-Creativity/dp/1877741094

An Evening with Ray Bradbury 2001: https://youtu.be/_W-r7ABrMYU?si=kGDIee3oMGC51wTY

https://daniellekrage.com/10-things-i-learned-from-writing-52-short-stories

https://daniellekrage.com/christmas-even/

https://daniellekrage.com/its-hard-being-an-avenger/

https://daniellekrage.com/this-isnt-a-love-story/

https://daniellekrage.com/the-new-life-church/

https://daniellekrage.com/the-last-bite/

https://daniellekrage.com/it-was-for-cerberus/

https://daniellekrage.com/1000-nights/

https://poets.org

https://tetw.org

Julia McKenzie is the Commissioning Editor for Comedy and Entertainment at Radio 4, and prior to that was Creative Director of BBC Studios Audio for 7 years, specialising in comedy and entertainment production.

In this conversation, Julia provides helpful insights for comedy writers who want to understand the audio landscape and find ways to get their work produced.

00:00 Introduction and Background

02:06 Starting in Audio and Comedy

08:11 Working with Producers

13:44 Commissioning Process

19:55 Audio Comedy Landscape

27:56 Pilots and Evaluation

33:36 Audio Formats

38:16 Favourite Comedy Shows

39:44 Recommendations and Resources

40:47 TV Recommendations

41:39 Fresh Take on Narration

43:15 Where to Find More

SHOWNOTES:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning

Jokes feed: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tzf5

BBC Sounds app: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/getting-started-with-bbc-sounds/sounds-intro

https://twitter.com/juliaamckenzie

Comedy of the Week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9x6/episodes/downloads

Friday Night Comedy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02pc9pj

https://twitter.com/dmsareopenbbc

Danielle Krage interviews Lynne Parker, Founder and Chief Executive of Funny Women. She created the organisation over 20 years ago now and has made such a contribution to the comedy community, including producing the Funny Women Awards. In this conversation, Lynne shares invaluable advice for women building their careers and networks in comedy.   

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

03:10 The Creation of Funny Women

09:45 The Importance of Funny Women

12:24 Supporting Women in Comedy

17:48 Challenges in the Comedy Industry

23:47 Mentorship and Networking

30:18 Taking Comedy into the Workplace

37:10 The Value of Remote Work and Social Interaction

38:29 Creating Fun and Engaging Work Environments

39:52 Running Events for Women in the Workplace

41:46 The Power of Comedy in the Workplace

43:31 Overcoming Gender Stereotypes in the Workplace

45:13 Representation of Women in Comedy

46:42 Challenging Age Stereotypes

48:38 Being Independent Thinkers

49:22 Finding More Information

You can find out more about Lynne Parker and her work here:

https://funnywomen.com

https://www.herlarious.co.uk

https://twitter.com/funnywomen

https://twitter.com/FunnyWomenLynne

https://www.instagram.com/funny_women

20 years of Funny Women:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001qszl

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

Danielle Krage interviews author Fran Hill about ways to develop your observational humour skills as a writer. Fran is a former English teacher, and had a monthly satirical column about education in the Times Educational Supplement. She further shared her experiences in diary form in her memoir ‘Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?' And she published her novel, ‘Cuckoo in the Nest’ in 2023.  

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:19 Starting the Satirical Column

03:09 Observational Humour and Learning

07:30 Transition to Writing

10:26 Discovering the Craft of Writing

11:17 Honing Observational Skills

15:00 Exaggeration and Specific Detail

19:19 Writing Poetry for Special Occasions

24:20 Challenges of Writing Fiction

28:30 Observation, Hypervigilance, and Comedy

34:34 Crafting Poems for Others

38:16 Writing with a Macro Perspective

41:07 The Inspiration for Character Development

41:24 The Power of Setting

42:14 Continual Learning and Growth

42:32 Where to Find More of Fran Hill's Work

You can find out more about Fran Hill and her work here:

https://www.franhill.co.uk

https://linktr.ee/franhill123

https://twitter.com/franhill123

https://www.instagram.com/franhill123

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

Danielle Krage interviews Billy Mernit - screenwriter, novelist and author of Writing The Romantic Comedy: The Art of Crafting Funny Love Stories for the Screen. Billy has served as a story analyst and script consultant at Universal Pictures, an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and has published some 20 romance novels under a female pen name. In this conversation, he shares really practical ways of approaching writing romantic comedy, including in today’s landscape of mixing genres.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:00 Love for Rom-Coms

02:25 The Triangle and the Ensemble

07:43 Favourite Rom-Coms

13:16 The Importance of World

17:48 The Connection Between Image and Theme

25:36 Mixing Genres in Rom-Coms

31:06 Rom-Coms in Series Format

34:07 Personal Development as a Writer

37:14 Music and Writing

10:15 The Importance of Characters in Romantic Comedies

20:30 The Role of Conflict in Romantic Comedies

30:45 The Art of Crafting Funny Love Stories

39:41 Recommendation and Conclusion

You can find out more about Billy and his work here:

https://www.instagram.com/mernitman

https://billymernit.com

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

Back January 10th 2024 with more Comedy Masterclass guests.

In this episode writers Allora Dannon, Camille Le Baron and Danielle Krage share their Christmas comedy recommendations. They discuss TV series, films and books that capture the holiday spirit with a Christmas twist. Whether you love Christmas or not, there's something for everyone in these recommendations.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and How They Met. (Plus, shoutout to the brilliant Temeraire series by Naomi Novik)

01:48 Introducing Allora and Camille

03:00 Recommendation: Home for Christmas (Norwegian series)

05:34 Recommendation: The Spirit of Christmas (film)

08:03 Recommendation: Love Actually (film)

12:03 Recommendation: Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas, Adam Kay (book)

20:43 Recommendation: Little Women (book/1994 film version)

26:02 Recommendation: Le père Noël est une ordure/ Father Christmas is a Stinker

37:08 Social media, online presence and more

You can find Allora here:

https://www.tiktok.com/@alloradannon

And Camille here:

https://www.instagram.com/camillelbauthor

You can find the transcript at:

https://comedymasterclass.com

And Danielle’s socials here:

https://twitter.com/daniellekrage

https://www.instagram.com/dekrage

https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social