Hidden Tools For Writing Comedy by Steve Kaplan Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

going back to what you said earlier that
they were actually some of the best at
comedy or natural actors they were
natural actors I mean they were people
who who had a natural proclivity to make
things up you know on the spot and one
of the things I realized from from that
experience was that that in order to do
improv in order to play comedy you have
to come from a truthful place I mean
those guys were making things up making
up stories but they they weren't actors
they didn't know anything about acting
all they knew about was was taking their
own sense of who they were in the world
and and applying it to imaginary
circumstances and I thought you know
that's what actors should do is simply
take who they are and how they how they
are in the world and apply those just
imagine our circumstances as opposed to
at the time in New York Theatre took
itself very seriously I mean you know if
I never saw another production of the
three sisters with actors in turtlenecks
it'll be too soon you know very
self-important self-indulgent and the
one thing that that I observed is that
they weren't self-indulgent they were
trying to do something every you know in
their in their own criminal lives they
they only lie to achieve a goal for
themselves and so that was another very
interesting very useful lesson is that
trying to try to keep actors focused on
what wins for them that's a you know a
term that we use in the book hidden
tools you know winning is the idea that
you know rather than worrying about a
moding feeling or or or trying to do
something for an effect just what what
do you need to do to get what you want
and and the idea that comedy gives you
the permission to win comedy gives you
the permission to do what you might not
ordinarily do in real life but given the
permission you you might grab a girl and
kiss her which in its suddenness and
and and lack of transition might appear
funny to somebody but in effect it's
simply somebody giving themselves the
permission to do what they need to do in
order to win
it's the moment in Groundhog Day when
Bill Murray
having realized that he's living the
same day over again meaning that there's
no consequences to anything he does he
wakes up he goes downstairs he kisses
the landlady full on the lips the
insurance guy comes up to him and
without any preamble he just knocks him
on you know on to his but comedy gives
yourself the permission to win one of
the exercises we do in the workshop that
I teach is called the classic problem of
three lawyers and what we do there is we
give each person each of the three
lawyers in this improv a problem to
solve and we we then say you have the
permission to win and one of the
problems might be to get somebody to go
first to go before you to leave the room
before you and when we do it with actors
in an acting workshop it could take 20
minutes for actors to leave the room
because actors are so trained to emote
to act you know there's the spotlight
there in the light you know just act but
in comedy it's not about being on stage
it's about doing what you need to do in
order to win so when I when I say to
them you have the permission to win
sometimes somebody will get the idea to
pick up one of the other lawyers and
just throw them out the room that gets
the other lawyer out first it's it's
kamek without trying to be funny and
that's the other key is that if you look
at great comic actors contemporary comic
actors like Ben Stiller say or Bill
Murray what they're doing in their films
is doing what the character needs to do
following their characters needs and
wants fears and and desires but they're
not trying to be funny
bad comedies think
about bad comments I don't want to name
you know any names because you know who
knows somebody might want to talk to me
some sometime later in my life but you
know if just think about a bad comedy
you've seen and what you can see more
often than not especially bad sitcoms
are people trying to be funny
trying to do wouldn't it be funny if and
that's probably the the biggest error
that that you know new actors and new
writers make is the idea that doing a
comedy means you're trying to be funny
which is the the equivalent of of an
actor actress trying to do drama so
crying on you know just crying up a
storm it's about the audience having the
reaction it's not about the character
having that reaction so it almost sounds
like what the prisoners they weren't
afraid
whereas actors maybe get in their own
way because this is Who I am
I'm an actor I've studied this is my
label this is my identity in the world
and so much is built around that whereas
what the prisoners you know yes maybe
this is their whole mo and life and this
is how they've gotten by on people but
their whole identity wasn't stamped with
yes MFA actor classically trained
whatever yeah yeah to a certain extent I
mean I maybe this could be my next book
you know comedy from the prisoners point
of view but I think again
if you look at great improvisers sketch
comic stand-ups people who haven't had
acting training but have had comedy
training which means that they've had
training on relating to what's in their
environment seeing what's really there
and and letting it affect them and and
having it and having an opinion about it
you don't need to have studied with you
to Hagen to do great comedy I mean look
at Jerry Seinfeld and you know Bob Hope
Woody Allen none of them studied with
great masters of Stanislavski but they
all had the ability to see the world the
way it was
and have their character have a reaction
to that world while trying to move
through the scenario trying to get what
they want and so that immediacy that
breaking the fourth wall even if you're
not talking to the camera they're
breaking the fourth wall because they
comment on what's actually happening
around them great comics doing ad-libs
is basically commenting on what's real
in their environment and that creates
comedy I mean so the Judd Apatow films
are full of actors who are simply coming
up with ad-libs in fact they do ad-lib
Arama
meaning they'll have a setup and they'll
have a setup line and then they'll film
the actor doing response and they'll
have they'll do thirteen or fourteen
different kinds of responses and the all
the responses are based upon what do you
really say what's really happening and
what's the most simple direct and honest
response there's a moment in 40 year old
virgin in which Steve Carell is being
taken home by the bookstore lady and
she's getting all you know crazy on him
you know all you know all kinky she gets
into the bath she starts to pleasure
herself and they tried any number of
funny funny lines funny adlets and
finally nothing we're really working on
them were really popping finally Judd
Apatow just walked to Steve Carell and
said so what does it look like what do
you think Steve Carell looks and says
it's graphic and that's the line they
used in the movie wow it's graphic
because that was the simple direct
honest response to what he's saying and
that's basically what comedy is comedy
is seeing what's really happening and
having some kind of a response to it or
at least that's that's part of comic
acting and and you can apply that to
comic writing too
you