Comedy in writing

Oh you can’t tell that everyone doesn’t love a good old joke. Well I sure do, especially when it is in writing. Comedy in writing provides that relief from the serious. It can tone down the tension is a situation, boots your characters morale, heck you can even get a chuckle out of your audience.

Personally when it comes to comedy in writing I love it, but there are a few down sides to comedy.

1. Too much/ too little

See when it comes to comedy you have to be subtle when it comes to it. (Unless your book is focused on comedy). Too much comedy and everyone thinks your book is joke (literarily).  Too little comedy, and the book could become too boring for some readers.  So you have to find that right mix of comedy and seriousness for you book. And it is different for every book.

2. Not everyone gets a joke

See when it comes to using comedy you have to understand that not everyone well find your sense of humor funny and some people just don’t have a sense of humor at all. So you have to be willing to take some back lash on some of the jokes you make. But if a lot of people like your style of comedy, you can get a lot of praise for it.

3. Type of Comedy

See you can use comedy as much as you need in a book, but be careful in where you put it. You can NOT put a joke right in the middle of a serious scene where one of your characters is dying (unless it fits the tone of your book). Or you can NOT have your characters in the final battle defeating the main evil of your book, and have one of your characters in the back cracking pointless jokes the entire time (again unless it fits the tone of your book or fits the tone of the character) it just doesn’t make sense.

So I hope that this blog help some people crack a joke in some of their books. Or maybe even got them to think about adding some comedy to their books that they never thought they would add. And let me leave with a warning, watch how much comedy you use. Now if you will please excuse me I now need to leave the building.

Author Review: Bo Burnham

Before I start this blog there is three things that I need to mention. One Bo Burnham is technically a comedian but he has written a book so I can consider him an author. Second this blog will mainly be focusing on his comedian writing style and not his actual book. And three Bo Burnham is a VERY VULGAR comedian, so there may be some colorful language in this post. Now with that all of the way let’s move onto the blog.

Oh Bo Burnham, you are such a great and amazing comedian. Your writing style is perfect, your technique is perfect, and it’s just great. If you don’t know anything about Bo Burnham I will give a brief description but I would recommend actually looking him up. So Bo Burnham is a 25 year old musician comedian, which basically means he uses music to tell his jokes. And there are so well crafted.

Bo uses some of his life experiences to give off great and amazing performances. He does a perfect mix of his “music comedy” and his normal stand-up comedy. He creates these different personas of himself, and will be constantly changing his voice while he talks or when he sings to change the emotion of what he is singing. He also is able to take very deep topics and make them completely funny.

The other thing I enjoy about his music/ writing is that you are able to listen to it while you are doing other things. (I am even listening to one of his specials while I am writing this). But like I said in the beginning Bo Burnham is an extremely vulgar comedian. A lot of his songs include vulgar language, even some of my favorites do in their own titles. Some of these titles are (Beating off in A Minor, Eff, Theoretical Dick Jokes, and my personal favorite I F—K Sl—ts).

The final thing I like about Bo is that he is able to make fun of himself while he is on stage. There are songs that he has created just to make fun of himself. He understands that being a comedian is one of the stupidest jobs ever created.

So there is my review on Bo Burnham, before I go I do want to remind you if you do want to go look him up do be careful because he is an extremely vulgar comedian.      

Repo The Genetic Opera

Just so you know I have just heard about this so it is going to be the most un-informed blog I will hopefully ever write. So let’s dive right into this. While I was perusing the inter webs last night I found one of the most interesting things I have ever seen. An opera. Now usually things like this don’t catch my eye, but this one was extremely different.

First off the title, you know it something is different when your title is (and this is the exact title) Repo the Genetic Opera. When you have a title like that you are going to catch a lot of people’s eyes, or so I thought. Because digging a little deeper, I learned that this opera/ movie was basically a box office bomb.   

The second thing that really caught me off guard was that it was a gothic slash horror opera, which I have never heard of. So that immediately caught me off guard (because if you don’t know anything about opera’s, there are usually dramas or tragedies and not at all horror related) so this to me is a very interesting idea and I was shocked when I found out it was a box office bomb.  

Then I learned the plot of the story, truly all I did was search “Repo the Genetic Opera Plot” if you want to check me on it. So basically In the mid-21st century, an epidemic of organ failures leads to the rise of GeneCo., a company providing transplants at a great price. Those who miss their payments become targets of GeneCo. Mercenaries, who repossess the organs. In a world of drug addiction and legalized murder, a sheltered youth (Alexa Vega) seeks a cure for her rare disease as well as information about her family's mysterious history. Her questions are answered at "The Genetic Opera."

So when I learned of the plot I found it again really interesting that it bombed, then I listened to the music. And it is the worst music I have ever heard, and then understood why it bombed. So the idea of the entire opera itself is brilliant and I feel that someone else could do better with it. But I basically wrote this blog to explain that even a great idea can be totally ruined by just one aspect, when even the rest of it is still a really great. 

Music in T.V., Plays, and Movies

That beautiful, wonderful, amazing sound that is known as music. Music can be used in so many different ways especially in Plays, Movies and T.V shows. So what is music used for? Well many things, to create tension and emotion, to add some flavor to a scene, or even just some background noise. Music can truly help create emotion or tension in plays, Movies and T.V shows. You see music can make you feel happy or sad or mad and many other emotions. Now this helps in plays, Movies and T.V shows because helps portrays the emotion of each scene. Now is it absolutely necessary to have music in every scene? No, not at all. Sometimes the best music is pure silence. The next that music can do is create or add some flavor to a scene in a Play, in Movies and in T.V shows. See music is like that little hit of spice added to things to give them that little humph (if you catch my drift). An action scene is still really cool with fighting, explosions, and some kick ass quotes, but imagine that was just it, think of how bad that scene would be. Or imagine a very emotional scene that has no talking but a beautiful symphony orchestra playing in the background. Take out the music and then you just have your characters staring at each other for 3 minutes not saying anything. Just picture how awkward that would be. So without music you would have really boring action scenes, and really awkward emotional scenes. Finally music can be used just as background music or for plays transition music (this part will mainly be focusing on plays). So with every form of preformed literature it is just nice to have something else to listen besides the dialogue. Now for plays when you need to transition to another scene entirely it’s very helpful to have music there. For one it helps tell your audience you are moving to another place or scene, and two it helps keep your audience enticed while your techies need to get props in and out. So I hope that this blog post helps future play writes and movie directors, and T.V. show producers make sure that you keep the idea of music to make sure that us your audience doesn’t get bored.            

Superpowers

I hope that everyone remembers the game that almost every one played as kids. The game always was asking each other “if you could have any super power what would it be?” The idea of super powers and super heroes has been around for such a long time almost every knows about them. The reason for this blog is because I am doing a piece all about super powers and I wanted to talk about why I feel that more stories should include the idea of people having superpowers.

I know that the idea of superpowers got there major debut in comic books but I have a feeling that the idea of superpowers has been around for so much longer. So I don’t get why the idea of superpowers have been stuck in mainly comic books. Now don’t get me wrong there are probably some books that use the idea of superpowers but not a lot. I mean a lot of books use the idea of “special abilities or powers” but they never really say anyone has actually superpowers.

Now you see I feel that the idea of super powers shouldn’t be only stuck in the idea of comic books. The reason I feel this is because everyone knows the idea of superpowers and I feel an actual book that talks about people with superpowers would do really well. If comic books about people with super powers or T.V shows about people with super powers or even movies that show people with super powers why couldn’t a book about people with actual super powers sell well?

Now the only problem with this entire idea is that getting the people picture of what the powers you create look like, or what the scenery looks like, or even what your characters look like. See the reason why comic books, T.V. shows, and movies do really well selling is because that they don’t have to worry about using a huge amount of imagery because they can use pictures and video. But the problem with books is that you don’t have all of that so you have to use a lot of imagery.

So I hope that this gives some new authors some idea on what to write a book about. I personally feel that if someone were to write a book about people with actual super powers it would sell extremely, extremely well.     

Star Wars: Bash

So just so you know I am a true die hard Star Wars fan so I have been holding this blog off for the longest time, but now is the time. It is time to finally bash on the new Star Wars movie. Before this starts one this is all of my own opinion and isn’t fact so if you don’t have the same opinion as me don’t get mad, and two SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. And three if any of my personal friends that are Star Wars fans please don’t kill me. And now that is all out of the way let us move on to the bash.

So Star Wars the force awakens is a great movie, don’t get me wrong most movies/ books that I bash usually have horrible special effects or an extremely bad story, but that isn’t the problem with Star Wars VII. The main problem with it is that it is basically a carbon copy of the original story from Star Wars 1-6. Now don’t get me wrong there was nothing wrong with the original story of Star Wars. I actually love the original story from Star Wars but I didn’t want to see an almost exact copy of the original six movies.

Now the movie does change some things up like adding new characters to the mix, and making a new villain for the series but that’s really it. The movie even has the same thing that the main protagonists have to destroy. The only thing they changed was the size and the name. Now while this movie was a basically a carbon copy of the originals I still have A New Hope for the next few Star Wars films. (I am so sorry for that horrible Star Wars pun). I feel that they will hopefully change up the story or we may have an Attack of the Clones. (Again I am so sorry for that horrible Star Wars pun).

So that is basically my very small rant for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And remember this rant was mainly for me to get out the only thing that I found wrong with the movie. The only other thing I found wrong was that they killed off Han Solo. But that deserves its own blog.          

Choose Your Own Adventure

I am shocked that I haven’t thought about doing a blog on this sooner, but it wasn’t until a few days ago I started thinking about multiple ending narratives. I personally love the idea of one major story / plot that can have many different and unique endings. And you see this kind of story in many forms of media. From video games that have many different endings based on you performance and your actions in the game. To choose your own adventure books, that base your ending by what steps you take to get to that ending.  So why do I love choose your own adventure books so much? I love them for one major reason, the immersion.

When you get the choice to pick how the story ends is great. It makes the viewer really feel like their actions matter to the world you have put them in which is a great way to immerse your audience in the world that you have created. The idea of multiple choice endings also can make your viewer think about their own morals and can also create and attachment for the character in this world that you have created.

But there is a problem with multiple choice endings. The problem comes with having too many or too little. Having to little isn’t that big of a deal. Now in some stories you can get away with two or three endings and be fine, but it nice to have a few more options. Now the real problem is having too many. 

You see if you have too many ending it can be hurtful to both you and your viewer. For you it can suck to write and create all of that but for your viewer it may overload the viewer on how to get the ending they want.

So I personally love the idea of multiple choice endings because of how it can immerse your viewer. But do be careful about how many endings you put in.

Harry Potter Just Why?

Hey you probably didn’t think you would ever see a tittle like this again. Well neither did I until I heard that a new Harry Potter book was being released, and how could I not. Almost every book friend won’t shut up about it. And it pisses me off. WARING I HAVE NEVER READ ANY HARRY POTTER BOOKS, THIS IS JUST MY RANT ABOUT WHY I DON’T THINK THERE NEEDS TO BE ANOTHER BOOK. Now that that warning has passed I am hoping that most of the basic Harry Potter fans are gone and now all I have to deal with is the Mega Harry Potter fans. Oh and if you think that there needs to be another book leave a comment, I would to read people’s reactions.

Oh Harry Potter why do you need an eighth book. J.K. Rowling you are already a millionaire why do you think you need even more money. Look I am not a Harry Potter fan by any standard but I can at least deal with the books and the fans. But when I heard an eighth book was coming out I nearly lost it.

First off the book isn’t even written by J.K. Rowling, it’s by the guys who created a play based off of the Harry Potter franchise. Which isn’t that big of deal, I actually kind of like the idea of making a play based off of a book universe and story. But the problem comes in when you are just basically taking the script of that play, turning it into a book, and then trying to sell it as a new book. It’s just horrible.

That and the other thing is I don’t think the Harry Potter world needs another book. You already have an extremely popular 7 book series, and even more successful 8 movie franchise, an entire flipping theme park based on the world, and another set of movies that are supposed to be coming out some time soon. So I don’t feel that Harry Potter needs another adventure.

Look I may not be the biggest Harry Potter fan out there, but I mean I still enjoy the idea of the series. It was a part of a lot of people my age’s childhoods. So this rant to day was just leading to one point that I want to give to all of my Harry Potter fans. Just don’t get your hopes up. (That and there are a lot of books better than Harry Potter).      

The Wonderful World Of Comic Books

Oh now that I am of that huge series about play writing I can finally move on to something else, maybe comic books? See, with all of these new comic book movies and T.V shows coming out I feel so out of the loop, so I have finally started getting into comic books, and now I am hooked. The amazing colors and designs, the great story, I am just upset I never got into comic books sooner. So this blog is mainly just going to be talking about the wonderful world of comic books.

See the first reason I love comics is because they call tell the same story and old book can but they can do it in such a different way. Now this isn’t me saying that books can’t tell good stories, it’s me saying that comics can just tell the same story in a way that I enjoy more. While books are mainly stuck to just words and maybe a few diagrams here and there, comic books have so much more to work with. They can have a story that doesn’t just rely on words. Comics can use pictures, and colors and all of that jazz to make their stories feel more lifelike.

Now books and comics still have many similarities. They both tell elegantly crafted stories, with beautiful dialogue but again comic books do something that I find more appealing. With books that have to tell you in long boring sentences who is talking and saying what, and also has to create this world that it is trying to tell you with only words. Now comics don’t have to tell you who is speaking because of their creation of speech bubbles. See I think the idea of speech bubbles is brilliant because then you don’t have to worry so much about telling your reader who is talking, and at what time.

Now please do not take this the wrong way there is still something that I don’t fully like about comic books and that is their length. See with most books you pay 20$ and you get 300 to upwards of 1000 pages to read. But with comic books you pay about 5-10$ and only get about 20-30 pages maybe.

So comic books aren’t the best type of literature in the world. But I love them because there different. They take the idea of the normal every day book, and change the way that we read them. 

How to Pick a Piece for Speech Contest

WARNING, IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IHSSA OR SPEECH YOU CAN SKIP THE FIRST PARAGRAPH.

So in my state we have a thing called IHSSA (Iowa High School Speech Association) which is basically a giant competition which includes everyone in the state of Iowa. So the way that speech works is that depending on if you are doing an individual category of if you are in a group event you will pick a piece to work on practice and then preform for competition (this also can change depending on what category you are in). When you start competing you start at districts which is where about 70 schools come and compete. At competition you preform you have one judge and are rated on how well your performance was (1=Excellent t 2=Good 3=Fair 4=Disqualification) the way you move on from districts is that you have to get a 1 in your performance. After districts you get about two weeks to relax and prepare for state which is the next level, (the reason why I bring this up now is because my high school is hosting state). State is obviously a lot harder than districts. Instead of competing against 70 schools your competing against about 130, instead of 1 judge you have three, and the only way you have a chance of moving on is getting a minimum of at least two 1’s. The reason I say chance is because you then have to get nominated by your judges to move on to the top of the top all-state. I am not going too to go into the process of how they decide who goes to all-state is so complicated to explain even I don’t really understand it. So if you do get picked for all-state there are two possible categories of all-state preforming and non-preforming. Non-preforming all-state is that you were good enough to go to all-state but there wasn’t enough room for you to compete. And finally all-state preforming, this is the best of the best come to compete, and it is also the hardest to win, because instead of you getting judged base off of scores, you get judged based on the judges preference. And if you get all the way to all-state and win, what do you get? A banner, that’s it (you also get bragging for the rest of the year but that’s about it).

So you’re probably wondering why I went through so much trouble to give you that huge explanation of what IHSSA is and what it is all about, well I am going to help you. I personally know that a lot of states around the country have something very similar to IHSSA, and I feel like helping out my fellow competitors. But how am I going to help? Well I am going to give you some advice on how to pick your piece to perform for speech. And we are going to go step by step both for large group and individual categories.

Individual categories

Step 1: Pick something you can relate to.

In almost every individual category you can pick what piece you want to preform so if you are pick something that is close to you. This can comedy, drama, anything really.

Step 2: Make sure it matches the category that you are in.

This is a very simple point make sure that it fits the category.

Step 3: Make sure it’s short or can be edited down.

There are time limits to every speech category so do make sure that the piece you do pick is within the time requirements of the piece.

Step 4: Make personal edits to the piece.

Now this isn’t saying that completely re-write the piece (which is something you can technically do), but to help make the piece more personal add something to it to make it your own.

And that’s it for individual categories now on to large group categories.

Large Group

Step 1: Find a piece that works to every one’s strengths.

When it comes to large group a lot of the times your director will pick the piece for your group but if for some reason they don’t find a piece that really works to a least one strength of every person in the group.

Step 2: Make sure it matches the category that you are in.

This again is a very simple point, make sure that it fits the category.

Step 3: Make sure it’s short or can be edited down.

Again there are time limits to every speech category so do make sure that the piece you do pick is within the time requirements of the piece.

And that is really all the advice I have for picking pieces in large group and individual Speech contest. I do know that this was a very long blog post but I felt that if I didn’t give an explanation of what exactly speech was, a lot of people would have been extremely confused. 

Play Writing in Depth (Part 7: Final)

Welcome back to Play Writing in Depth part 7. Yes this is finally the last part of this 7 part series, so your probably wondering, what is this last part about? So this part is going to be mainly talking about everything that has to deal with getting your script out there into the world. So you have finally created this masterpiece of a script so what do you do now. Well there are a few options for you.

1. (this is mainly for high school students only) ask your school to help you put it on.

If you personally have been with the blog for a long time you will remember me talking about my school’s student directed one acts way back in the blog writing and rejection. Even though my script wasn’t selected it is still a great way for you to get your play out there. It also serves a second purpose which is allowing students to try their hand at directing instead of acting.

2. Find a local acting troupe to put on your show.

Many, many small acting troupes are always looking for new shows to put on. So if you go to them and give them your script they would most likely be willing to think about it at least. Now with this tactic you do have to be willing to get rejected from time to time but if it does work out for you, it could end up being a very good thing.

3. Try entering a competition.

See this is a little difficult because finding the competitions. See I know of a few play writing competitions around the country so if you can find one throw yourself in there and see what happens, but do be careful about being denied again.

4. Put it on yourself.

See this is the hardest of the four methods but it still possible. Now the problem comes with finding everything, a stage, actors, tech, and etc. But if you can pull it off it is the most satisfying of the four ways.

So that is it. This is the conclusion of the series Play Writing in Depth. I do thank you guys for sticking through this 7 part series but I felt that was how many parts it needed and I truly could have done even more parts but I knew by then it would have gotten really old and really boring.