COMEDY WRITING WORKSHOP AT THE INDIA HABITAT CENTRE

COMEDY WRITING WORKSHOP AT THE INDIA HABITAT CENTRE

Day 1 of the Comedy writing workshop and the mixed audience were regaled by our Faculty who also happens to be a well-known Stand-up comic.

The idea was to understand the basic essence of comic writing and character building. Some of the points that were covered were

-Satire eg. Jaane Bhi do Yaaron

-Believable Characters eg. Khosla Ka Ghosla and When Harry Met Sally

-Situations eg. Most of the sitcoms

The task for the 15 people assembled there was to create a situation in 4 lines with the following framework

a)      SETTING b) CHARACTER c) WANT d) CONFLICT

Out of the 15 some of the entries which generated a lot of laughter are as follows

1.      a) Setting- A plane has crashed in middle of Africa

b) Character-A middle age potbellied African man

c) Want/Statement-Do you think we ate them all

d) Conflict/Statement-I think Nigeria will need another football team

 

2.      a) Setting- Wharton ,University of Pennsylvania

b) Character-An 18 year old Indian Student Rahul has landed there after finishing his school

c) Want/Statement-I want to get laid

d) Conflict/Statement-But today is Tuesday

 

3.      a) Setting- A coffee outlet in Delhi

b) Character-A middle aged Sikh Gentleman

c) Want/Statement-Sir your order will take time, I will call you, can I have your name?

d )Conflict/Statement-Anthony Gonzalves

 

The person who had created the scenario had to keep quiet and the other participants had to interpret these and there were so many different versions for a single scenario.

Day 2 awaits the enactment of these scenarios with resolutions to the conflicts.