TONIGHT
at UCB Chelsea, is the NaNaSkeWriMoSkeShow!
$5, at midnight, come see sketches written as part of NaSkeWriMo!
Featuring the talents of: Matt Grote, Poupak Sepehri, Jon Bershad, Aubrie Williams, John Zachary Townsend, Abbi Crutchfield, Adam Wagner, Sal Gentile, Danielle Cook and Kate Emswiler, Will Storie and Camp Woods…and others!
Come out and laugh! Details. Or, reservations!
Guys, I would very, very much like for you all to attend the NaSkeWriMo Celebration Show. I am acting in three very funny sketches written by Sal Gentile, Poupak Sepehri, and Abbi Crutchfield.
In addition to that, Sal and I will be performing an amazing juggling act together. Either that or we will just be performing in a really weird sketch I wrote that begins with the premise that Sal and I are performing an amazing juggling act together. Which will it be? Only time will tell.
It’s the latter.
Kevin Hines: Sketch Month - 30 Sketches! By Me!
For the third year in a row I wrote 30 sketches in September. And I’m proud because I kept pace pretty well all month. Last year I had to keep writing 3 or 4 in a day to make up for days when I fell behind. And last year I had to finish one day into October. But not this year. Other then the first…
Get involved: UCB’s NaNaSkeWriMoSkeShow
Hey y’all, here are the details for getting involved with the NaSkeWriMo show at UCB on Oct 21st:
Ahoy NaSkeWriMo participants!
On Friday, October 21st at midnight at UCB Chelsea, we will be putting up a show featuring sketches written as part of NaSkeWriMo (http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/performances/view/20984). Participation in the show is open to anyone who wrote as part of NaSkeWriMo. Just sign up with this form and perform your favorite piece from this month!
What we’re looking for are people who want to put together an actual staged show. If you don’t know any actors, we’ll do our best to help you find some people. And if you want to help out, why not volunteer to act in someone else’s sketch?
Sketches should be no longer than five minutes and should have minimal tech cues, since the tech guy will be doing this cold.
Deadline to sign up is Thursday, October 6th at midnight. If accepted, we’ll inform you by Sunday the 9th. We are accepting sketches on a first-come, first-served basis.
If you have any questions, you can let me know at andybeckerman [at] gmail.com.
Sign up here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEFHTnVGYnNUcWtPWDBKVEh5TlN4c3c6MQ
—Andy Beckerman
That’s all, folks!
Congrats, everyone! That’s it for NaSkeWriMo 2011, where we wrote a whopping 1405 sketches! Just a quick shout out to everyone who managed to make it to 30:
(if you should be on the list but aren’t, or if you’d like to be taken down, message me)
And now a perspective from a NaSkeWriMo Slacker
Hi guys! Guess who’s only written 2 sketches for NaSkeWriMo. IT’S ME!
I wrote my first sketch mid-month, and quickly followed it up the next day with my second. And then I stopped!
In August, I had big plans to get my shit together and follow the mission of NaSkeWriMo - a sketch a day! Then I went on vacation during the first week of September. And then I came back. And then NOTHING HAPPENED. Except for new TV. Can we discuss the fact that Eddie Cibrian in “The Playboy Club” sounds exactly the same, cadence-wise, as Don Draper? Oh, am I the only one watching “The Playboy Club” while the rest of you are busy writing your daily sketches? Oh, okay. No big deal.
Now it’s the end of September, and I am making my own small goal to write one more today. I already have 2 sketches with which I’m very happy. If I complete my own tiny goal, I’ll have 3 new sketches that I wouldn’t have written this month. And because I am hardly a perfectionist, I feel like, hey, that’s pretty good.
One thing I have done this month is keep a list of sketch ideas. I’ve numbered a list 1 through 30, and I’ve filled in 16 ideas. I spend a lot of time during the year waiting to have interesting, original ideas. I spend even more time trying to remember the interesting, original ideas I’ve had and then immediately forgotten. In addition to my goal of writing one more complete sketch, I’m also going to work on filling out my list of 30 ideas.
So that’s my assignment to all you other NaSkeWriMo Slackers! So you haven’t written 30 sketches? Make a list of titles/ideas for the remaining number. Then take your time and get them written. You’ll have already done the hard part!
My other assignment to you is to watch the season finale of Doctor Who on BBC America this Saturday, because I’m going to need to discuss it with you and I mean, Jesus, what on earth is going to happen to River Song?
naskewriday
today, Naskewrimo becomes Naskewriday. I’m gonna try to go from zero sketches to 30 by 7 pm.
I’ll either post all of them (or maybe just highlights) directly to this site. Here we go!
Go Will Storie, go!
Homestretch!
Hey writers,
As we come into the homestretch of NaSkeWriMo, just thought we’d check in with some cool opportunities.
You can do sketches at UCBNY (Chelsea) THIS FRIDAY. Or any Friday, at Liquid Courage. Come with sketches prepared and you can perform at this open mic. Show starts at midnight, is free, details: http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/518
There’s also going to be a NaSkeWriMo show at UCB on Friday, October 21st. Details on getting involved are TBA, but get excited. Link to the show page: http://newyork.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/2846
If you know of any cool opportunities outside of UCB or NYC, drop us a line and we’ll put them up!
A Quick Rule
Write a meta sketch because you have a really good meta idea. Not because you’ve run out of good non-meta ideas.
If it’s 2am and you’ve decided that the conversation you just had in the writers’ room is funny in and of itself, now’s a good time to take a break.
post by jonbershad
Exposition is ammunition
…is a phrase that applies to all narrative forms. The idea is that we never want to waste our audience’s time with flat exposition. In plays, we don’t want a narrator telling us about events we don’t see; in stories, we don’t want lengthy paragraphs without action; in sketches, we don’t want you to lay out your premise without playing it.
It is, in other words, another way of looking at ‘show, don’t tell.’
If you think your sketches are boring, check and see if you’re using your exposition as ammunition. Are you starting by explaining the premise, or are you starting in the middle of things? Do you feed the audience information as it becomes necessary, or are you starting off with a lot of details?
For example, this is a bad first line for a sketch:
- VO: Welcome to the first International Summit Wherein All Nations Submit to China. As we all know, World War 3 ended a week ago as China beat all other nations to become the world’s last remaining superpower. As a show of mercy, the glorious nation of China will now allow each country a month to learn Chinese before they begin the grueling process of enslaving mankind. Oh, and as we see now, President Obama is kissing the feet of Earth Emperor Hu Jintao.
It’s just too much information. You can (and should!) have all these specifics throughout the scene, but give it to us bit by bit. It allows us to digest it easier.
A really good opening starts with a line, action, or some combination thereof that clearly establishes the situation of the sketch. We, as an audience, want to know what’s going as soon as possible. Once we have a grasp on that, then we want to know what about this scene is funny—the premise. Then we want to enjoy the premise—play the game.
We don’t want to drown in exposition. It should keeps us afloat, not drag us down.
