How To Make Any Idea Funny - John Vorhaus
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- BUY THE BOOK - THE COMIC TOOLBOX: How to be Funny Even if You're Not
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In this Film Courage video interview, author/speaker/artist/screenwriter John Vorhaus explains the concept of a comic filter as a character's unique perspective on reality. A strong comic character possesses a consistent and exaggerated comic filter, which forms the basis of their comedic premise. By contrasting characters with opposing comic filters, such as a cop who follows the rules and a crook who breaks them, conflict and comedic situations arise.
John Vorhaus is best known for his comedy-writing classic, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. He has taught and trained writers in 37 countries on five continents at last count, and created TV shows of his own in Nicaragua, Romania and elsewhere. His writing credits include dozens of teleplays and screenplays, plus seven novels and some two dozen works of non-fiction. His latest book is the little book of STANDUP. Vorhaus is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He lives in Southern California and secretly controls the world from www.johnvorhaus.com.
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#artist #ideas #entertainment
![Structuring A Comedy Screenplay: The Comic Hero's Journey - Steve Kaplan [FULL INTERVIEW]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BE0IfkPGQjM/mqdefault.jpg)
This guy has a terrific understanding of how comedy works.
Nice work solving that story on the spot. This was very instructive.
Very cool. Glad you found this helpful.
One still has to do the rest of the work of building out a life, but adding these layers to your character can provide a useful means of generating humor.
“Good Omens”. An Angel and Demon who have known each other for 6,000 years (old married couple vibes) team up to stop Armageddon. The Angel wants to follow every rule, even if the rule leads to, well, what is broadly thought of as “evil” by most of us (drowning kids in The Great Flood, for instance). The demon is hardwired to break rules. He does “good” when he was put on earth to do evil as part of “The Great Plan”. Rebellion is in his blood and much as obedience is in that of the Angel, and he’s found that he can simply take credit for humanity’s barbarity towards one another, and that satisfies his bosses. This frees him up to find various legal loopholes in the mandates he’s been given.
So there’s contraction and opposition in both characters, x2. Which is certainly humorous, and sometimes even thought provoking.
I read his book. It's really good.
I love his breakdown of Kramer: He's a total doofus but he sees himself as sharp and cool.
I like this guy, you can just tell he's excited about it. My biggest takeaway from this video was how much you can learn about a character - or person - just from looking at their view on the world (as opposed to thinking about their past or character traits immediately)
Your comment just helped me figure out how I'm going to try a comedy spoof I've been thinking about doing. Thank you!!!
@@Warrior1Spartan oh hey, how awesome!! You're welcome, haha
Smart 🤓 TY
I don’t write movies. I write plays. And my biggest problem with writing is I sometimes try to force the joke to happen. My husband has read some of of my plays and he has told me numerous times “ the situation itself makes it a comedy. You’re trying to force a joke.”
10:35 the word he is looking for is "suave."
Graceful?
Thanks John! Excellent to see you on the utubes. Let’s do margaritas next time I’m in town
The cop watches the pirated DVD's but then he wants to make sure everyone who was part of it gets their residuals. As it turns out, the main star of the movie just so happens to be in town so the cop tries to meet them to give them the money. For which he will need the law breaker's help, to get into a venue, break into a house etc. (where he is blind to just HOW MANY laws he ends up breaking in the process, which of course is all 'justified'). In the end he gets arrested for stalking, trespassing, attempted robbery...
Maybe also a scene in which he tries to figure out how to give someone 0.05 pennies (their residuals) 😂
Honestly love Vorhaus, I've read every single one of his books, so worth it. Thank you both for taking the time to conduct these interviews!
I felt like the info in this video really opened up my perspective about how to flesh out characters. Thank you for the wisdom!
Thanks a lot!
I think the word he was looking for was 'graceful'.
He just like me for real for real
Hope I didn’t sound mean last time.
He’s not a bad guy.
❤💯 I love comedy too Brotha!
Since a Teen at secondary school,writing daily activity in my 5 year Diary which had a key...The Diary became a childhood much loved stocking filler which at age 12 excited enthusiam to write my first Paragraph.
Majority of kids back then reached that pivotal high receiving the real chocolate fishnet white stocking ( more of a Popsock size wise.
Woolworths finest ❤.....Decade later Selection boxes were like a forgotten birthday balloon lodged in the multi functional plug wires Galore back of the TV cabinet...
Soft,dusty,dishevelled orange balloon.Resembled a young lads tackle.Acorn.
Anyway back to the 5 year annual Diary,Always in a lovely fabric floral or faux. Velvet.
" Ye I wondering why a 5 year Diary stocking filler Annually?
F..k knows tooo!
But that's when I started comedy sketch writing.
I knew my mam had a great old read of my Diary..
Cos that straighted out paperclip mum kept in her bedside draw, Replicated my suitcase key!
Yes I was using that key from Year 1 Christmas Diary.First £££ pound shop sold locked 5 year Diaries No Key Hence very cheap price.
Man reck price $15 Walmart sticker on the Rear page of Diary.
" Every day life no matter how Harrowing a child's Experience day turns out is Ones own Coping mechanism writing comedy.
Surreal as it may sound like.
Plus the parent snooping in one's private logs,....Doesn't recolect as I did❤
C.c
I'm funny in my physical reactions and face expressions. I'm less funny with my words. However, I'm writing books with characters who are funny with their words...I'm struggling so much because I'm not funny with words. I could have a vague idea of those character's humor, but I can't come up with the lines or comebacks. How do I figure this out?
Hi
This dilemma is a good theme base.
He should ask her to go to her mothers house. Then close the door and go to bed
No-one will know he saw the pirated cd.
To cross redline when no sign of vehicles coming from either side for long time
I don't know. This sounds like a great way to create stereotype-driven characters, i.e. typical sitcom characters that can be summed up in one adjective. The genius of the early seasons of Seinfeld was that the characters weren't so easy to pin down.
Start with the comic filters as baseline conflict-creation tools. From there, you can build personality layers, other quirks, backstory, personalities, etc. This should free writers up, not box them in. The extreme stereotype version you mention, as stated in the video, is perfect for sitcoms. May not work well for other story types - but may be adapted. And of course, these motivational beliefs for writing are really just based on how we actually psychologically work - just exaggerated.
@@bethezebra Yeah, I meant to say it's a good starting point. So many sitcoms have been built on one note characters, though. This seems like an easy trap to fall into.
"It's a building block. It's not the end of the story, but it's a piece of the puzzle." sums it up I think
@@JoelAdamson Maybe writing is like any other branch of creativity... AND the concept of a stereotype, ANY stereotype is about setting a foundation, upon which the rest of the Character should be composed...
You'll get out and about soon enough, so no need for a special trip, but I've got just a little light homework for you. Look around your neighborhood, your town, and any city... Notice the buildings and houses and various other structures as they are...
Now, consider that Civil Engineering and Construction are the high and low level parts of the industry, a SINGLE industry that put EVERY SINGLE ONE of those buildings up. Every one of their foundations was laid on the principles of being Straight, Level, and Square to the best of the working crews' abilities... They're ALL Straight, Level, and Square... absolutely as close to "dead-on-balls" as possible...
99.9999% of those buildings and houses and other structures have skeletal frames, and walls and ceilings and floors that are ALSO intentionally Straight, Level, and Square. Walls are even upright, so vertical, but built on the geometry of 90-degrees and still measured "plumb" to be as Straight, Level, and Square as the floors and ceilings...
AND YET... Look at the utterly endless variety of buildings that you can find. Look at all the differences. Take time, even if you're not aspiring or inspired particularly about architecture... Really soak in all the variations that can come from Straight, Level, and Square as THE 3 Cardinal Rules of Construction... 3 Cardinal Rules of Design (from Civil Engineering)... They're practically etched in blood-soaked stone, and as timeless as the Pyramids of Giza... the Great Wall of China... It's HELL to play trying to "sell" a building inspector or permitting office on anything circular, curvy, or meandering, because they're going to PUSH YOU into an Engineer's office, FORCE you to pay a firm to examine your work, and make sure your design is still based on Straight, Level, and Square... so you don't end up with a building crashing down and killing a bunch of innocent people...
It's been done, of course. Disney famously has the Epcot Center in the shape of a giant Golfball... BUT even that is founded on the same Straight, Level, and Square as everything else in the Principles of Construction...
SO... let US aspire to take a page out of the Architect's and Civil Engineer's playbook on this one. Start with our Foundation in some rules of stereotypical behavior, and then CONSTRUCT a Character through development. If we just SHOW the audience how that Character really is a little different from the last Stereotypical Mess... I bet we can still make it both compelling enough to put butts in seats and eyes on our work, and entertaining enough to keep them there. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464"...straight, level, and square..."
unclumsy = graceful
Selection, exaggeration, and stylization: the three components of artistic imitation. Choose a mockable original for your imitation, and that's comedy.
So essentially, a comic filter is how a character perceives the world while the controlling idea is the reality of the world or an aspect of it? Like a an introverted otaku who prefers to stay inside because whenever they go outside (as the plot would invariably require) he winds up miscommunicating resulting in awkward, embarrassing and humiliating scenarios.
Just trying to compress the ideas so I can more readily apply them to my work.
Yep. Contrast, dilemma, ect. 👍🏽💯
So. Does it helped you to write a good jokes? Bet not
@@AlexeyShort I wouldn't know, since I don't have anyone to show them to 😔
3:50 the video ISN'T complete. Now he desperately wants to know how it ends
hey will we get any conversations on AI and filmaking? on writing stories etc. Since it's such a hot topic. I wonder what all these people from the industry think about it. thx
Here's our previous clip with John Vorhaus talking about AI - ua-cam.com/video/2q_KZNzNnC0/v-deo.html And yes, more to come!
Have you all published this full interview??? He is so great
One of our best interviews this year! We haven't published the full interview yet but are getting closer. Here is everything we have published thus far - bit.ly/3WSZnJ5
Came here to learn to produce comedy.. left as a nasa scientist specializing in alien pshychology
This video has helped my brainstorming improv a bunch thx
Love to hear that!
great sir me from nepal