College of Comedy
Just a quickie to say that the BBC College of Comedy 2009 is now accepting applications.
The college is the Comedy equivalent of the BBC Drama Writers Academy and is run by Micheál Jacob, who has been known to post a blog or two about it here.
I'm sure he'll be around shortly to say more about it, but I thought it was worth pointing out so everyone had a chance to start polishing their scripts or sketches before the deadline, which is noon on 24 April 2009.
As with the Academy, you'll need to have had a professional comedy commission to be eligible. More details are on the College of Comedy page.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~17~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Comedy College? Will the writers be getting funnier by degrees?
Complain about this comment
Marc, you've had a year to come up with some new College of Comedy jokes and that's the best you can do? :)
Complain about this comment
I will do a bit about the second year shortly, but thanks to Piers for this. I can't remember if Marc did that gag last year, or whether it's freshly minted.
Complain about this comment
No it's hot off the press. I've been learning vicariously from your blog you see!
:)
Complain about this comment
In that case, Marc, I can retire in the knowledge of a job well done.
Complain about this comment
Get a room, you two! ;)
On the subject of the comedy college, I remember in a previous blog you (Michael) talking about the desire for cheap and cheerful comedy, with fewer sets and main characters, etc. Would we better submitting something along these lines, rather than more high-falutin high-concept stuff?
Complain about this comment
can it have been a theatre commission?
Complain about this comment
#6
Oh not another cardboard set bound sitcom with limited scene changes and formula stories...oh no! Surely the BBC have saved enough money in the sitcom budget now from three series of Not Going Out to afford to splash out a bit more on a less claustraphobic and artificial looking sitcom. I don't think I could sit through another one as cheap looking as NGO.
Complain about this comment
Yeah, multiple scene changes that's the way forward alrighty. Why don't those numpties at the TVC ever see that. And cardboard. Doh! How like a sixties fabric is that. I can't sit through cheap looking shows either, I have to stand up take my purple hat off my head and shake my fist at the TV.
Complain about this comment
I do like it when you get a bit arsey, Marc, although I didn't understand the purple hat line? :)
Complain about this comment
Hi Micheal,
I was also wondering about the rules for entry to the Comedy College actually are. Years ago I did a one man comedy show whilst at Uni but also played to a paying audience in an Arts Centre. Also did loads of unpaid comedy gigs at London Comedy clubs back in 1996, but now work in a school. Do I qualify? I can only hope
Complain about this comment
@) Aspie
You clearly didn't read the digest of Micheal's symposium on the importance of clothing to delineate comedic character and flaw.
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh53/ravens-soul/oscar-wilde.jpg
Complain about this comment
Hello all. Your questions:
@Aspie/Shadow/MisterP
Programme budgets across the industry are being reduced - either through commercial imperatives or, in the BBC, on a planned basis. The money we are given to make shows is being reduced annually, and while there will always be high-end sitcoms, the budget has to be balanced by cheaper shows. That is why I encourage writers to think economically in terms of character numbers and serttings/locations. But cheaper doesn't mean have to mean low concept, Aspie (though I'm not really a fan of high falutin). High concept always feels a bit risky to me, in the sense that it can be the concept which drives the show rather than the characters. But the point of submissions to the college is to demonstrate writing rather than pitch an idea, so although cost will inevitably be in the back of my mind, if it's hilarious and brilliant writing, that will drive thoughts of budget away.
@epixie - the scheme is for writers who have embarked on a professional career, and are thus likely to benefit from the scheme. This year's 'students' are largely equal in terms of experience, and that felt like a good basis for helping them to develop, rather than starting from basics.
Complain about this comment
@epixie - I meant, of course, 'last year's students' rather than this year's.
Complain about this comment
Micheal
I'm an Equity member, does that count? and that I've had two comedy plays produced on London fringe?
Complain about this comment
@Damejuggles I'm afraid Equity membership isn't relevant, but two produced plays would count if people paid to get in.
Complain about this comment
And further to Damejuggles... I've been getting a number of questions to the college about eligibility, and a bit of abuse from people without writing CVs.
Some people seem to be taking it as a talent competition, which it isn't, and some are chancing their arms and submitting anyway, defining their writing achievements rather generously (had a sketch broadcast on hospital radio).
The scheme is about professional development.
Complain about this comment
Oh thanks Micheal, yes people paid to get in and the actors were on equity contracts
Complain about this comment
Hello! I've had a sketch on Recorded for Training Purposes on Radio 4 and I've written and performed to a paying audience at the Edinburgh Fringe... does this count? I'm all for some professional development!
Complain about this comment
@Thomas_George
The entry requirements state: Applicants will have had their work broadcast; had work commissioned for development by a broadcaster or production company; or had their work performed professionally, either as a writer or a writer/performer. Applications which do not meet these criteria will not be considered.
Complain about this comment
I have read the criteria but I guess what I'm confused about is whether or not the radio sketch counts as this came about through my entering into an opportunity posted through the writersroom and it was only a three minute sketch. Also I wasn't sure if writing and performing at the fringe counted as a professional credit since anyone can do this...
Sorry if I'm coming across a bit dumb but I'm relatively new to all this and some further clarification would be helpful, hopefully I'm not alone in that...
Complain about this comment
@Thomas
Well, you've had something broadcast and people have paid to see you, so that would count.
Complain about this comment
Thanks Michael, appreciate the help!
Complain about this comment
Is there a feeling one way or the other regarding a suitable / preferred age for students?
For example, what was the age spread, in broad terms, of last year's intake?
I ask because although I'm not about to get a free bus pass, it's also true to also say that my Club 18-30 holiday entitlement is something of a faded memory.
Complain about this comment
Unless you include your birth certificate, there's no way of them telling how old you are.
Complain about this comment
Unless you include your birth certificate, there's no way of them telling how old you are.
###
Unless you write something like Dad's Army
Complain about this comment
Not necessarily, Damejuggles, one of the things about a show like Two Pints of Lager is how many frankly creepy old people are involved with it behind the scenes. :)
Complain about this comment
@loadsofwords
There is no age restriction.
@Aspie
The current series of 2 Pints has a producer in her twenties and, apart from the very young Susan Nickson, a writing team also in their twenties. And I'm not sure that the executive producer would warm to being described as old or creepy, since she is neither.
Complain about this comment
Michael
I thought Paul Mayhew Archer was involved in it? He's no spring chicken! (Although, bizarrely, his name did crop up in a biography of Bill Hicks I was reading recently).
Complain about this comment
@Aspie
Paul isn't involved with this series, which is being script edited by one of the writers, Jon Brown, though he script edited the previous seven.
Complain about this comment
@Michael
You take the fun out of everything with your touchy over-defensiveness. :(
Complain about this comment
@Aspie
Comedy is a serious business you know. But you're right, of course. Paul and I are more winter chickens than the spring variety, best used for stock.
Complain about this comment
Ah then there's hope Micheal.
One last hurrah before I go out to that pasture only inhabited by similar creepy old 'uns like me :)
Off now to take my medication and have a fitting for my new dentures.
*waves a shaky goodbye with walking stick*
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS