More to Stand Up Than Jokes and Laughter

There’s so more that goes into doing stand up than just writing some jokes that trigger laughter in dark clubs that require a two drink minimum.  I’m sure it won’t come as any surprise to say that it also takes a measure of courage to stand in front of a group of people and talk.  But it takes real guts to expose your fears, vulnerabilities and all the goofy things that make you, you. 

Going to class every week, I had the rare privilege of watching other people in the class evolve.  I found myself wondering what it would be like to run a school like this.  I saw that my teacher juggle multiple roles: part Sherpa, part parent, part therapist, full-time comic and sometimes drinking buddy.  Class was like the Our Gang clubhouse where “girlz” were allowed.  The studio was a place where people aired out their lives in complete safety.  For some, what started out as a bucket list item became the flicker of a new career dream.  For others, it was the “me” time they needed away from family and work demands.  Most of us discovered new friendships that were instantly and deeply important.  What about the school teacher/grandmother who is raising her grandkids?  She found a place to be blue and we laughed until we cried.  It was safe and wild at the same time.  We dug around in our lives for something to joke about and confessed all the unfunny things that were happening to us in the days between class because we knew that’s where the comedy gold was.  Almost everyone struck a vein worth mining. 

Despite our differences, we found each other’s stories compelling and relatable.  There’s the girl who smokes a little too much pot and has a boyfriend no one particularly trusts or likes.  Hard to resist her reaction -- No one else has to fuck him, so why should you care?  She’s right… unless he breaks her heart and she winds up sofa surfing until she gets her feet back under her.  Perhaps the most profound event was also the most heartbreaking and brave.  One comedian lost his dad quite unexpectedly and he managed to share the story of pulling the plug as one of the most honest, real and funny things any of us ever heard.   Everyone who heard him felt what he was saying.  It was, indeed, a privilege.

People survive divorce.  People survive cancer.  People survive, but not without wounds that get broken wide open when they decide to stand up and joke about it.  Should you try your hand at comedy?  If you aren’t willing to be truthful about who you are and accept that you are an average fucking snowflake that’s unique just like all the other fucking snowflakes out there, then no.  You don’t have the guts. 

But I double dog dare you to give it a try.

Laura Does The Comedy Store

So, I did this last Wednesday -- first stand up ever and I did it at the Comedy Store.  It was fun.  You should try it.

Did You Know... it was National Margarita day today?

I found out it was National Margarita day today.  If I had been alerted, oh say... a couple days ago when I had time to think, I might have enjoyed a frosty cold one after work today.  Instead I dragged my ass home through Los Angeles traffic to discover the news.  Damn.  There should be an emergency alert in place for events like this.

If only Margaritas were delivered by trucks that play music and go slow so as not to kill children and drunks.

Amy Poehler is the best!

Sayin' I Love You

Why, good morning, darlin'!  I will always love you!


Mr. Happy Man from Matt Morris Films on Vimeo.

Boardroom = Bored Room

If you want to bore everyone in the room, you can find no better place to set a scene than a boardroom.  They're deadly.    There are a number of reasons why you've just created a soft-spot in your script.

No one likes meetings.  Dave Barry says,“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate.”  People (your audience members) are likely to have attended a meeting or two that week and if they want to sit around and not masturbate, they can do that at work.  People go to the movies for fantasy and escape.  Keep your boardroom scene if it can deliver both of those two missions.  You need to rethink the setting if you're not enabling some epic wish fulfillment.

Movies are about motion.  Things need to be kinetic.  A boardroom is a place where people go to sit and talk.  Imagine Yoda trying to explain the Force to Luke by calling a meeting and sitting down to discuss it before attempting to levitate fighters out of the swamp.  Throw in a Power Point presentation where slides illustrate the dynamics of the Force.  How it moves through us and around us.  How it's everywhere.  Really try to imagine how this would go down... Now think about how it was shown in the film.  They were doing stuff while they were debating stuff.  Luke is upside down lifting rocks in the air while arguing why he's got to save his friends.  Sit and talk = boring.  Do and debate = interesting.

There have been plenty of movies that have done the meeting room. Some better than others.  Office Space is one long wish fulfillment movie where the entire function of the working world is turned on its head and relies on the audience's intimate understanding of the work world.  It fulfills the promise of providing escape and fantasy.  Watch Working Girl.  They had to get creative.  The whole movie is about business, so they were stuck with this as a major motif.  But they had fun with it and kept things very interesting.  Each version of a meeting seems more outlandish than the last... all without having anyone freak out and run across the top of the table to leap at someone or jump out the window.  

If you've got a boardroom scene, it better be set there because that's the worst possible place for your characters to be at that moment.  Think about the words that are being spoken by your characters.  Can they be said while careening through traffic in a car with no brakes?  Or while levitating rocks while standing on their heads?  Still sure you have to set it in the boardroom?  Why?  It better be for more than a sight gag or a joke.  There better be earth shattering news delivered to your character that exposes their powerlessness.  

If you're sure you need to keep this setting, you have your work cut out for you.  It better be surprising, fresh, compelling, and real.  Anything less is just a yawn.

The ABCs of Character Names

It might seem like I'm talking about complex naming schemes that require simplification when I mention the ABCs of character names, but I'm actually being very literal here.

 If Mike loves Marni but Marni love Mark and Mark and Mike are best friends from their college days at Michigan...  Ugh, and there are another 98 pages to slog through?  It can quickly feel like this screenplay was brought to you by the letter M and we're trapped in an episode of Sesame Street.    God help you if you've got a character named Aunt Mary who shows up at the end of act one with molasses cookies and sage advice.  

I can hear it now... Aunt Mary's name starts with an A.  Really? You think Aunt Mary's friends, parents and co-workers all call her Aunt Mary?  I have actually had writers argue with me about this.  Imaging her lover, as he's about to climax, yells out with grunting passion, "Aunt Mary! I love you!"  If that picture didn't creep you out just a little, you've got bigger problems than the letter M.  

You also want to minimize confusion for the reader who might find it challenging to follow who is doing what to whom and why.  Remember, this reader has to write up a summary of your story for his or her boss.  If the synopsis looks like a primary school lesson, you're going to get ignored.  Part of your job is to make it easy for the reader to be a fan of your work.  Alliterative writing pulls the reader out of the story.  Is this supposed to be funny?  Is this for kids?  Is this a clue?  Then, when it fails to pay off, it reveals an inattention to detail.  That tiny assessment throws you and your script on the heap with the other amateurs.

Do yourself a favor.  When you start naming characters write out the alphabet twice on a piece of paper.  Above one set write: First name.  Above the other write, you guessed it: Last name.  As you use each letter, cross it off.  If you've got a story about a family, many of them will have the same last name, but the people who live next door or the principal should have different sounding names.

Make it easy for the reader to love you and your work!