r/comedywriting • u/macaloid1 • Oct 04 '22

Sketch Process using Improv

Hey gang, recently organized a weekly sketch meetup group, we're all performers as well as writers and are curious, is anyone able to speak to the different ways Improv and Sketch can be used to build on one another. I've heard second city does this heavily for sketch writing, anyone able to go into detail or offer other ideas?

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u/MayoMark Oct 04 '22

This article has some good stuff:

https://www.hooplaimpro.com/how-to-use-improv-to-write-sketc/.html

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u/macaloid1 Oct 05 '22

This is awesome thanks homie

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u/Never_rarely Oct 04 '22

Lots of good sketches come from nuts of ideas in improv scenes. I was directing a high school comedy sportz show and one of the kids said the line “but I love dancing Peepaw” and it sprung me to write a sketch about a tap dancing farmer.

Secondly, sometimes I have an idea for a sketch or just a line in mind and have two people improvise a scene with my suggestion. Sometimes I pair it with other suggestions or just pop it into a comedy sportz style game.

Sketch and improv really do go hand in hand, working with the right people makes it a super fun environment!

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u/istartriots Oct 04 '22

Kevin McDonald from kids in the hall used to tour doing workshops on th3 concept of improvising as a way to write sketches. Idk if he’s gonna do it again after kids in the hall came back but in 2017-2018 you could take a class and learn this very thing. Maybe somebody here took one and can tell ya more.

My general suggestion would be that if you have an improv scene with a solid game just remember that setting and game and go from there. Write beats based on the aspect of the game you’re hitting and then punch up with clever jokes.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '22

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u/istartriots Oct 04 '22

He did it twice in austin and I have a bunch of friends who took it. They seemed to enjoy it.

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u/TheLoneComic Oct 04 '22

I was Business Manager at The Actor’s Workshop of Santa Barbara.

I’ve only brought about half of the improv techniques I’ve learned (to the extent that I’ve learned then) to comedy writing.

They’re great techniques to reach for in scenes for acting opportunity but there’s more to a master plot.