Comedy is a serious matter - an interview by Rabiya Moghees - printed in The News 20th January 2013 jang.pk/thenews/jan2013-weekly/nos-20-01-2013/she.htm#7 Comedy is serious business A chat with comedy actor, writer and director Shehzad Ghias Sheikh, on the sidelines of the CYPAF By R Moghees The News on Sunday: Tell us about the idea of Comedy Workshop and also a bit about the participants. Was there any pre-qualification or entry test required to get into the workshop? Shehzad Ghias Sheikh: Well, the Comedy Workshop was designed as a series of group activities rather than as a lecture. For instance, one of the activities we had chalked out was building a story line by line. Most of our participants were young students from institutions like LUMS and ComSats. They werent exactly aspiring to be comedians or stand-up performers; they just wanted to have a taste of it. As for the second part of your question, there was no prequalification whatsoever for participants. Personally, I have no degree or qualification in comedy but I have founded and trained at least two improvisational comedy troupes [during the Cogito Youth Performing Arts Festival) and have been doing stand-up for a couple of years now. But I am keen to share my methods with anybody who wants to learn. TNS: Did you train the participants in comedy-writing and/or comedy acting? SGS: At the festival, we had had specialised workshops which included acting and improvisational comedy; the latter focused on how to develop ideas for comedy. There was one workshop that featured writing comedy as a component. Having said that, Id say that a simple idea can be developed into a full-fledged comedy sketch or skit, a stand-up act, a joke or a sitcom. Most comedy writers agree that there are but a limited number of jokes in the world, so learning their types will help one structurally dissect jokes. For example, one method is writing the punch line first and then going up to the set-up so that a certain answer would strike as funny if one can design a question accordingly. TNS: What texts or scripts did you use in the workshops? SGS: Truth in Comedy: The Manual for Improvisation by Del Close, Writing Comedy by John Byrne and Impro by Keith Johnstone. We also showed clips from Comedian, a documentary by Seinfeld, Talking Funny by Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock and Seinfeld. Besides, we took account of the participants favourite comedians and shows and tried to make them understand their individual styles better. TNS: Sometimes a gag or a dialogue which looks funny on paper can turn out to be flat when performed. How can this situation be helped? SGS: Its a terrible situation to be in. Sometimes even a joke that has worked 10 times in front of an audience will fail when performed for the 11th time, or a joke that has never worked will leave a certain audience in fits. So, as a comedian, one has to be confident and versatile with the jokes. If a certain joke isnt working at all, with different audiences, it is best to drop it even if you think it is hilarious. Rephrasing a joke can also do wonders sometimes. Comedy is serious business and it involves a great deal of trial and error. TNS: How well do such small-time workshops prepare the participants for a future performance? SGS: There is not much you can do in a two-hour workshop except go over the basics. The application of those basics depends on the performers. If they repeat the exercises and put in hard hours while doing the things they have been told to do then they will be successful. Otherwise one cannot become an actor or a comedian by going to a workshop or by reading a book. But we do them in the hope that if nothing else the participants will come out of the workshops more confident than ever before.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 18:48:50 +0000
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