Things You Can Do: Sketch Writing

I figure, now that I'm out there, ya know, working, it would be a good idea to start profiling jobs. There's a lot of them out there, especially in entertainment--which means I can't get to all of them, but it also means you very well might see something you haven't thought of before.

I'll start with some things I'm doing now.

What: Writing comedy sketches. Think Second City, Saturday Night Live, MadTV, etc. Now divide the budget for those shows by 1,000 and the size of their audience by about 100,000 and you're thinking more about the average comedy outlet.

How big a job market: Not huge. Like most kinds of creative writing, the market isn't exactly pandering on the streets for talented sketch writers. However, if drama and playwrighting is something you enjoy, you may have better chances here than with long-form pieces. Comedy clubs aren't hard to find in urban areas, and many of them run sketch shows. The sketches are a few minutes long, and shows made up of them don't tend to run for a huge number of performances. It takes a revolving door of writers and material to run a sketch show; even small shows (like the one I work on) tend to keep a bullpen of circa one dozen writers--in my case, turning out a couple sketches a month.

What it takes:
- Knowledge of the proper format for plays (or screenplays, depending where you work).
- Ability to work with deadlines, especially short ones (being asked to edit a sketch to make it 1 minute shorter by tomorrow may not sound hard until you realize that the sketch is only 4 1/2 minutes long to begin with).
- Ability to write jokes. A sense of humor is something unique to each individual person, but it is possible to learn what makes something funny, and how to appeal to other people's senses of humor. I used to love SNL's Weekend Update segments, but pretty much every one of their jokes came down to the same thing: take a news headline (sometimes real, sometimes not), say the headline, then say something else that turns it on his head. You can take classes and workshops and read books for this; Advanced Creative Writing: Comedy probably taught me more than any of my other college writing courses, so it's something to think about.
- Ability to string those jokes together. Sketches need more than one thing going on to make them work. Sometimes it's a pretty narrow range of things (think "It's Pat!"), but you can never get by with just one operative joke. Thinking about it, I realize this is probably why I've never read an issue of Mad Magazine. Unless you've got a weak stomach, take a look at this month's cover. It's Spiderman shooting web out of his butt. Okay, whatever. Is that funny? Maybe, but where else can you really go with that? Chuckle and move on; nothing else to see here.
- Ability to write a coherent short narrative. Something with a satisfying beginning, middle, and end in a few minutes. Takes practice.

How it works: Sketch-writing gigs are usually picked up based on a writing sample and/or portfolio. For getting your samples to the right people, networking connections are your biggest asset, though you will find an open call for writers occasionally. Production credits may also be helpful. A portfolio that includes good, videotaped performances of any of your past work looks good; if your school has a comedy troup, this would be a good reason to join (or if it doesn't have one, start one!).