YouTube Workshops: Comedy Writing
Welcome to the second video of the Youtube workshop series! This session is on comedy writing, delivered by Mark Douglas of The Key of Awesome.
In the words of Bill Cosby, good writing never goes out of style.
Mark gave us really useful tips on comedy writing and roping in audience to share some good laughs
Length: 2-3mins is enough (especially for comedy). YouTube audience has short attention spans and anything longer than that will lose them.
Here’s his 3:03 minute long collaboration video with AmericanHipster:
Preparation: Have a solid plan for your video to help you get organised. However, be prepared to improvise as things naturally happen. It’s helpful to try a lot of improv beforehand to practise. Try doing stand-up comedies to get yourself used to it.
Set a deadline: It’s quite difficult to get creative on demand. However, setting up a deadline helps you to get your creative juices flowing.
Appeal to the audience:
- Do behind-the-scenes shots and out-takes to draw audience; bloopers are always fun to watch!
- Respond to comments on camera
- Give your audience a job at the end: “what should we do next? You decide!” It straight away takes the audience’s mind of what just happened & focuses on the next thing
Check out our post about YouTube creative strategy that could help with this!
The little details: Make the most of your thumbnail and meta data. This could influence whether viewers would click on your video based on the small details they see. Meta data is also useful for YouTube to index your content and bring it up in related searches.
Polish your skills: Take acting classes and practise your comedic talent!
And finally, enjoy this hilarious video that Mark recommended to us and see how they do it:
UCL digifest 