I Need A Writing Partner

Todd Justice mentioned something in the Comedy Gym today. He was wondering why it is that nobody seems to write in groups anymore. That's what he did when he was starting out.

So, during the open mike after the class, I started bouncing some ideas off of Todd Merriman and Tim Speer. I thought it was very productive. Eventually, we got one completed bit, inspired by this morning's paper. Todd used it on stage and said it worked.

In the paper, there was a picture of a Chinese man breaking bricks with his head. The caption said it came from a convention of security guards, showing off their job skills. When I saw it, I thought it was fertile comic material, so I showed it to Todd and Tim and challenged them to come up with punchlines.

I was thinking along two lines. First, what kind of strange conditions to Chinese security guards see that would necessitate these skills. Second, what would an American security guard convention showcase? (Quickest speed dialing of real cops?)

But Todd had by far the best punchline. The reason Chinese security guards need to break bricks with their heads, is that the sheer boredom of the job causes them to constantly slam their heads into walls. When Todd did the bit, he actually smacked the wall with his forehead, screaming, "Why, why?!!"

Great comedy.

My point is that I need to bounce ideas off people while writing. In addition to generating ideas, I think talking things over will help clarify ideas.

In Comedy Gym, I did some brand new material that I wasn't confident in. But I felt good going through it, getting the feedback, and getting ideas from people. Also, just treading up there generated an idea that I might want to follow through with: I ended up talking in a smooth voice, one that might hypnotize, and thinking about the different things I could be saying. One was that I just won the lottery. Another was "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Ah, creativity.