50 Plays - Alabama

Last night marked my first meeting with a director and a cast to discuss the play I'm going to write for them for "50 Plays." John Pierson assembled Eric Roth, Clifton Frei, Erin Orr, Paige Saliba and Matt Hope.

"50 Plays" will be this year's "365 Sketches." 50 ten-minute plays I write or have written will be performed at Strawdog Theater this June produced by Don Hall. The majority of them will be customized for a cast assembled by the director. Instead of 26 directors and 26 shows performed over 11 consecutive nights, we'll be doing two Thursday-Sunday weekends, each show featuring 5-6 ten-minute plays. More directors and more actors, more community building, which was the most fun aspect of last year's project.

I was nervous. Before leaving for the meeting, I carefully put my materials in my backpack, including the hoodie John Pierson accidentally left behind at Sketchfest. Made it all the way to the door of Konak's before realizing I forgot to bring it. Great. The writer shows up without anything to write on. At 8:25pm on a Sunday in Andersonville, I went scrambling to find a notebook. I found one at a liquor store that also attempted to be a modest convenience store. A two-dollar spiral notebook, later, I was back at Konak's.

I won't get into to too much detail about what we discussed. Mainly, I wanted to find out what roles the actors tended to play, what they'd like to play, their interests and special skills. The biggest surprise was when I asked the actors what they geeked out on - expecting to hear things like "Doctor Who" or "Star Trek" - Eric said feminist and queer theory. How cool is that? This is an amazing group John has put together. I also ask the director what they would like to do. What would they like to experiment with or what genre would they like to try? Keep in mind this is John Pierson. Expect an existential farce coming from this group.

I also forgot to get a picture of the whole group, so Paige and Matt are unfortunately lacking from the above picture. Oh, and the Alabama in the subject heading refers to my reference for the which one of the 50 plays this is. I thought it might be more memorable than numbers. Hard to get numbers to stick in my head, as I learned from 365.

I Believe...

... that's there's nothing more disconcerting than waking up to helicopters flying over your neighborhood.

...that when JFK said we would put a man on the moon, he only gave us a ten-year deadline and we did it ahead of time. When presidents make huge goals, today, they tend to put it way out in the future and make it business-friendly. As Obama said...

"I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035, 80 percent of America's electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas (my note: I guess that's the 20% dirty energy). To meet this goal, we will need them all."

80% clean energy in 24 years? That's really setting the bar high, Barack. The future is LATER! In 24 years, who's going to be tending to that goal and keeping it alive? In 24 years, I'll be in a nursing home tooling around in my coal-powered wheel chair. 100% clean energy in ten years or less would put a fire under people's asses. A clean-burning wind-powered fire.

...that you are never too old to learn and grow. I love taking classes and teaching new classes. Beats the alternative - sticking to only what I know. That's a weak arsenal.

...that we spend too much on defense and we should be looking at cutting all the ways we kill other people versus outright killing our own people with cuts in social security and medicare/aid. And more money needs to be spent on education. Our kids are getting the shaft which means we are, too.

...that Michele Bachman is so clearly a nutbag it is astounding that people actually listen to what she says and continue to elect her to office. I am flabbergasted and have no real insightful or witty thing to say about it. It makes me angry and sad that people like this get elevated to positions of power in this country.

(The image above is a painting of Michele Bachman with a pancake on her head by the brilliant artist Dan Lacy, painter of pancakes.)

Caricature vs. Character

In artistic terms, the Mona Lisa, as it hangs in the Louvre, is a portrait. A character rich with detail, visible emotion behind her eyes and a mystery in her smile. A presentation of someone we could know and want to know. A real character. A caricature version of her* would have the Mona Lisa in profile with an enlarged head and tiny body fishing off the end of a pier. The cartoonishness of it might elicit in us a smile, but we’re quick to move on.

I taught a Second City class last night and had something unusual happen. We were doing Fish Out of Water scenes and most everyone brought in a scene that had a celebrity appearing as themselves in it. A big pet peeve of mine. Some had entire scenes made up of celebrities and politicians. This surprised me because this is Second City, not SNL or MADtv. You will rarely see a Second City actor portraying a celebrity on stage. It happens, but not often, and usually in a blackout or a minor character. In The Second City Writing Program, we strive to create scenes populated with characters that could conceivably have full emotional lives before the scene that we see them in and after the lights go down. You might be thinking, if the character is a well-known celebrity or politician, isn’t that a real character with an emotional life that exists outside the scene? Aren’t real people real characters? No. They are not. They are caricatures. They are often written and performed as imitations of how we’ve seen other people present them. Impressions of impressions.

A caricature is an imitation. A two-dimensional presentation with some kind of exaggeration. And they are lazy for a sketch comedy writer to use. It takes some effort to create characters that are recognizable (That guy’s just like my dad!) and original creations. We deal in the recognizable and the unexpected, which is not easy.

It’s fine to base characters on real people. As a writer, that gives you freedom to expand on the character and it keeps your scene from having a shelf-life dependent on the real life person’s popularity or term in office or relevance of the topic.

Another practical reason not to write scenes filled with celebrities is that it saddles your actors with having to do convincing impressions. If they’re off, it blows and ruins the scenes. And if you do happen to find someone who does a brilliant Obama, you better hope they have enough range to do the other characters a sketch revue demands. A one trick pony will also sink your show.

Is there a place for caricatures in sketch comedy? Sure, they can be useful. Especially in short scenes where the comic premise is more important than exploring characters and relationships. At SNL, they are their bread and butter. Political figures and Hollywood star impressions are invaluable to a show that goes live every week and can and should capitalize on current events. And original caricatures can be fun, too. But also notice how often SNL caricatures overstay their welcome or implode when they try to move them to a feature length movie (Night at the Roxbury, MacGruber, It’s Pat, Lady’s Man, etc). Hard to develop a “character” without heart or depth. There have been successes, like Wayne’s World or The Blues Brothers. The Blue Brothers were fleshed out characters that Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had created a history for, even before there was a film deal. We even know their full names, which is rare for an SNL “character.”

Caricatures are a cheap and easy way to try to get a laugh. Often, the caricature itself overrides whatever the scene is attempting to be about. So, if you are serious about writing sketch comedy, craft original characters with strong emotional investments in what they want. Characters and relationships. That’s where the gold is.

* The caricature of Mona Lisa used here is from a site called Team of Monkeys and it's a maze. Feel free to print it up and use it as a placemat.

I Believe...

...that if you're going to die, having friends from Second City conduct your memorial service is really the best way to go. I've known Mary Scruggs for over a dozen years. She has always been, for me and students, nothing short of encouraging and supportive. If you had the pleasure of knowing Mary, she had your back.

...that a standing ovation for a Sketchfest show is quite possibly better than the stated agenda in the title of the show. Plus, I got two really fantastic kisses.

...that I love teaching, but having two part-time teaching gigs with no guarantee of classes makes me feel like the administrators want me to consider it more of a hobby that brings in extra income than a way to make a living. Too bad.

...that the GOP has no street cred with their bid to end "government-run" healthcare until they give up their own "government-run" healthcare.

...that whenever I think I'm done with relationships or writing or acting, something comes along like doing a few shows at Sketchfest that make me realize there might still be some magic left in these old bones. And that I definitely have some great funny, creative friends that I am lucky to collaborate with.

...that if you missed any of the shows I worked with at Sketchfest, you missed a massive amount of fun. You missed...

- Babe the Blue Ox doing a solo on the harmonica
- a Scientologist getting punched in the face
- a man in a tutu singing to children about how all their dreams could possibly come true, but it's not probable
- Nazis overtaking the Robot vs. Dinosaur show. Their leader being Skyped in from his lair in Miami. RvD doing hand-to-hand combat with 24 minions, escaping in a hot air balloon and then being shot down by a zeppelin. Heil, Greg!
- Don Hall and I stripping down to our boxer briefs
- Us also doing a dance choreographed by Erica Reid to The Detroit Cobra's "Cha Cha Twist" dressed as Kirk and Spock
- Me singing a solo and destroying a keytar
- Me living my dreams as a "Sketch" Man and having beautiful women like Erin Orr and Dana Black throwing themselves at me
- Vinnie Lacey, Don Hall and me being ridden like horses
- Me having a romantic date with an audience member

Ask Ken Levine

Ken Levine has been out in Hollywood writing and directing sitcoms for quite a long time. He started as a young pup on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. he had regular writing gigs on MASH, Cheers and Frazier. He's also directed episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond. Writing students ask me about sitcoms and writing for them all the time. All I can tell them is what I have heard. I have had no practical experience. This guy has and he generously doles out what's in his brain. He's doing a teleseminar this coming Thursday and it's FREE. Who the hell does that in this day and age? This guy does.

Ask Ken Levine
About Writing TV
Sitcoms

On Thursday,
January 20, I will
answer as many questions as
possible about TV
Sitcom Writing.
Please join me.

There are still slots available. If you have a scheduling conflict, you can request a recording of it. There is a small charge for that. To sign up, click HERE.

I Believe...

...that we live in an amazing age where information is available to us, as well as constantly thrown at us. But if we just take it at face value and don't apply our brain folds to it and question it, then we're effing up the opportunity.

...that people who call for others to take up arms and exercise the second amendment lose the right to be appalled when someone does it.

...that there is no one person to blame. It's our world. We live in it. We're responsible. Effective change begins with the person who is sitting in your underwear. Assuming it is you. And you didn't go commando today.



...that birds falling from the sky and fish washing up on shore en masse are canaries in a coal mine.

...that Chicago has a staggering amount of creative talent. We live in a performing arts paradise. If you're not getting out and seeing theater, sketch comedy, improv, stand-up or music at least once a week, you're missing the party. And your brain is probably shrinking.

Sketchfest Sneak Peek...Shhhhhhh!

Robot vs. Dinosaur - Friday, January 14th at 7pm. For more info, click HERE. By the way, don't tell anyone, but the description of our show has absolutely nothing to do with our show.

Don Hall and Joe Janes Are Using This Show To try To get Laid - Friday, January 14th at 11pm. For more info, click HERE.