#16 in Acting & auditioning books
Use arrows to jump to the previous/next product
Reddit mentions of The Eight Characters of Comedy: Guide to Sitcom Acting And Writing
Sentiment score: 3
Reddit mentions: 5
We found 5 Reddit mentions of The Eight Characters of Comedy: Guide to Sitcom Acting And Writing. Here are the top ones.
Buying options
View on Amazon.comor
- The Eight Characters of Comedy is the “How-To” guide for actors and writers who want to break into the world of sitcoms
Features:
Specs:
Height | 8.5 Inches |
Length | 5.5 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Release date | February 2014 |
Weight | 1.05 Pounds |
Width | 1 Inches |
not necessarily. characters commonly get paired off for stories, see IASIP.
the basic wisdom is that there are 6 to 8 archetypes of sitcom character. (this book lays out 8: https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Characters-Comedy-Sitcom-Writing/dp/0977064123)
in multi-cams all of these characters often inhabit the same main setting (Cheers, Big Bang Theory), and sometimes in single cam too (The Office, P&R, 30 Rock).
and time allotted per story is usually a hierarchy. A story might be 13 minutes, B story 5 minutes, and C story 2 minutes (with 3 beats throughout the show).
also OP, check out Ellen Sandler's TV Writer's Workbook. She's teaches you to track # of characters/scenes. if you break down your favorite shows/eps or at least shows you think are similar to your idea, you'll get a sense of your answer.
Comedy is the most difficult genre in TV Land. Especially multi-cam.
I do my character and organic work like I would with anything else except that I'll recognize that I'm usually dealing with very high stakes over very small matters which is what makes it funny. It's also written in a very specific rhythm and contains a lot of script devices like threes, reversals, lists, builds, antitheticals, and callbacks that it's very helpful to know how to identify and execute. Thus it's a lot like scansion in classical verse or reading a piece of music meaning that unlike with some drama, I absolutely will not change a word or ignore punctuation because that would throw the rhythm off.
If you want to read a good book on how it's typically written and executed, check out The Eight Characters of Comedy by Scott Sedita.
> The Eight Characters of Comedy.
That's the name of the book. It's pretty much a must-read if you ever wanted to be in sitcom/comedy ensembles of any kind.
This is the price of three starbucks coffees.
I remember it having some really good notes on the logic inherent in a dumb person's reactions to situations.
There's a book written about 20yrs ago called the eight characters of comedy that breaks this formula right down.