You know you’ve written a true comedy when you sit an innocent victim down and pitch your story. Just tell him what happens, without quoting witty dialogue or sight gags, and he laughs. Every time you turn the scene, he laughs; turn it again and he laughs again; turn, laugh, until by the end of the pitch you have him collapsed on the floor. That’s a Comedy. If you pitch your story and people don’t laugh, you’ve not written a Comedy. You’ve written… something else. The solution, however, is not found in trying to devise clever lines or pie in the face. Gags come naturally when the comic
...more
