ONLINE, London, Bristol & Stroud Classes:
Stand-up, Sitcom & Sketch Comedy
Online Courses
I’m delighted to have launched an online comedy training programme in conjunction with British Comedy Guide. Courses include my Writing Stand-up Comedy and Narrative Comedy Writing (sitcom and comedy drama) courses plus Sketch Comedy Writing for TV/online and Radio Sketch Comedy Writing courses. Each online course is made up of weekly 2 hour Zoom sessions with supporting notes and feedback on your developing work via a Trello board. These are fully interactive, stimulating classes in which you’ll undertake creative exercises tailored for the online environment.
"I would say to anyone thinking about perhaps doing a course- just DO IT!! The amount of content, information, useful web addresses, potential contacts and generally the opportunity to come together for 2 hours every week with like-minded people, is fantastic, plus the aspect of helping each other by reading and reviewing each other's work. We have now formed a WhatsApp group, and are sharing lots of useful information which would not have been available to us all had we not done this course." LK
I can also offer bespoke courses for small groups. Please enquire.
In person courses
I'm planning to return to offering stand-up courses in Soho, London on Monday nights from January 2021. When possible there will also be occasional classes taking place on Saturdays in central London with occasional additional weekend classes in Bristol and Stroud. I can also be booked to come to you and deliver bespoke workshops! Please enquire.
Online
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Writing TV & Online Sketches 1
7pm - 9pm BST
Sept 09 - Oct 07 2020
(5 x Wednesdays)
On the course, you will receive a comprehensive grounding in creating characters, writing dialogue and structuring sketches. Improve your sketch writing for online videos, live sketch comedy, TV opportunities and it'll make you sharper for Newsjack too.
As inspiration for your own work and to uncover tools and techniques. we'll watch and analyse sketches from Key & Peele, Tracey Ullman, Mitchell & Webb, Funny or Die, Monty Python, Chris Morris, Rowan Atkinson, Aunty Donna, Fry & Laurie, Rose Matafeo, SNL, Harry Enfield and more. Leave the course with new sketches, enhanced writing skills and connections with a bunch of great comedy people.
£105
More info & booking
(Via British Comedy Guide)
Tutor: Chris Head
Online
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Writing Radio
Sketch Comedy
7pm - 9pm BST
Nov 16 - Dec 14 2020
(5 x Mondays)
Radio is a great medium for comedy and is one of the main ways into broadcast comedy generally. Explore a range of inspiring starting points for sketches including making use of radio’s ability to easily conjure up far flung and extreme locations, personification (or anthropomorphic) sketches where animals and things come to life and parody sketches.
By the end of the course, you’ll be set up to write and record your own sketches and also you’ll be in a stronger position to submit sketches to radio shows that invite submissions. There is also the opportunity to learn about recording and editing your own sketches for online release.
£105
More info & booking
(Via British Comedy Guide)
Tutor: Chris Head
Stroud
@ Stroud Brewery Bar, London Rd, STROUD GL5 2BY
Stand-up Comedy: Beginners & Improvers
2.30pm - 5.30pm
Late summer/autumn 2020 dates TBA
(5 x Saturday afternoons)
Over five Saturdays create and perform a brand new five-minute stand up comedy act and perform in a special showcase gig, all at Stroud Brewery. In the experienced hands of Chris Head (comedy director, teacher and author of "A Director's Guide to the Art of Stand-up") you will be guided through developing your persona, creating material and delivering it so it works. All experience levels welcome. The course will meet you where you're at. Newer acts or beginners will grow in confidence and develop their first material. Acts with some experience will find out more about their persona and comic style, will add some tools to their toolkit and will develop new material.
£95 - £105
More info & booking
Booking opening soon. Contact to reserve a place.
Tutor: Chris Head
Online
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Writing Stand-up Comedy
7pm - 9pm BST
July 21 - Aug 18 2020
(5 x Tuesdays)
Writing stand-up can be very different from regular writing. There are many ways of ‘writing’ stand-up from typing up a script, to bullet-point summaries, to recording voice-notes, to writing on stage. And all of these approaches will be taught and embraced.
When you write stand-up, you are also writing for your own voice and persona, so we’ll explore and develop this on-stage version of you. We’ll explore too how the writing of stand-up comedy is inseparable from the performance of it and how to write for live performance.
Watching and analysing stand-up comedy clips selected by Chris and also nominated by you, will give examples of comedy techniques in action that you will then try for yourself.
Topics covered include topical and satirical material, routines, rants, one-liners, personification and story-telling. You’ll complete the course with new material and many new tools, technique and perspectives on writing stand-up.
(Via British Comedy Guide)
Tutor: Chris Head
London
Stand-up Comedy: Beginners & Improvers
6.45pm - 9pm
Jan 11 - Mar 01 2021
Bookings will open if it's clear it can run!
(8 x Mondays)
Create and perform a brand new stand up comedy act. In the experienced hands of Chris Head (comedy director, teacher and author of "A Director's Guide to the Art of Stand-up") you will be guided through developing your persona, creating material and delivering it so it works.
This highly acclaimed stand-up course has been running for over twelve years and hundreds have done it. Why do it? Some do it for the killer public speaking skills (no work presentations or wedding speeches are a problem after this). Some to tick stand-up off their bucket list. Some want to get out onto the stand-up circuit - and they do. Put it all into practice in a show on the last night.
£225 - £250
Booking opening when possible.
Contact to reserve a place.
Tutor: Chris Head
Online
ONLINE VIA ZOOM
Writing Narrative Comedy
7pm - 9pm BST
Sept 8 -Oct 27 2020
(8 x Tuesdays)
Working on sitcom and 30 minute comedy drama, this online course gives you comprehensive and personalised training and guidance on creating characters, developing relationships, building your situation, structuring scenes, writing dialogue and constructing plots.
You might be working with a multi-camera studio audience sitcom or a naturalistic comedy drama. Either way, go deep with your characters, find the truth in them and their relationships, taking your time to find the deeper, realer funny in scenes. Make discoveries of scenes and situation that will be the basis of stories and will take your characters places you’d never considered. Learn about story structure and working with multiple plot-lines.
£165
More info & booking
(Via British Comedy Guide)
Tutor: Chris Head
With feedback from Lucy Lumsden
London
Punch up Your Stand-up
LEVEL 2
6.45pm - 9pm
2021 dates TBA
Bookings will open if it's clear it can run!
(8 x Mondays)
Work on your stand-up and develop your own particular interests whether that's longer club sets, festival shows or a specialism like musical comedy, impressions or one-liners - and perform some brand new material in a 7 minute set on the showcase gig at the end of the course. In the experienced hands of Chris Head (comedy director, teacher and author of "A Director's Guide to the Art of Stand-up") this inspiring course will stretch your writing and performance, equipping you with new tools, new material and enhanced performance with a stronger sense of your persona. Features a Q&A on corporate gigs and gigging in Europe & the US (plus other industry issues) with Geoff Whiting of Mirth Control.
£225 - £250
Booking opening when possible.
Contact to reserve a place.
Tutor: Chris Head
Plus Q&A with Geoff Whiting
