Intro to Comedy Writing

Our introductory sketch comedy writing course is designed to give anyone the tools and theory to start writing sketches for the stage and screen in the American style made famous by The Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade Theatres.

No prior improv or sketch comedy experience required!

Our Sketch Comedy Writing curriculum launched in late 2016, and is intended to give anyone the tools and theory to start writing sketch comedy for the stage and screen in the tradition pioneered by respected American comedy schools like The Second City and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre.

The class includes a description of The Improv Conspiracy Theatre's approach to sketch comedy, which has some parallels to our improv program, except written and refined instead of made up on the spot. (Haven't done any improv with us yet? Don't worry, this class is for you!)

Each week students will watch and analyse sketch comedy videos as a group, do table reads of student-written sketches, and discuss possible ways to improve them via rewrites in a collaborative writers' room environment. Each week will feature a different homework assignment (e.g. topical current events sketches, character-based sketches, genre parody sketches, etc.) and a discussion of best practices to ensure that everyone is well-equipped to tackle the assignment.

Students who do their homework each week will leave the course with at least six original sketches, at various levels of polish depending on how much effort they elect to spend doing the recommended rewrites.

As this is a pure writing class, there is no end-of-term performance associated with this workshop.

Recent feedback from Intro to Comedy Writing students:

This online sketch comedy writing course is the best thing I have done at The Improv Conspiracy. It was a great learning experience but also the discipline of continually writing a 4 - 5 page comedy sketch showed how much I had improved over the course. I would highly recommend people do this program. Andrew W.
As someone who always wanted to learn about comedy but didn’t know where to start, I can’t recommend the online sketch program more! I learned so much this term and had a great teacher who broke down the concepts making them easy to grasp, along with providing excellent feedback each week. If you are thinking of trying it DO IT! Katherine P.

Upcoming Workshops Intro to Comedy Writing


 Sketch – Intro to Comedy Writing - Term 6a 2023 - Wednesday

Wednesday, October 18
6:30–9:30pm
TBA
The Improv Conspiracy Training Annex - Classroom

Info & Bookings  

None of these options work for you?


Tell us a bit about your schedule and we'll email you when relevant new Intro to Comedy Writing workshops are listed (and when there's a discount offer available!)

  Upcoming Workshops Intro to Comedy Writing


Name   Start Date & Time   Instructor(s)   Location
Sketch – Intro to Comedy Writing - Term 6a 2023 - Wednesday Wednesday, October 18
6:30–9:30pm
TBA The Improv Conspiracy Training Annex - Classroom Info & Bookings  

None of these options work for you?


Tell us a bit about your schedule and we'll email you when relevant new Intro to Comedy Writing workshops are listed (and when there's a discount offer available!)