Comedy Writing Takes Serious Work-Glenn Earich

There’s a formula to comedy writing, says Glenn Earich who teaches at Second City in Chicago and Improv Playhouse in Libertyville, Il. It’s possible to teach (and learn!) what makes something funny. But there’s a special ingredient—the x factor Glen calls it—when someone is able to take the formula of setting up a joke or a sketch and turn it into his or her own material and make people laugh.

It takes time to develop the humorous side of life and it is not an overnight career. Glenn says figure several years just to get the comfortable with the basics of comedy, getting to know people in the industry, and letting them know you. It’s the connections that provide the job opportunities in this field.

It takes time. It takes persistence. How bad do you want to write comedy? How much work are you willing to do to get to the point of being able to deliver consistently funny material for a variety of people and projects? Have you developed a reputation for being easy to work with? A lot of jobs are the result of meeting people in a comedy writing or improv class or working on a project and remembering each other and wanting to work together again when someone gets a new opportunity.

Time, energy, and plenty of persistence are necessary ingredients if comedy writing is your true calling. But wait. There's more! Glenn says there’s still another factor to consider if you want to write comedy: Can you use your own life and be truthful enough about it to share your world with others? David Sedaris, for example, writes about his life and makes it funny as only he can because it’s his life. Are you willing to be honest and tell your story?

Future "big breaks" can come from people we’ve worked with in the past. Who is passing along your name? And whose name are you passing along?