Roll Up, Roll Up - Applications for 2009 Comedy Lab

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

http://www.channel4.com/4talent/national/opportunities/schemes/specific/comedylab.html

Has anyone here ever actually bothered sending in a script to these people?

And apart from Peter Kay's The Services (the very first one, TEN YEARS AGO), have any of the transmitted pilots been anything other than unmittigated shite?

[Bean Is A Carrot]

Ideally, projects will be submitted via a production company - but if you don't have the necessary contacts feel free to submit direct to Channel 4.

Good. Nice to see they've made it more "open access" instead of relying on people who've been around a while doing stuff anyway.

[Godzilla Bankrolls]

Reginald D. Hunter's Lab was actually a decent TV play of the sort you'd get when C4 was any good. It stuck out from the usual wank like a sore thumb.

[purlieu]

Has anyone here ever actually bothered sending in a script to these people?

This got my excited until I realised a script isn't enough.  VHS/DVD, artwork &c.  I have a couple of scripts I'm very proud of but not the contacts or money to make anything more.  It even features young people!

[abbot lau]

have any of the transmitted pilots been anything other than unmittigated shite?

My one (made in 2002) was mitigated shite... does that count?

And no, I don't want to rehash my experience of making it here, you can read all about it in this old thread:

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=7921.0

[Jack Shaftoe]

Blimey, that was a good read (and I sympathise with Will McDonald, I've always found Jemble Fred's left ear REALLY ANNOYING), thanks abbot lau.

I had a script outline which was already with an extremely lovely and enthusiastic producer, which we took to C4 (this was a couple of years ago). They said they were interested in developing it, under the auspices (that was the phrase they used, I had to go and look it up) of the comedy lab. So they commissioned a script, for not much more money than lau got, which I did three rewrites of, from very minimal notes (although the first one was 'could the protagonist maybe kill less people?' which I liked), then eventually never heard anything from C4 again. My agent eventually beat the script delivery fee out of them about six months later, but to this day I've never heard anything else from C4 about it. I was pretty gutted, because the producer was totally on board, and the subject matter was pretty close to my heart, so not even getting an official 'no', but having the whole thing fizzle out broke my little comedy heart.

The C4 exec was someone I'd got to know pretty well through my work on a team-written show as well, so it turned out all those 'it's who you know' stories were complete rubbish. I've seen her a couple of times since, but have always had the lingering sense the thing got dropped because I made some awful faux pas I didn't realise at the time, so have been too embarrassed to ask.

On the plus side, Beryl Vertue came up to me at a party to tell me how much she'd liked my script, so that was rather nice.

[Jemble Fred]

Well, what a young firebrand I was! Odd to see myself caring about the state of British Comedy, still believing there was hope of some sort around the corner.

[abbot lau]

Jemble Fred... did you go by the handle 'Jemfredcunt' back in the day?

[Jemble Fred]

It would be a staggering coincidence if not!

By which I mean yes, when I first signed up to this place in the summer of 1999 it was with Derek & Clive echoing in my ears, so I added the unnecessary suffix. I don't know if that's why some still call me Jemfred, or if it's a NotBBC thing. But it's unnerving.

[Goldentony]

Was Captain V a Comedy Lab show? i rememebr thinking that was fantastic at the time but it never got repeated

[abbot lau]

Was Captain V a Comedy Lab show? i rememebr thinking that was fantastic at the time but it never got repeated

Yes, Captain V was in the same season as Shoreditch Twat, Matthew and Tone, Meet the Magoons, Best of British, The Last Chancers, something by Pam Ann, and I forget what else.

My favourite (excluding Captain V) was Best of British, though Shoreditch Twat and Matthew and Tone had some nice moments.

You could say that Capain V got repeated in the sense that the whole concept was nicked to make 'Hyperdrive'

[James Bachman]

This got my excited until I realised a script isn't enough.  VHS/DVD, artwork &c.  I have a couple of scripts I'm very proud of but not the contacts or money to make anything more.  It even features young people!

It is though. They don't ask for anything apart from an idea. So a script would be fine.

[Feralkid]

You could say that Capain V got repeated in the sense that the whole concept was nicked to make 'Hyperdrive'

Didn't see Captain V but, um, how did Hyperspace steal from it?  It never seemed like a particularly original concept at all.  Is there any specific they nabbed?   

Just got a screener for some the upcoming week after next's Comedy Labs.   Slaterwood is probably the best but that's the faintest of faint praise.  There's nothing particularly novel or brilliant here. 

[rudi]

Shoreditch Twat? Was that linked to the late fanzine of the same name?

[Goldentony]

Yes, Captain V was in the same season as Shoreditch Twat, Matthew and Tone, Meet the Magoons, Best of British, The Last Chancers, something by Pam Ann, and I forget what else.

My favourite (excluding Captain V) was Best of British, though Shoreditch Twat and Matthew and Tone had some nice moments.

You could say that Capain V got repeated in the sense that the whole concept was nicked to make 'Hyperdrive'

Best Of British was the sports day show wasn't it? that was great aswell, i had it on tape for a while but it went missing - the sight of the prize giving at the end being awarded by a pensioner claiming to be Satan on a childrens slide before collapsing is something that willll stay with me for years.

EDIT - ahh blimey, so you were responsible for Captain V? incredible! strange to read about it being such a bad experience from that other thread, especially about the re-dubbed lines and that bullshit. The part that sticks with me the most is the robot saying in a really dissapointed voice "my cactus is BROKEN!!"

[23 Daves]

Blimey, I've only just spotted Will MacDonald's rant on that old thread.  What a thoroughly unpleasant and desperately out-of-time man he comes across as being.  He does work for charity and has children, though, so he's forgiven for everything, obviously.

Having read over Abbot Lau's experiences as well, I do wonder whether the reason television comedy is also so poor in the present day and age is because a lot of writers just can't be bothered jumping through the necessary hoops, especially for the (most likely) tiny reward they'd receive.  I am sure I knew of more people who were aspiring comedy writers ten years ago than I do now - the interest just doesn't seem to be there anymore, with everyone's energies being thrown in the direction of stand-up.  I only have one friend who is working on a comedy script at the moment, whereas ten years ago almost everyone I knew with any interest in comedy at all would boast that they had something brewing. 

Maybe in another decade we'll get to a point where the cost of producing something becomes so low that the television stations will be bypassed, but even then I'm cynical about how a lot of new talent would cope working in a total vacuum. 

And I still think 4 Later piloted much more interesting (if often uncommercial or rough round the edges) ideas than Comedy Lab has ever bothered to do.

[purlieu]

It is though. They don't ask for anything apart from an idea. So a script would be fine.

Looks like I've been misreading again.  Maybe I'll give it a go, although I think mine's probably a bit too trad for Comedy Labh.

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

I am sure I knew of more people who were aspiring comedy writers ten years ago than I do now - the interest just doesn't seem to be there anymore, with everyone's energies being thrown in the direction of stand-up.

If everything I've heard about the commissioning/production of TV is true, then I can see why - at least with stand-up you're pretty much free to say what you like without idiot producers and demographic-chasers breathing down your necks.

[Mob Bunkhaus]

Great post, 23 Daves.

_{For those who haven't read the old thread: Abbot Lau co-wrote a Comedy Lab; gave them a 100 re-writes; had them, without his consent, overdub his lines in post-production and got a bag of sand out of it.}

[abbot lau]

Best Of British was the sports day show wasn't it? that was great aswell, i had it on tape for a while but it went missing - the sight of the prize giving at the end being awarded by a pensioner claiming to be Satan on a childrens slide before collapsing is something that willll stay with me for years.

The same guys made this:

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[abbot lau]

Having read over Abbot Lau's experiences as well, I do wonder whether the reason television comedy is also so poor in the present day and age is because a lot of writers just can't be bothered jumping through the necessary hoops, especially for the (most likely) tiny reward they'd receive. 

Now there's food for thought...  Thing is, I've had a nice idea for a new script and unless I've thouroughly pissed on my chips with everything I've written on this forum I'm going to send it in. Probably having had a shot already I'm excluded but they gave Adam Buxton a couple of shows, so what the hell.

[Jack Shaftoe]

23 Daves said:

I do wonder whether the reason television comedy is also so poor in the present day and age is because a lot of writers just can't be bothered jumping through the necessary hoops, especially for the (most likely) tiny reward they'd receive

I need to make it very clear that I'm not presenting this as an unbearable loss to the world of comedy or anything, but my whole experience with the Comedy Lab came at a specific time when various drama production companies were starting to fish around for writers from outside the traditional Eastenders/Holby City/etc school of writing. So just as I was repeatedly banging my head on one (comedy) door for very little reward and being made to feel like a twat for even trying, another (drama) door opened, revealing a room full of people who people who a) actually answered my phone calls and emails, b) paid me on time and in noticeably larger amounts and c) seemed to genuinely respect writers (probably because a lot of the producers used to be writers themselves).

I'm still sending in the occasional outline for a comedy show, and working for the odd sketch show if it's something I actually like, but drama writing has paid the bills for the last few years, and turned out to be just as creatively rewarding as comedy writing would ever be.

I now regard comedy as that girl I used to have a crush on once, but now keep finding sprawled in the bins behind Tesco's, after a full night wanking off tramps. I look at her sadly, press a crumpled fiver into her stinking palm, and walk on with a spring in my step.

[Johnny Yesno]

Shoreditch Twat? Was that linked to the late fanzine of the same name?

It was and it was about the same quality.