Comedy Masterclass

Danielle Krage interviews Lynne Parker, Founder and Chief Executive of Funny Women. She created the organisation over 20 years ago now and has made such a contribution to the comedy community, including producing the Funny Women Awards. In this conversation, Lynne shares invaluable advice for women building their careers and networks in comedy.    Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 03:10 T...

Danielle Krage interviews author Fran Hill about ways to develop your observational humour skills as a writer. Fran is a former English teacher, and had a monthly satirical column about education in the Times Educational Supplement. She further shared her experiences in diary form in her memoir ‘Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?' And she published her novel, ‘Cuckoo in the Nest’ in 2023.    ...

Danielle Krage interviews Billy Mernit - screenwriter, novelist and author of Writing The Romantic Comedy: The Art of Crafting Funny Love Stories for the Screen. Billy has served as a story analyst and script consultant at Universal Pictures, an instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and has published some 20 romance novels under a female pen name. In this conversation, he shares real...

Back January 10th 2024 with more Comedy Masterclass guests.

In this episode writers Allora Dannon, Camille Le Baron and Danielle Krage share their Christmas comedy recommendations. They discuss TV series, films and books that capture the holiday spirit with a Christmas twist. Whether you love Christmas or not, there's something for everyone in these recommendations. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and How They Met. (Plus, shoutout to the brilliant Temeraire se...

Danielle Krage interviews Chelsea Kania and Emily Chase from Female Pilot Club, and they discuss the benefits of entering writing competitions and the development opportunities they offer. From their work with Female Pilot Club’s comedy script call, they share practical tips for developing your pitch, engaging with the advice of industry judges, responding to feedback and development notes, and fi...

Danielle Krage interviews comedy director, coach and mentor, Chris Head. This episode is a deep dive into how to structure your 30 min comedy or comedy-drama script. Then Chris and Danielle play with using the structure to brainstorm a new show. Tactics covered include: Breaking down the 3 main beats that shape your story. Ways to keep your protagonist active. How to navigate phases of play and st...

Danielle Krage interviews Johnny Smith, animation and live-action screenwriter and script consultant. His work spans books, TV and film, including Dragon Rider, and co-writer for The Queen’s Corgi, and Gnomeo and Juliet. This conversation includes: Creating rules for your world, using setting, and telling the story visually. Considerations for writing physical comedy. Lessons learned from working...

Danielle Krage interviews writers Jane Lovering and Jeevani Charika. They are shortlisted and award-winning romantic novelists in their individual careers, and together they wrote How to Write a Romantic Comedy. This conversation includes: Having pen names and marketing your funny books. Juxtaposition and the unexpected in comedy. Tropes, heroines and diversifying the genre. Memorable endings and...

Danielle Krage interviews Dave Cohen - Broadcaster, BBC TV writer, BAFTA winner for his Horrible Histories songs, and novelist (Stand Up, Barry Goldman, and soon to be released, Barry Goldman: The Wilderness Years). Dave is the author of The Complete Comedy Writer: Make your Sitcom, Stand-Up, Screenplay, Sketches and Stories 62% funnier. He brings his extensive comedy writing experience to this co...

Danielle Krage interviews writer Aaron Starmer, whose young adult and middle-grade novels you can find on so many best-of-year lists, from Time Magazine to the Wall Street Journal.   He’s the author of Spontaneous, also adapted into a romantic black comedy horror film, produced and directed by Brian Duffield (Underwater, Love and Monsters, No One Will Save You). Spontaneous was one of Danielle’s t...

Danielle Krage interviews writer and creative, Isaac Marion. Isaac is the author of the Warm Bodies series. (Warm Bodies became a New York Times Bestseller, inspired a major film, and was translated into 25 languages.) This conversation about weaving humour with darker themes includes: 1) Exploring different writing perspectives and viewpoints. Where do we set our zoom level? 2) Deadpan and dark h...

Zanandi Botes, writer and comedy horror expert, is the special guest for this Halloween show. Zanandi and Danielle share 3 picks each, to give you 6 comedy-horror recommendations, just in time for Spooky Season. They span zombies, mockumentary, anthology and more. You can find Zanandi at: https://www.cracked.com/members/Zanandi https://twitter.com/ZaNandi https://bsky.app/profile/zanandi.bsky.soci...

Comedy Masterclass will be back on October 25th (with a special Halloween episode!) In the meantime, I would love it if you could help me share the show, in a way that makes sense for wherever you listen/watch - rate, review, leave a comment. Or share with comedy-loving friends, or on social media.    And if you want to message me directly, you can find how to do so at  https://comedymasterclass.c...

Danielle Krage interviews The Blaine Brothers (Chris and Ben) about their work as filmmakers and particularly their approaches to directing comedy. They directed Sara Pascoe’s ‘Out of Her Mind’ series for BBC2 and Sony TV (through Simon Pegg’s production company Stolen Picture) and received both awards and brilliant reviews for their debut feature Nina Forever. In this interview, they share practi...

Danielle Krage interviews Lynne Murphy, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sussex. Lynne has a fabulous alter-ego as Lynneguist, with an award-winning blog ‘Separated by a Common Language’. Lynne is also the author of ‘The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship between British and American English’. In this interview, she generously shares a lot of the tools and approaches that hel...

Danielle Krage interviews Adam Courting, a highly curious creative whose experience spans improv, devising, performing Shakespeare and more. Adam has brilliant insights into improv comedy culture - what needs to change, and what we can learn from it. This includes how we can use improv to reshape how we think about traditional roles, and engage audiences in unique ways. You can find out more about...

Danielle Krage interviews writer Michelle Gallen, whose book ‘Factory Girls’ won the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2023. Michelle has wonderfully honest and practical takes on the craft and business of writing – from developing the voice and point of view of the book, to successfully pitching it to agents and editors. The interview also delves into the opportunities of the adaptation process, and is...

Danielle Krage interviews Kevin Tomlinson, theatre maker and Co-Founder of Kepow Theatre Company. Kevin’s extensive training and live experience in so many forms of improvisation (including with Keith Johnstone, Philippe Gaulier, and John Wright) leads to a rich conversation about diverse aspects of long-form improv – both verbal and physical. You can find out more about Kevin Tomlinson’s work her...

Danielle Krage interviews comedian and screenwriter, Tim Ferguson. They dig into his wonderfully practical book, Cheeky Monkey: Writing Narrative Comedy, to talk about characters, conflict, situation, and simplicity. Tim has so much comedy experience, and wonderfully forthright ways of distilling it down to what matter most if you want to write narrative comedy. You can find out more about Tim and...

Danielle Krage interviews poet, writer and broadcaster Ian McMillan about how he approaches humour in his work - whether it’s his poetry collections or his beautiful memoir, My Sand Life, My Pebble Life. It’s a conversation rich with insights and stories, delivered in Ian’s unique and delightfully resonant style. Vivid, funny and so inspiring, it’s a truly human way into poetry, storytelling and l...

Danielle Krage interviews actor, writer and comedian Holly Hall about the process of making her live solo show, ‘You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.’ Holly was first on the show back in episode 3, sharing her process of going from award winning online sketch ‘When podcasts go wrong’… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHg4za15W9o ….to her commissioned short film, ‘It’s what she would have wanted.’ h...

Danielle Krage interviews Ryan North - writer of games, comic books, non-fiction books and more. They dig into considerations for comedy, including Ryan’s experience of writing The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Danger and Other Unknown Risks. This fun conversation covers – timing, collaboration, translating comedy, crafting jokes, originality, and entrepreneurial approaches. There’s even a bonus jo...

Danielle Krage will be back with regular weekly episodes on Wednesday 2nd August.

Danielle Krage interviews comedy expert Steve Kaplan about tools from his most recent book, ‘The Comic Hero’s Journey’. The conversation covers: ways to create your main character and supporting cast; what to do when your ending isn’t working; and common comic character mistakes (plus how to fix them!). You can find out more about Steve and his work here: https://www.kaplancomedy.com https://twitt...