Comedy Masterclass Danielle Krage

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 with studios and production companies.
Ways to approach writing in a partnership.
Self-esteem and mental health challenges for writers and creative people.
The importance of finding your voice, and writing for you.
Advice for having and changing agents.
You can find out more about Johnny Smith and his work here:
https://www.johnnysmith.co.uk/
 
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

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 twists.
The editing process.
 
You can find out more about their work here:
https://books2read.com/u/4AQBgk - How to Write Romantic Comedy https://books2read.com/IPBook - Getting Published is Just the Beginning www.fictiontutors.co.uk Jeevani Charika’s non-fiction site https://www.janelovering.co.uk/ Jane Lovering’s website
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Jane-Lovering/author/B003NYBX9M?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Jane’s Amazon page
www.Jeevanicharika.com Jeevani Charika’s website
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Jeevani-Charika/author/B07C6W8Z88?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Jeevani's Amazon page
 
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social
 

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 conversation.
Topics covered include:
Ways into comedy writing (including children’s TV and radio).
The number one requirement for being a comedy writer.
Creating comedic characters – the first questions you should ask.
Balancing ‘emotional truths’ with ‘permission to lie’.
Adding funny to fiction.
 
You can find out more about Dave and his work here:
https://davidjcohenauthor.com/
https://www.davecohen.org.uk/
https://www.waterstones.com/book/stand-up-barry-goldman/david-j-cohen/9781999313821
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BLZXRG5G
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social
 

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 top picks in episode 30 (comedy horror for Halloween).
In the interview with Aaron, the conversation covers:
Humour and its relationship to tragedy and trauma.
Navigating the sensibilities of voice and humour.
Non-visual entrances into characters.
High concepts and hooks.
Writing humour for different age groups.
Characters as vessels for jokes.
You can find out more about Aaron Starmer and his work here:
https://www.aaronstarmer.com
https://twitter.com/aaronstarmer
https://bsky.app/profile/aaronstarmer.bsky.social
 
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social
 
 

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 humour.
3) What does creativity give us?
AND there’s a bonus appearance from Bob the cat.
 
You can find out more about Isaac Marion and his work here:
https://isaacmarion.com
https://www.youtube.com/@OuterEdgeOutpost2
 
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social

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.social
 
You can listen to our previous episode about comedy-horror here:
https://comedymasterclass.com/podcast/12-zanandi-botes-comedy-horror-and-twisting-tropes/
 
You can find the transcript at:
https://comedymasterclass.com
 
And Danielle’s socials here:
https://twitter.com/daniellekrage
https://www.instagram.com/dekrage
https://bsky.app/profile/daniellekrage.bsky.social