Slow on the Draw

Another weekend has passed without me finishing a sketch. It seems that every time I think of a relatively decent, possible sketch idea, something just gets in the way. This most recent obstruction can be attributed almost solely to a string of maladies, which a vast majority of my friends have seemed to simultaneously succumb to. Unfortunately, those left untouched by illness were only safe because they spend far too much time working to get sick (excluding my friend Ben, who claims that he can never get sick because "he has no weaknesses").  So, with a huge portion of my cast depleted, what more was there to do than to sit around and come up with new ideas?

Since I'm not ready to show any video clips yet, I thought that I might use this week's post to explain how we write our sketches. My friend Ben and I are the ones who come up with most of our ideas, so the process usually begins like so:

1. One of us thinks of a joke or funny situation that he has heard/experienced/came up with in the past.
2. The idea is then presented to the other person, usually with a basic sketch structure already in mind.
3. If the idea is funny, we bounce the idea back and force. If one were to witness this event, they would probably describe it as something akin to watching two monkeys try to forcefully shove several mismatched puzzle pieces together until they fit.
4. Typically, Ben is the one escalating the level of ridiculousness involved in the sketch, while I am the one pulling it back towards reality. 
5. When we are happy enough with the resulting product, we explain our idea to whoever is nearest to us at the time. If that person happens to be involved with the skit, he or she will likely add their own unique spin to their role in the sketch.
6. We then wait an indeterminable amount of time. The closer we get to filming, the more the sketch starts to change. When we get closer to the actual filming, limitations arise. These limitations actively morph everything from the plot of the sketch to the people involved.
7. Before the sketch is ready to be filmed, we do a whole bunch of test runs. These test runs are all filmed, so that we can review the sketch and make changes where necessary. (This is slightly different from how we did it when we were younger. Back then, we would almost never do a test run of the sketch)

Andrew: Doing a practice run of a character he came up with

Michael: Practicing the voice of character through a monologue

After all of that is done, we are finally able to begin filming the actual sketch. After that comes the editing process, but I will go more into that when I actually have a finished video ready.