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My POV
Brian A. Wilson
Robert McKee's Comedy Seminar
Los Angeles, December 9, 2001
Review, Part 1 of 2
My last question of the day at Robert McKee's comedy seminar summed up my frustration with the event.
"If a drama ends when the hero completes his arc," I asked the grizzled Hollywood vet, "then when is a comedy over?"
"Oh, I don't know," McKee said. "I guess when you get to the happy ending."
He had made it clear throughout the day that a happy ending was, in his opinion, a prerequisite for a movie being a comedy, so that made sense.
But the phrases "I don't know" and "I guess" are hardly what you want to hear after shelling out 200 smackers, driving across town and spending an NFL Sunday locked in a classroom.
I'll admit, I did learn some useful information from McKee. He gave tips applicable for analyzing what's working in a finished film or what's not working in a screenplay.
He presented some guiding principals for writing the comedy script.
However, the day did not turn out to be what I had hoped, which was that this would be McKee's "Story" seminar for the comedy screenplay.
NEXT WEEK: The Devil is in the Details
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