All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 17. Story Techniques

I want to talk about like um writing

alone and then the process of that you

can use uh to develop your material. I

I'll I'll use a screenplay for as an

example even though I think it would

apply to comedy. Uh when I wrote Bow

Finger the movie, I had the idea for the

script for a long time, at least for 10

years, which was an actor is starring in

a movie he doesn't know he's in, meaning

he's being followed around by

surreptitiously by a film crew. So you

have that idea. I thought that was

that's funny. You could create

situations and put somebody in. So you

start working backwards. What does that

mean? Okay, it's not a major studio

that's going to follow around an actor.

There's got to be a dreamer.

And uh I I remembered somebody told me

once 100 years ago they're making

independent films. They they they

financed the entire film on a credit

card. I thought I like that idea. That's

that's real uh drive of getting

something together. And I like the

subject matter of someone who's so

driven that they want to do something.

So you start working backwards. So you

say, okay, um, there's a guy who's a

failed filmmaker, has a little bit of

credit to himself, and he's got loyal

followers who are even slight slightly

below him economically and status-wise,

who have faith and he's a guru. Um, and

and I remember Lauren Michaels uh said

to me one time, he said, "There's

nothing funnier than small-time show

business." And I thought, "That's this

area. That's this a small time show

business." Okay. himself. All right. So,

I'm at the meeting with Jerry Renfro and

it's going very well, but I'm looking at

him and I'm thinking, you know, I don't

need him. What I need is someone like a

Kit Ramsey. Kit Ramsay makes this a go

picture. So, I went to see Kit at his

home.

Oh my god.

And what did he say?

What did who say?

What did Kit Ramsey say?

Oh, what did Kit Ramsey say? Okay, so

I'm meeting with Kit at his home and by

the way, he knew who I was, a big fan.

And I gave him the script and he looked

through the script and I said, "So, so

what do you think? Are you interested in

doing this movie?" And

Kit looked at me and

he said,

Kid

just

said

yes.

Kit Ramsay said yes.

Kit Ramsay is doing this movie.

when I was working on the joke jerk. The

joke uh The jerk it was my very first

screenplay. had only written sketches. I

did h and I I wrote it uh with two other

really good writers, Carl Gotautle, who

wrote Jaws and Michael Elias, who was a

great comedy writer,

but I did think I know what this is

about. They the movie summarized they

call it a rags to riches to rag story.

So said I like the idea

of him starting poor.

I like the idea of him getting rich off

something innocuous, something

accidental. And that came from a friend

of mine. Uh he always used to tell

people he would pretend like he was rich

and they'd say, "How'd you get rich?" He

said, "Oh, my my grandfather invented

the tennis ball." And you know, he was

completely making that up. And I

thought, "Yeah, that that that white out

story, the person who made white out,

you know, as a bill multi-billionaire."

So I like that. So I came up with the

idea of the little glasses handle. And I

said, "But for the sake of the story, I

don't want him to end up rich.

So, how can how can I do both? Uh, one

is uh he can lose all his money by being

a an idiot and being arrogant and sloppy

like people are."

And then sort of get the best of both

worlds when his dad shows up and says,

"Well, you've been sending me money and

I put it in a no-load mutual trust

fund." you know, it's probably what he

should have been doing, at least in that

period. Uh, so we get the best of both

worlds and it reunites the family. So, I

knew I had the beginning and I knew I

had the middle and I knew I had the end.

And then it's just filling it in like,

okay, what happens next? What happens

next? He goes on the road. He joins the

circus.

He meets a girl.

Uh, he inadvertently invents

uh something that makes him rich. and he

meets an honest businessman, you know,

who gives him the money he deserves. Um,

and it's just filling in the blanks by

till you get the end.

This is another uh little I don't know

secret or mantra or way to think.

You're writing something or you're

performing something.

You think where should it go next? Where

should it go? Like forget about where it

is going. Where should it go? What feels

to you? What's the next paragraph? What

does this first paragraph imply for the

next paragraph?

And I've done it with movies. I've done

it with plays. I think what should

happen next? Not what do I want to

happen? What should happen? Should

somebody come in the kitchen? You know,

when I sat down to write uh uh my play,

one of my plays, Picasso at the Lapil, I

thought I want to write, I knew what I

wanted to write about.

Picasso when he was a young man in his

early 20s, he knew he was a genius

and he would hang out in bars. Now,

I hung out in bars. Wasn't a genius, but

I hung out in bars like the Trouador.

And there were all these young artists.

There were the Eagles, Linda Ronstat,

uh, great performers to be.

And so I had this experience of like

young creative people hanging out

together. So I'm going to write about

Picasso being a young person kind of

knowing he's a genius. So I thought, I

think I have a premise here. So I sat

down to write it and I thought, okay,

I'm writing the bar, setting the scene,

and I go, what happens next?

And I went, "Oh,

uh, Albert Einstein walks in." Now, I

had no idea this play was going to be

about Albert Einstein and Picasso, but

weirdly, subconsciously, these two guys

were approximately the same age, both on

the verge of creative,

you know, masterful works,

and it just appeared. Now I if I had

thought about it I went should but what

should happen next and I said somebody

needs to come in who's not Picasso. It

all it all just kind of worked out by

magic. Um but I think that's

subconscious thought at work and and

dealing with what should happen next.

this current play I'm writing or or have

written called meteor shower when I was

writing it I was maybe at the loosest

stage of my writing life I was just

writing sometimes didn't know where it

was going you just keep pouring that out

you don't know what it is now later

you're going to look at it and you're

going to use your uh intellect to shape

it but you'll have never found those

crazy moments if you let your intellect

do the writing you've got to let your

your artistic mind write write so

freely. Um, so but then what I would

discover is I'd look I'd say, gee,

here's something crazy. I said

cannibalism.

So I'm on page 10 and I mentioned can

cannibalism. Now that's not an idea you

think is going to go somewhere. So now

on page 50, when you call it back, it

starts to give cohesiveness

to the piece. And when you're in the

middle of something, you you're holding

everything in your mind. It's amazes me.

I thought, well, I don't remember what

happened on page 12. But it turned out I

did. And I think for most people, you're

you're creating cohesion even when you

don't know it, especially if you learn

how to utilize it. If you can connect

those dots in some meaningful way, it's

going to be surprising. Call it back and

h suddenly have it have a meaning.

When I wrote the script for LA story and

I finished it

and I looked at it and I thought there's

very little dialogue and I didn't really

know how to write dialogue. I talked to

David Mamemoth one day and he was just

talking on another sub subject. He says

then that'll be the dialogue. I can

write dialogue all day. I'm going can't

oh my god I'm having trouble

but slowly through the years I somehow

liberated my mind and now I love to

write dialogue. It just feels natural.

You just think what's next? What what

would they say? What would they say? Can

I go off on this tangent? And and you

know that sometimes when a character

speaks and you're waiting for the it's

kind of a cliche that the characters

start writing it. At first when you're

writing something

you're writing it

and then when it's developed and the

characters are become clear they start

writing it.

uh the characters have their own uh

parameters that they carry around with

them and their own responses and it's

it's a really nice moment when you feel

oh I I know what this next line is. I

know what he or she would say.

know that you're in communication with

someone and you have to be clear.

Now, whether they like it or not, that's

up to them. And you can say they don't

like that, but it was clear. I made my

point clear. If you're being uh absurd,

if you're doing non sequittors,

they have to know that was a

nonsequittor. They can't think what was

that.

They have to know it's where that line

lies in some way so they can kind of

accept it or reject it. Um

so clarity even when you're being

obscure is very important. Uh because if

it's just obscure they don't know what

you meant. You have to give them a clue

to what you meant.

Your subconscious is I deeply believe

this is constantly creative.

And

sometimes you can just pose you. You

know how you're something's going on in

your life and you have no solution for

it and then two days later it goes,

"Oh," and it just pops into your head. I

don't think it just popped in. Something

down here is working on it. And you can

actually pose those situations to

yourself. You say, "I don't know quite

how to say." Just say, "I need a bit

about, you know, airplanes

and or or my ending isn't working. Uh,

my opening isn't working."

Don't panic. When you're when you're not

working, you're working. Trust me. And

give it some time. It's going to come.

In fact, I heard a psychologist recently

talk. He said, uh, recent studies have

shown that the daydreamer

is actually working harder than the

person who's working hard. So, of

course, you have to do both, but trust

your daydreaming. And you, you know, you

don't always have to be uh specifically

working on something and punishing

yourself. And writer's block is there

for a reason. Just give it some time.

Pose the problem. If you're writing

something, pose the problem in your

mind. Walk away from it. Go to a party.

Wait a couple of days. Have a dream.

Don't worry about writer's block.