This week at the London Comedy Writers Alex Howley returned with another episode of his animated sitcom. This proved to be a unique experience because it was quite obvious that he had taken onboard all the feedback from his last reading at the beginning of the year. So was he successful?
I say it many times, but if you can get a laugh out of room full of writers you are doing good and let’s just say there were plenty of laughs. One of Alex’s strongest attributes is his writing style and his unique voice. I can point to nothing like it and this is a definite bonus.
A problem with readings is that any stage directions can kill a script. It is not that they shouldn’t be there, but in a reading they should be looked at to see if they are all really needed. Alex suffered from this in his last reading and so in this script he weighted it much more heavily on dialogue. The response from the group is that he went too far in that direction and didn’t take advantage of visual opportunities that animation provides.
Last time the plot was all over the place, loads of things going on and tons of characters, so this time Alex focused the script on one simple story and again there was the feeling he went too far in that direction. The lack of a sub plot meant that characters spent too much time discussing what was going rather than doing it (Like in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and a favourite character from the last reading was left in the wings.
Another interesting point was the name calling, the running joke in the show got big laughs in the first half but died off in the second. There was debate whether name calling got less funny or we just got bored of the joke. It was decided we got bored of the joke and that it should be used less liberally.
All in all a great night as we set the record for the most “Twats” in a single script (58 in total). Alex being an animator himself has plans to make a pilot at some point in the future. You can see some of his animation below.
Quote of the night: “I loved the Judge Dredd joke… and that was about it.” (meant as a compliment)
Tags: critic, london comedy writers, meeting, review, Script
