The Serious Business of Writing, Performing & Selling Comedy

This book contains numerous tips and tools for writing sketches, one-liners and sitcom scripts, as well as invaluable insights into scripting and performing stand-up and directing sketch comedy. Based on over 30 years in the entertainment industry - including working as editor of the BBC comedy web site - Brian also passes on a wealth of tactics and strategies for getting your comedy material in front of an audience and onto the desks of the right people in the industry.

Brian has been lecturing on comedy writing since 2002 and is probably best known for creating the comedy series Pets for Channel 4. He has written for sketch shows on ITV and Channel 5 and has performed countless times on the Edinburgh Fringe. His film Refusal was nominated for Best Animated Short at the Paris Film Festival in 2021, and his comedy shows Monday Tuesday Banana and Space Planet won awards at the Lisbon Film Festival and the Prague International Film Festival in 2020.

Feedback from BrianÕs comedy workshops:

ÒBrilliant!Ó
John Lloyd, creator QI and Blackadder

ÒSublime!Ó
Phil Mathews, Senior Tutor, Bournemouth University

ÒI got loads of useful tips, tools and motivationÓ
Tim Reid, co-writer Peter KayÕs Car Share

ÒBrian helped me learn the basics of how to write sketches.Ó
Imran Yusuf, Edinburgh Comedy Award Nominee