Comedy advice

In this month's WGA magazine, there's a fantastic article from the writers of "Modern Family." (if you can get your hands on a copy, read it!)

Remember how I was describing the difference between single cam and multicam auditions a few posts back? Well this explains it better than I ever could:

[On previous sitcoms (Ugly Betty, Will & Grace), we could get by with big jokes. Here, the big jokes don't end up playing as well. We get laughs out of things that aren't written jokes per se. They're smaller, more tossed off things. Levitan says he often tells his actors not to lean on a joke, but just "drop it off and drive away..."]


Genius. And such a great way to think of it. There's no need to play into the joke. If it's written well, you don't need to "sell it."

Just drop it off, and drive away. Love that.