Hi All ! So I recently had coverage on the first 20 pages of my comedy and the person who read my script said that the dialogue was fun and zany. I think the word "fun" is good but not sure about zany. Thoughts? This is my first comedy. I write drama and crime so it's a stretch.
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Nothing wrong with zany. I would be glad if someone told me my dialogue was zany. But of course I go for zany.
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Zany, for me is performance. So your words are putting a zany performance in their head. Don’t know if that is good or bad. Does zany make it funnier?
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Christine, sounds good.
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Zany: another word for screwball ... screwball comedies were big in the 30's. Other synonyms: madcap, crazy, whacky, watch a few Marx Brothers comedies and listen to the dialog, puns, one liners, but you have to be quick to catch the references. Watch Blythe Spirit (original), or Bringing Up Baby...and if you really want to read some zany, What the Butler Saw (Joe Orton).
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Considering the first word was "fun" and not the equivalent of "boring", I'd consider it a win.
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I like Zany
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think zany ix good.
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Zany is just another way of saying 'broad comedy', which is highly sought after at the moment.
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I’m a fan of zany comedies. In general, I think a consistency of tone is important in anything. The Jerk is a brilliant zany comedy and keeps its tone throughout. If your script is consistent in its tone then that’s the win. The “fun” part tells me it probably is. Sounds positive to me.
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Considering it was paired with "fun" I'd take it as a positive.
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Christine, I take my hat off to you...and I'll take "fun" and "zany" any day of the week!
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I would definitely take it as a positive! It's so hard when you're getting notes to disassociate a bit from the language used. We're writers, word choice is so important! But a word like "zany" might mean something slightly different to people. And the fact that this person enjoyed your comedy script and that's not your usual genre is SO AWESOME!
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M LaVoie haha! I was just talking about that scene. I love scenes that we can remember over 20 years ago. Thx for posting.
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Thank you everyone! It gives me confidence to keep writing it. My Dad just passed away a few months ago and when I would tell him about this script, he'd laugh and say "You need to finish it. It's really funny." And he'd even laugh to himself thinking about it and even gave me a scene idea. He was a jokester and had a quirky sense of humor so maybe that's who I get it from so I want to finish this script in honor of him.
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Christine Capone I love that story! Thank. you for sharing, I'm sure he would be so happy you're working so hard on it!
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My condolences to you and your family, Christine Capone.
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Thank you Emily!
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Thank you Maurice.
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You're welcome, Christine Capone.
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It sounds like a good start. Think of fun and zany films you've seen in the past and how you, and movie goers, felt about them. Personally it makes me like what you are working on.
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Thanks Bill! I'm hoping it's a likable screenplay.
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Hi Christine, I am Laurie. I am a young actress from Paris. I eager to learn and I would love to connect. I am launching regular ‘cold reading’ sessions on Zoom. Every sunday night, we gather with fellow international actors to read scripts from a movie or tv show sent the day before. Let me know if you would be interested in participating, we’d love to read your scripts out loud and create together :)
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Zany is good.
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Best of luck, I can’t see any way that zany would be bad unless someone specifically asked for more serious comedy.
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Christine- nothing wrong with zany (wacky) though I would suggest that if the dialogue of the characters is zany at the start, it should have that same tone throughout. If only one character acts zany, then make sure that character is constant throughout.
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I was thinking of zany movies and came up with Animal House, Young Frankenstein, and Ghostbusters. You got this.
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Sometimes zany can mean campy.
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Zany would be good for mine.
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Eric Sollars - true! The reader did say "fun" and "zany" so who knows. What movies would you say are campy? I'd like to read them. thanks!
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Rocky Horror Movie Show is the King of Camp.
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Eric -thank you! I'm far from that style I think. haha. I guess we'll see what happens with the script.