What are your thoughts on ghost writers. I'm thinking about asking a female stand up comedian to write or donate to me 5 or 6 jokes that my female, stand up comedian character might say on stage. I'd write them myself but I'm a 60 year, Native American male and don't really have a grasp on the female POV. If I did this hire a ghost joke writer do you recommend a written agreement for the deal or just pay her 100.00 and the deal is done? Cheers.
Screenwriting : Ghost joke writer by Gerry Barrett
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Nothing wrong with having a joke writer provide material. Do get a simple agreement that says you are paying her for X number of jokes for X compensation, and no further compensation is provided. And then add a clause that says you can use the jokes in other material (so if the script doesn't sell, you can roll the jokes into another story).
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It's done all the time Gerry Barrett! and I agree with Lindbergh E Hollingsworth that you should paper it.
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Or, the cheaper and easier option is that you can write whatever joke in there you feel like. Sometimes the producer/studio will do a punch up and bring in a more seasoned comedy writer to make the jokes better and of course depending on the actress hired she might have some ideas of jokes she wants to try out. Nothing in a script is set in stone and it makes little sense to pay for something that can be so easily changed by producer, director, actress, etc.
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As Scott Sawitz said, a lot of stand up comedians use ghost/staff writers
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Thanks everyone for your thoughts. A director/screenwriter read an early draft of my script and suggested that I put the female comedian's comedy monologue in the script, so that's what slowed me down a bit as I wanted the comedian's jokes to be funny, original and feel real. But I'll go ahead without a ghost writer and write five jokes for the character myself. Cheers.