Great news! The British Comedy Guide have announced they’re running another conference, which will take place in the last weekend of September.
Meanwhile on the 21 and 22 May you can catch Steve Coogan and Lisa McGee at the BBC Belfast Comedy Festival. https://www.comedy.co.uk/pro/opportunities/318
I always recommend you go if you can, quite simply there is no other gathering of comedy people in the country more specifically tailored to your needs than these conference.
The BBC conference serves a different purpose. There are more superstar guest speakers for sure, and for the 24 hours after it ends comedy enjoys a moment in the spotlight as lazy journalists dig out the Book of BBC Clichés and ask “Is Sitcom Dead?” or “Why Can’t Britain Make Shows Like [insert name of current Netflix hit] Here?”
The BBC Conference is aimed at several audiences – the Government, to remind them of a small industry that has always over-achieved in the rest of the world; the big name talent, who are as insecure as the rest of us and need to be reminded that they too are loved; and of course the BBC itself, or rather the people in charge of finance who decide where this year’s biggest cuts need to fall. Not on us please, again, is the unsubtle message.
The BCG conference is worth going to because you are the people it is specifically organised for.
You only have to look at the panels from previous years to see that everything is geared towards people who want to write comedy.
It’s also aimed at performers but they need to learn how to write as well – or better still as far as you’re concerned, they need to find comedy writers like you. I’ve started to notice more stand-ups attending the BCG Conference which I promise is a good thing.
I know it’s expensive especially if you have to stay overnight but I recommend you try and find a way of going in September for this reason alone. Precisely because it is so difficult, because it requires you to push outside of whatever is your safe place. It might involve some kind of sacrifice. I say it’s a sacrifice worth making.
Comedy writers exist almost exclusively in a self-contained bubble of one – two if you write with a partner.
You might be confident about your abilities – although I doubt that, almost every comedy writer I’ve met at every level spends many hours of the day feeling like a fraud, apart from the ones who are cockily certain that they are good, and none of them are successful – but until you have that first credit or some other validation from a professional, you don’t yet feel like you deserve to show your face.
Join me live tomorrow night Thursday 1 May 7pm BST for our Ten Page Challenge – four writers with their scripts and a chance to see what others are doing, and pick up hits for your own scripts.
If you want to come – or send your own script for a future challenge – join Patreon, either as a paid member or for free: https://www.patreon.com/c/SitcomGeeksandComedyWritingFreaks