Online Class: SNL Sketch Packet with Kim “Howard” Johnson

Create at least eight separate sketches, suitable for submission to literary agents, TV producers, network executives, not to mention SNL itself.

If you’re studying improv, there’s a good chance that SNL has something to do with it. From our perspective, the show itself serves as a good starting point from which to teach sketch comedy, because it’s got a lot of moving parts, it’s on every week, and its writers have a conceptual blank check to create whatever they want within the confines of the show’s intrinsic qualities.

Instructor: Kim “Howard” Johnson

Week-to-week:

Class One:

Students learn to write jokes based on headlines and from those jokes create a Cold Opening sketch.

Class Two:

Students then write two opening monologues, as if they and their heroes were hosting.

Class Three:

Students compile a streamlined Weekend Update.

Class Four:

Students create a commercial parody and a digital short.

Class Five:

Students write and rewrite a live parody sketch based upon a current film or TV show.

Class Six:

Students create an existing character scene from within the current cast’s repertoire of characters.

Class Seven:

Students write a scene that epitomizes their POV.

Class Eight:

Students work with a director to create a balanced running order for a completely original, 45-minute show.