People, Not Plot

 
 
 
 

Transcript:

I was listening to an interview with Shia LaBeouf years ago, and he was talking about how he likes movies about people, not so much movies about plot.


Independent films tend to be more about people, the characters.  That’s what makes indie films a bit more offbeat, quirky, weird.


People are offbeat, quirky, weird.


There’s a lot of variation in people.  Lot of interesting characters in the world.


Studio movies tend to be more about plot.  What happens.  That’s more basic.  The what happens story moving from plot point to plot point without any detours to investigate the character quirks of individuals – it’s a different story.  Different approach.


The plot based what happens story is easier for a broader audience to latch onto.


This explodes, so, this happens next.  There’s clear cause and effect.


A story about Jerome crying in his car after he buys paints at the arts and crafts store…that seems more like a Jerome thing.  What’s going on with Jerome?  I need more backstory on Jerome.  Take me into Jerome’s life in depth.  That’s the only way we’re gonna sort out why these paints were so triggering.


But if a car explodes next to Jerome; Jerome’s probably gonna react how most people would react.  The individual character quirk of crying when buying paints gets superseded by the demands of the major plot point.  He can’t just keep crying in his car over his paints.


So, if you want an interesting movie about an individual that gets inside their mind and life in-depth…maybe consider skipping the major, obvious, earth-shaking plot points.  Maybe those are less valuable in making this film memorable.


How is this relevant to stand-up comedy?


You’ve got to put the personal into your act. You need to invest yourself. The set-ups and punch lines are plot points, but you want more flavor than that.


Don’t be so worried all the time about getting from A to B.  That’s important.  Your movie still needs a plot.


But it doesn’t have to be the focus, front and center all the time.


Indie films have texture.


You can give your jokes a texture.  The way you approach and handle the topic can open up doors for you that wouldn’t be available for another person to walk through.


Write about people first.  Let people be little adventurers in your jokes, helping you play with an idea.  Don’t be so eager to jam your critical plot points into the bit.  This happens then this then this then this.  Don’t baby your audience like that.  If you do, they’ll never get any better as an audience.  They’ll stay comedy toddlers who only know fart and fall down jokes.


Stand-up can be a little disorganized.  Sometimes critics pan indie films for a lack of plot.  They meander too much.  They don’t know what type of film they are.


Your stand-up doesn’t have to know what type of film it is yet.  It can meander.  But keep writing about people.  Keep injecting yourself into your material.  Make stuff with texture and flavor.


Don’t sit down to write a story that starts here and ends there.


You don’t know where it starts and ends yet.


Neither does the audience and that’s what makes it interesting.


People are more interesting than plot because they can always change their mind.  They don’t have to be consistent.  We get mad at people when they aren’t consistent.  Those types of people frustrate us cuz we don’t understand them and we can’t predict them.  But guess what?  We’re all those types of frustrating, inconsistent people.  That’s part of what makes us interesting.


Be a frustrating, inconsistent person.  Don’t put yourself in a plot bottle.


Maybe the car explodes next to Jerome and he does just keep crying in his car over the paints, as if nothing else has happened that matters.  Maybe that makes the most sense in Jerome’s world.  Bit odd to the rest of us, probably, but, more interesting.


And I’m not saying be false.  Don’t just make up weird, quirky crap for the sake of it.  That’s a bad indie film.  But when you encounter weird, quirky crap - don’t shy away from it.


There’s plenty of weird stuff in this world that people shy away from talking about.  Feast on that stuff.  That’s the most fertile ground for stand-up comedy.  Make that odd, out-of-place stuff relatable by attaching it to people.  Everyone can relate to another person.


Develop who you are on stage, your character, the types of other characters you talk about – let the audience see the weird, fertile, indie crap through those lenses.


I’m not in the business of making action movie stand-up.  Maybe you are, but I’d encourage you not to be.


There’s plenty of people out there making action movie stand-up and I’m not going to convince any of them to change.


But I wanna see your indie film.  That’s more interesting to me.

Michael Franke