BPS 034: The Hidden Tools of Comedy with Steve Kaplan

Today on the show we have comedy legend, author, and writer Steve
Kaplan. For years, Steve Kaplan has been the industry’s most
sought-after expert on comedy. In addition to having taught at
UCLA, NYU, Yale and other top universities, Steve created the HBO
Workspace, the HBO New Writers Program and was co-founder and
Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre. He has consulted
and taught workshops at companies such as HBO, DreamWorks, Disney,
Aardman Animation, Sony Pictures Network India, Globo Brazil, and
others.

In New York, Steve was co-founder and Artistic Director of
Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, where he developed writers such as
Peter Tolan (Analyze This, The Larry Sanders Show), writer and
producer David Crane (Friends, Episodes), writer/producer Tracy
Poust (Ugly Betty, Will & Grace), Michael Patrick King (Sex and
The City, Will & Grace), David Ives (Venus in Fur), Howard
Korder (Boardwalk Empire), David Fury (The Tick, Buffy, The Vampire
Slayer), Lisa Loomer (The Waiting Room), Tom Donaghy (The
Mentalist), Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester by the Sea) and Mark
O’Donnell (Hairspray) and introduced such performers as Lewis
Black, Mercedes Ruehl, Oliver Platt, Helen Slater, Fisher Stevens,
Veanne Cox, Sam McMurray, Vickie Lewis and Illeana Douglas.

In Los Angeles, he created the HBO New Writers Project, discovering
HBO Pictures screenwriter Will Scheffer (Big Love), and
performer/writer Sandra Tsing Loh (Aliens in America),; and the HBO
Workspace, a developmental workshop in Hollywood that introduced
and presented performers such as Jack Black and Tenacious D, Kathy
Griffin, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross (Mr. Show), Josh Malina and
Paul F. Tompkins. At the Workspace, he was Executive Producer for
the award-winning HBO Original Programming documentary DROP DEAD
GORGEOUS. Steve has directed in regional theaters and Off-Broadway
(including Sandra Tsing Loh’s ALIENS IN AMERICA at Second
Stage).

In addition to private coaching and one-on-one consultations, Steve
has taught his Comedy Intensive workshops to thousands of students
in the United States and countries around the world, including
London, Toronto, Galway, Athens, Paris, Tel Aviv, Sydney,
Melbourne, Rio, Munich, New Zealand, and Singapore. This year, he
will be presenting seminars and workshops in Los Angeles, Brussels,
London, and via Skype, Sweden.

His new book The Comic Hero’s Journey. I can’t recommend it
enough.

A comic hero or heroine also goes on a journey, but for the comic
hero, it’s often quite, quite different. The hero decides to go on
the adventure; the comic hero often has no choice. The hero has a
wise old man; the comic hero often meets an idiot who inadvertently
says something that can teach him a thing or two. Steve Kaplan will
show you the diverse paths that comedy takes in The Comic Hero’s
Journey.

This interview is EPIC! If you want to learn how to create funny in
your screenplays or projects this episode is for you.

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