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SCROLL DOWN (or CLICK) TO READ
LETTER: "Dear
Lorne Michaels, et al:"
OR skip right to
the SKETCH MAP
which follows the intro letter to see what's trying
to happen in comedy.
COMEDY FANS!! We need your oh-so-verrrry
valuable opinions on these prototype comedy sketches!!!
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TV/FILM Industry Opinions ON Benjamin
Ligeri
"The Future of
Comedy!"
J. Stephen Maunder, writer/director/produer
of over a dozen feature films
(see Mr.
Maunder's credits out on
IMDB) |
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"REQUIRED"
READING:
READ ABOUT 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE'S™ COMEDY HISTORY HERE
READ OVER
2,000
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE™ SKETCH TRANSCRIPTS HERE
READ ABOUT
COMEDY CENTRAL'S™ COMEDY HISTORY HERE
READ ABOUT MTV
NETWORKS'™ COMEDY HISTORY HERE
READ ABOUT
GENERAL ELECTRIC'S™ COMEDY ACQUISITION HISTORY HERE
Yahoo/Google ***forced me to put this type of
information up {the "additional reading" section} in order
to be listed on certain terms/bids, because they say, without it,
i'm not providing information suitable to the comedy terms i've
selected -- that meets the content requirements of the terms in
question --
***All of my terms were initially denied by
Yahoo, they used "madtv" as an example to show me my insufficient
content in relation to MADtv (and the other sponsored bidders
bidding on the term), below is a print screen of those
other more "suitable" bidders that they allow to bid on
the term "MADtv" -- you'll notice an airline company
advertising flights to Madrid. I thought that might not work in
my case, plus I don't have any planes, or affiliations with
people with planes, so i went with second best, more information about
comedy and comedy shows!!
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Dear Lorne Michaels, et
al:
Phew!
Finally, I get to the letter. Orite, let me start with the "et al"
part: meaning, also any "others" who hire/contract writers for
national comedy TV shows. And, for that matter, all you comedy
fans out there - you're the reason I'm writing this letter right
now. Okay, I know you're all busy, so, without further
ceremonious ado, I hereby proceed...
How
'bout a little history/bio first? If so, stay tuned, if not, skip to
the next INDENTED paragraph:
My name is Benjamin Ligeri, and as soon
as I could see, I saw the world in a different shade than everyone
else. (it was really an undefined shade, too - closest to a
dark, dark maroon-ish, but that’s all guesswork).
As a kid, I was the “only” in
everything. The only 4th grader who preferred seaweed to
Gushers, the only kindergartener to see how prosaic the B-I-N-G-O
song was -- that everyone else seemed to enjoy, and the only kid to
get kicked out of his Catholic elementary school (twice, too, and
maybe they didn’t realize I made rosary beeds in my spare time as an
unpaid member of the Holy Legion of Mary – but that’s neither here
nor there, that’s in the past). The question is WHY??Because I saw
the world in a different shade.. Sister Ruth saw Phonics as second
only to God, I saw Sister Ruth as second only to phonics.
Essentially, I was peerless, that’s what I’m driving at here, if
it’s not obvious. And since nobody understood my language, I
realized I was gonna have to learn to translate into theirs.. and
fast. But what I discovered on this self-sacrificial and
self-abnegational (yes, both terms were necessary) journey was that,
before you can translate, you have to know the anthropormorphics and
mother tongue of the other—species—in this case, a species
who went about masquerading themselves under the title:
“humans”.
Long story short, my life was a joke
(but an important joke) and because I wanted it to be. Sure, I was
tempted to bow to the whims of Sister Ruth, she’d be happy and stop
hitting me, but then we wouldn’t be having this conversation, now
would we? No.
Orite
now, let’s bring it home with this, and let’s start talking Turkey,
with a little English mixed in, too. My translation attempts,
well, they became amusing, and after a decade plus of effecting
to induce laughter (see synonyms at humor) in friends, family,
classmates, co-workers, and other casual humans, and after hearing
“you should write for Saturday Night Live!!!" over a thousand times,
it hit me. Maybe I should. Last year, I sat down and, in about six
months time, learned to translate my “comedy language” into (among
other outlets) TV sketch writing. In that time, I also wrote about
50 finished sketches, all original characters and themes, including
about a dozen recurring scenarios (see Sketch
Syllabus). And I was just getting warmed up. And I had
everyone read these sketches and, bottom line, just reading them
(without the comedians to act them out), they laughed their feathery little petutes off (no, "feathery
little petutes" isn’t a link, I wish).
So, with the prodding of these petute
holders, I decided to try marketing these sketches.. that was the
first reality check. I sent letters to TV shows (‘SNL’, ‘NBC’ c/o
Lorne Michaels and Tina Fey), Comedy Central, etc..), NO responses.
And I understand, you all probably get thousands of letters.. and I
saw ‘SNL’s policy on not sending original material, so I sent a
“logline” of the 50 sketches with a letter instead. I
figure my letter never got into the right hands or maybe the lack of
having a sketch to read was part of the problem, so I started this
“smoke signals” website and wrote a SPEC sketch of the old (and my
favorite) ‘Bill Brasky’ series (“Bill Brasky.. in a Gay Bar”) to shortcut
even the most zealous Intellectual Property savants. Since the days
of writing “the big fifty” (sketches), ideas have been flowing in
(and catalogued by moi) for the next 200 hundred greatest sketches
of our time. When the ideas were really discharging out, I had to
bring a tape recorder into the bathroom with me, just in case I
got a few at a time – and THAT was to go number ONE..
anything more involved, I’d bring a stenographer in. And I thought,
"At this rate, I could practically fill the slate of an entire ‘SNL’
length show" each week – anyone not interested in that (even if only
partially {i.e., one hilarious sketch a week}) has got to be insane.
And I don’t think the “primary
satirical voice” is insane, I just think he’s primarily unacquainted
with me (and my defiance of Sister Ruth, which I’ve only shared a
taster of). And I look forward to getting acquainted with you
(and/or any of you other "et al’s" out there) and providing you with
as many sketches as you can handle. I plan to reach the world with
my material someday soon, we might as well get to know each other in
the incubation stage.
Sincerely,
Benjamin
Ligeri
NOW WHAT?
SKETCH
MAP
You’ll see a tab
above for the SPEC sketch
“Bill Brasky.. in a Gay Bar” (built on the framework of the 'SNL' recurring series
"Bill Brasky...)
I was going to leave
it at that, because I don’t want to reveal all the surprises that’ll
eventually be on national TV, and because I wanted to
ensure
worry-free Intellectual
Property Law
access (to those concerned) – HOWEVER, I feel it’s only right to
give a little more. So, to the rest of you, I’ve
added a button above to four of my own original
skeches. Two very simple and sweet Product Parody
sketches and two easy-going Character/Theme sketches, nothing
fancy.
Product Parody
sketches: “SIM Atrocity”,
and
"The Personal Diet Buddy".
Character
Theme sketches: "Trooper Johnson", and
"The Laid-Off Stockbroker".
You can also listen to
a full audio recording for "Bill Brasky.. in a Gay Bar" and
"The Laid-Off Stockbroker". For "Sim Atrocity", "The Personal Diet
Buddy", and "Trooper Johnson", you can listen to the
dialogue-only and read along with the sketch to see
what's happening.
**keep in
mind, these audio recordings are quick demo's made using a webcam
microphone and the cheap "Sound Recorder" that comes with all
computers -- and Mr. Ligeri is acting out all of the characters
himself, with the exception of "The Laid-Off
Stockbroker."
I’ve also created a
page called “Sketch Excerpts” where I took the liberty of showcasing
a description and excerpt from about 20 sketches of my sketches,
just to give you all a little additional feel. And I’ve even added a
little audio on a few of these as well, to give you a taste of
the nuances of some of the characters. For one of these, in
particular, "The Wesley Johnson
Show", you can watch a video clip from two "webcam shows" of
Wesley's.
Now, to all you comedy
fans now, we need your opinions, we value your opinions, so
please... take a look at the sketches as well. On the pages of each
sketch, you’ll find a link to the blog where you can leave
comments.. And I’m not trying to “use” you all as pawns. Not only
will you enjoy the read, but in return for your comments, Mr. Ligeri
will allow the heavens to trickle down sweet-scented
laurels on all of your faces. And you can take THAT to your nearest
savings and loan institute.
Thank you
again.
And I greatly
appreciate your time and support OF comedy.
Love,
Benjamin Ligeri.
ADD A COMMENT TO
BLOG:
ComedyFans.DearLorneMichaels.com
Contact Benjamin
Ligeri
by EMAIL
by PHONE: (401) 952-6661,
or by
clicking HERE.
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FAN COMMENTS
About 200 people have simply read
and loved Mr.
Ligeri's sketches; which means that
there's currently
2,950,000+ people being deprived of that loving feeling, in the U.S.
alone.
Here's a few of those genuine
fan comments:
See more on the blog:
ComedyFans.DearLorneMichaels.com
"I
must say, it's funnier than 99% of what's been on SNL in the last 20
years."
~ SNL
SPEC:
'Bill Brasky in a Gay
Bar'
"Absolutely the best sketch EVER! Dark humor and I
love it!!!!!!! Good JOB!!!!!!!!!!"
~
'Cancer On Demand'
"Redd Foxx is smiling
somewhere."
~ 'The Analwarts' Family'
"i think it's really funny. its a great example of how
a sketch can be really short and focus on one simple but great joke,
as opposed to hokey dialogue. i like it. ...
do you write
for a specific sketch comedy group? will this ever be
performed?"
~ 'Just One
Interest'
"This
is really funny."
~ SIM
Atrocity
"That
was laugh out loud hilarious."
~ 'The Personal
Diet Buddy'
"They're both entertaining. I don't think
I could really put one above the other. I like the Karl Rove
Android."
~ 'The Real Bush' (Epis. 1 &
2)
"I love the way they speak in this
sketch."
~ 'Praire House
Problems'
"The
Real Bush should be a weekly recurring episode on SNL, it should be
on every single week!! Why isn't it?!"
~ 'The
Real Bush' (Ep#1 & 2)
"The skit is
hilarious.."
"OH MY GOD, BEN, THIS IS
AMAZING!!"
~ 'The Broker's
Club'
"It's
not clear to me who is being made fun of."
~ 'The
Personal Diet Buddy'
"THAT
was a masterpiece."
~ SIM
Atrocity
"hahaha, love it!"
"This
one is funny."
"I share Bush's
sentiment."
~ 'Bush On Racial
Equality'
"The
Levitra Sketch is great."
~ 'Whistleblower From
Levitra'
"It's so rude I can't stop laughing.
I don't
know what to make of it."
~ 'The Analwarts Fam.'
(Ep#2)
"As a dry caucasian who laughed his flaky
scalp off, I feel I must congratulate you on your sketch. So then,
congratulations!"
~ 'Just One
Interest'
"Wow.
Just, wow.
I don't know if there is something I'm missing that
would make this sketch more relevant, so I'm going to go with the
absurdist interpretation. This is damned funny. I don't know why
it's so funny or if you're allowed to make jokes like this anymore,
but it tickles my fancy."
~ 'Just One
Interest'
"Good, good, really reminds me of the old Monty Python
skit, "The Gits." It works pretty well because you don't just repeat
the same tired vulgar and gross words, but come up with excellent
combinations with a lot of description, which really keeps the
audience involved, because they'll be listening for what's coming
next."
~ 'The Analwarts Fam.' (Ep.
1)
SEE MORE FAN COMMENTS ON THE BLOG OR ADD
YOUR OWN COMMENT:
ComedyFans.DearLorneMichaels.com
Contact Benjamin
Ligeri
by EMAIL
by PHONE: (401) 952-6661,
or by
clicking HERE. |
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