Hear your sketch read aloud before class

How do you write a comedy sketch?

Give it one premise, set up normal fast, then play one game bigger each time. Check your draft against these five steps.

1. Say the premise in one sentence. A normal situation, plus one unusual thing. A man at his checkup works out that his dentist isn’t a dentist. If you can’t say yours in one sentence, the sketch isn’t ready.
2. Set the base reality fast. Who these people are to each other, where they are, what they’re doing. Bob, a new dentist, a routine checkup. Get it into the first few lines, so we know what normal looks like.
3. Find the game. The first unusual thing: the dentist asks Bob which end of the drill goes in. The game is the pattern the sketch repeats. Here, each time Bob spots a gap, the dentist covers it with total confidence. Many classes call it “the game”, a term from improv.
4. Heighten. Each beat plays the same game, bigger. He reads the X‑ray upside down. He asks Bob to hold the drill while he looks something up. Three beats is common. Let Bob react the way a real patient would. That keeps it grounded.
5. End when the game peaks. Stop on the biggest beat. Don’t explain who he really is.

Then hear it. Read aloud, you can tell whether the game is clear by the second beat, and where it sags. Scriptroom reads your sketch with a different voice for each character, exactly as written.

How long is a comedy sketch?

Most run two to five minutes, which is a few pages. Many classes and shows want shorter. There’s no fixed rule, so check what yours asks for.

How do you format a sketch script?

Put a title in capitals at the top of each sketch, with a blank line under it. Write character names in capitals, above their lines. In a Word, Docs or text file, BOB: Is he a real dentist? on one line works too, as long as the name is in capitals. Keep action lines short, and use them for what we see.

A packet with several sketches works, as long as each one has its own title.

Scriptroom reads PDF, Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain and plain text. Scanned PDFs can’t be read. If you can’t select the words in your PDF, it’s a scan.

Can I hear my sketch read aloud?

Yes. Drop it in and each character gets their own voice. Their names aren’t read out before every line. The whole sketch plays, start to end.

Is it free?

Yes, with a free account and no card. Then the whole sketch plays. Free covers a sketch a week, with room to hear the rewrites. Hearing a line again doesn’t count twice.

Questions