I'm currently reviewing "Truth in Comedy" by Charna Halpurn, Del Close, and Kim Johnson, which I HIGHLY recommend. It's a quick read, and outside of explaining the "Harold" long-form format developed by Charna and Del Close in Chicago, it has wonderful pearls of wisdom about collaboration. I'm hoping to go through and extract these pearls for our collaborative writing project. Here are the first:
"The truth is funny. Honest discovery, observation, and reaction is better than contrived invention."
"A truly funny scene is not the result of someone trying to steal laughs at the expense of his partner, but of generosity -- of trying to make the other person (and his ideas) look as good as possible."
"There are no bad ideas.
There are no mistakes. Everything is justified.
The best way to look good is to make your fellow players look good.
Treat other as if they are poets, geniuses and artists, and they will be."