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Issue 20 - The Variety Show

Welcome!

In this issue we're going to look at putting together a Variety Show in your High School.

In this issue:

WHAT'S NEW
You asked, we listened. We now offer PDF downloads and photocopy licenses. Theatrefolk just keeps a-changing!
WHY VARIETY?
What is the Variety Show and Why do it?
PART ONE - FORMAT
Different variety show formats.
PART TWO - THEME
The possibilities are endless!
THE ART OF SKETCH
Write the perfect sketch.
HINTS AND TIPS
J. Robert Wilkins shares his secret hints and tips for putting together a great show.
MY VARIETY SHOW EXPERIENCE
Lindsay writes about performing in her high school Variety Show.
MY VARIETY SHOW EXPERIENCE
J. Robert Wilkins writes about the impact of the Variety Show in his School.
BOOKS TO LOOK AT
Five Books to turn to for writing Variety Show sketches.
CONFERENCE ALERT
Meet us in person.
IN THE NEXT ISSUE
What you can expect next.
STAY IN TOUCH
Contact Info/Read Our Blog.

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Why Variety?

The Variety Show follows a long established tradition. You can find its roots in vaudeville and even before that in British music hall and even before that in Shakespeare's time! The Variety Show is an evening of acts in a variety of styles - singing, acting, dance, juggling, magic, musicians and so on. The pace is fast and the mood is light; no heart wrenching monologues here. The aim is to entertain.

A lot of schools use the Variety Show as a fund raiser. It's something that can be put together in a short period of time, it's cheaper to produce than a mainstage show, and it's a great format to showcase actors, singers, musicians, improv groups dancers and any other type of performer! It's also a nice way to bring together performers who might not necessarily try out for your traditional drama production.

Having said all that, the Variety Show should never be mistaken for something easy! There's a lot to coordinate; a lack of organization and vision can easily lead to disaster. Let the show begin...

Part One - Format

The more you think about your format before you dive into the Variety Show the better. If you know skeleton of the show, it'll be easier to build in the acts. Fly by the seat of your pants and that's exactly what the show will look like.

There are a couple of choices in terms of format:

Choose a theme in advance and announce it at least a month ahead of auditions. Acts must find a way to fit the theme. See Part Two for a list of suggested themes.
Audition performers and base the theme around them. This requires a group of actors to create sketches to link the acts. This is the type of Variety Show I did in high school. See the "My Variety Show Experience" article where I talk about how it worked.
Have a pre-determined opening and closing number involving all performers. Then the individual acts go in-between.

You also have to decide:

If you're going to take all the acts.
If you're going to have a set number of slots for bands, singers, dancers, actors.
How you're going to schedule the acts within the format.

There are, of course, pros and cons to each format. If you go with a theme, that means there's something in place for all the acts to adhere to. But what if a really good band doesn't have something to fit the theme? You can go with actors creating sketches around existing acts, but what if the sketches don't come together? What happens if acts drop out? What if your act order doesn't work?

If you're new to the Variety Show game, it may take a couple of years to work the kinks out. It's all about trial and error. Pick a format, go with it, discuss how it worked after the fact. Write a show report at the end so that when the next year rolls around you don't have to dredge your memory for what worked and what didn't.

Finally, and it may seem silly to say, use common sense when formatting your Variety Show. If your theme is Broadway, don't have two songs from the same show back to back. If you have a two similar sketches about reality television, one of them has to go. If you have a bare stage dance routine following a band, you need something to act as a transition. A comedy sketch on the front of the stage perhaps. Is the sketch long enough to cover the set change? Or maybe you have a "house band" on the side of the stage? Or maybe you have band, comedy sketch, band so that the drum kit doesn't have to be removed.

The bottom line is keep your audience entertained. There should never be a moment where the audience is sitting in silence waiting for something to happen.

Theatrefolk writer J. Robert Wilkins (whose new play THE FRIED KOBASSA comes out this month!) has written a fantastic hints and tips article which has more great suggestions.

Part Two - Themes

Deciding to have a pre-determined theme is fine, but how do you decide what theme to choose? Here is a list of potential themes for your Variety Show. You want something snappy, catchy and malleable. Pick too narrow a theme and all the acts will sound the same. You want something both the audience and the performers are going to have fun with.

Potential Themes

On Broadway
Songs and dance numbers featuring Broadway past and present. Scenes and sketches about trying to get into shows, auditioning for shows, trying to write shows. Improv sketches on Broadway shows that never made it or conversations in the cab on the way to a show. And don't forget a big opening and closing number!
The Golden Age of Television
The Variety Show format thrived on television in the 50's and 60's. Look up Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Your Show of Shows, the Dean Martin Variety Show for inspiration. Feature music and dance numbers from the same era.
The Circus
Thanks to Cirque du Soleil, the circus format is only limited by your imagination. What does your circus look like?
100 Channels of Fun
The modern age of television. Reality shows, game shows, the possibilities for creative commercials are endless.
Rock and Roll
A general theme that provides a blank canvas for your bands, singers, and dancers. The stereotypes of rock stars make for a great breeding ground for improv sketches and scenes.
Schoolhouse Rock
School life. Stick to high school or look at a variety of grade levels. How can a dancer interpret the first or last day of school?
Life is a Highway
Driving. It's something everyone can relate to. There must be a million songs about driving down the highway and a million sketch opportunities.
Calendar Daze
All acts have to pick a holiday or calendar event on which to base their acts.
Night at the Movies
Pick an era or a genre (action, romance, sci-fi) and run with it.
Dream a little Dream or Shoot for the Stars
Have a theme where all the acts relate to an abstract concept. It could be dreams, ambitions, love, hopes and fears. It could be wishes. Or imagination. Or allergies!
Cabaret! Show Time! or Encore!
A general theme that works for all genres and all acts. What if the sketches were about the backstage part of putting a show together?

The Art of Sketch

Sketches are vital to the Variety Show. They can provide a transition when you need to change acts behind the curtain, or a break between bands. They can help introduce acts, or help reinforce a theme.

Sketches are not scenes. In general, sketches are fast and funny. Get the characters into the moment and then get them out. There is no such thing as a sketch that is 'too short.' Sketches can run from three lines, to half a page to a maximum of three pages. A sketch should never be longer than five minutes.

Here are some guidelines to writing sketches.

Don't try to be funny
Forcing a joke will only come across as just that - forced. Use character and situation. Take your characters and put them in unimaginable situations. Give your characters flaws and then put them in a situation where their flaws have no choice but to come out. Give your characters fears and then put them in a situation where they have no choice but to cope with their fears. Give your characters an enemy and then lock them in a room with that enemy.
Keep it Short
Five minutes is too long. Practise writing short scenes of no longer than a page. If your group is new to sketch writing, every session should start out with an warm up writing exercise. Throw out a theme and have everyone write a three line sketch, a half page sketch and then a page sketch.
Get to the conflict
Get to the heart of the situation ASAP. Can you establish the conflict in the first line?
Don't Dismiss
All ideas should be welcomed to the table and tried out. Treat every idea with respect, and every writer with respect. Don't throw out any sketch until it's been given three readings (two if you're tight for time) You never know how an idea will change and grow if given the chance. Just as you never know how a writer will grow and change if they know they're in a friendly environment.
Allow Failure
Not every sketch you come up with will be useable. You shouldn't expect that everything you write will be comedy gold. If you allow yourself to fail, you'll be able to keep on writing till you hit the jackpot.
Work Together
No one person should be writing all the material. Give everyone a kick at the can.
Analyze Examples
It's always better to work on your feet rather than read a book about what you're doing. However, I think that analyzing sketches can be very useful, particularly in the timing department. Watch SNL, SCTV, Monty Python's Flying Circus, and any other sketch show. Time the sketches and answer the following questions: Who are the characters? What is the conflict? What's the first line? How does the sketch end? Is it too long? Did you lose interest? Was it funny? Why or why not?

Hints and Tips

By J. Robert Wilkins

When I and a fellow staff member started our variety show, we knew very little about staging a theatrical performance. We forged ahead and learned on the fly. The following comments are based on our experience over the past 23 years.

Start small and simple
In the first year we had one performance. The sold out house aroused interest in the community and provided the performers with immediate positive feedback. This encouraged both groups to come back the next year. We charged $1 in 1983 (the next year it was $3 and in 2004 it jumped to $4). We just wanted to get the people in the seats, expose them to the show, and create a demand. We started with a traditional format with a formal emcee introducing each act, and used simple lighting and set design. The focus of the show must be the talents of the students. This is what your audiences want to see.
Hype the show
It goes without saying that advertising in the community is essential. But keeping the show in a high profile within the school is even more important. We do this in several ways. First, we always stage the show at the same time every year (the week before spring break). It is on every school event listing so that everyone knows when the show is. Second, we gave the show a simple name. Our show is called "Entertainment Tonight." It is not a very original name, but it is effective because it has been shortened to ET which is now an immediately recognizable moniker in our school, our feeder schools, and our community. It is also effective to number the shows because it helps everyone to keep track of the history. ET23 was staged in March, 2007. Third, we keep students aware of the show in casual conversations by asking the simple question, "What are you doing for ET this year?" We begin asking as early as October. At the beginning of January, posters are up advertising audition dates and show dates. By the first week in February, we are accepting acts for the audition schedule. We use every opportunity to keep the show in the minds of students.
Take everybody, but raise the bar
Our goal has always been to take everyone who auditioned. But as time went on, we expected more. After the seventh years, we no longer accepted "air guitar" and "lip sync" acts. We also increased our expectations for auditions. We never expected polished acts at auditions. We judged acts by their potential; however, we did increase our expectation of preparedness and this is the most common reason acts were not accepted. Students understand that they cannot throw something together at the last minute and expect to be in the show.
Set high standards
The one thing my colleague and I did not want is for the show to have a "Christmas Concert" atmosphere. As a result, we expected our students to emulate a professional performance. To achieve this, we had some consistent "rules". For example, stay out of the house and foyer before performances. No peeking through the curtains to see if Aunt Jane is in the audience. Back stage, if it is not your job, don't get involved. Be on time for your act - if you aren't there, we black out and go onto the next act. Give the same performance every time. If you do or say anything inappropriate, we will black out and go on to the next act. These kind of expectations are necessary for students who have no background in theatre. The key thing is that all students accept and follow the rules.
Keep it short
This is also related to the "Christmas Concert" syndrome. We try to keep our shows between 60 and 75 minutes and certainly no more than 90 minutes. We feel it is better to leave our audiences wishing for more. We do a rough timing of all acts at auditions which helps us reach our running time goal. This enables us to ask students to make adjustments to acts or to eliminate some acts that have duplicate casts. We keep the majority of acts under five minutes. We work hard to keep the show moving quickly. We minimize the black between acts. One of the ways we do this is through the use of the apron and satellite stages. We are very conscious that at some point in time discomfort in the human butt can override the pleasurable stimulation of the brain.
Be creative
Once our show was established, we started to look for ways to give it a fresh look. We gave skits and dance numbers more elaborate sets. We improved our lighting and sound systems to enhance the performances. We eventually moved away from a traditional one emcee format. For a while, the emcee duties were performed by characters from some of the skits. In the past three years, the emcee has been eliminated and the acts have been incorporated into a scripted play. The students are the greatest source of creativity. We tune into it, encourage it, and use it. The important thing is to be innovative while maintaining the original intent of the variety show which is to showcase student talent.
Pay attention to detail
We were quick to realize that the quality of the final product was dependent on how well we attended to all of the little things. The list of little things is seemingly endless and I do not have room to bore you with the details!
Finally, have fun
If you are having a good time, chances are it will be reflected in the performance.

My Variety Show Experience

By Lindsay Price

I spent three years in high school doing our annual Variety Show. It was a longstanding tradition, and it had the same title every year: CABARET. Everyone knew the show. I saw the show the year before I auditioned and knew I wanted to be a part of it.

Our format was that acts auditioned first. Any actors who auditioned were put in a group and we had to come up with the theme and then create sketches to go in-between the acts.

One year, for example, the theme was a small town girl's first time in the big city. This character visited locations in Toronto and went to various theatres and clubs to see the acts. We used the locations as jumping off points for sketches, as well as the main character's emotional wide-eyed naive reaction.

Another year had a rock and roll theme, waiting in line for concerts, meeting rock stars for the first time, and so on.

We were allowed a great deal of freedom in the writing of the sketches, with our teacher having the final say of course. I remember that all the sketches were short and snappy with a lot of visual humour.

Not everything was great. I have a distinct memory of being in a sketch that was set up for the song "Band of Gold" and there was something about pirates finding treasure and I was the treasure with a big neon X on my shirt. Yeah, it was about as good as it sounds.

But I still have very fond memories twenty years later of many of the sketches we came up with. And I have a distinct memory of pride as well. The writing and performing I did in those shows formed the basics for my career today.

My favourite sketch involved German Siamese twin exercise instructors. They had a theme song that I still sometimes sing to this day: "Welcome to Hilda and Helga, Welcome to the Hilda, Helga show. It's too bad that they have got three legs. But it's ok cause they have fifteen toes."

My Variety Show Experience

By J. Robert Wilkins

In 1983, the Students' Union of the small (average student body = 200) rural grade 7-12 school in which I taught decided to put on variety show as a fund raiser. It started as a rather crude one performance show. Over twenty two years it has evolved into a sophisticated three night, one matinee show. No one could have predicted the impact that the show would have on the school, the students, and the community.

In the late 1980's and early 1990's, declining enrolments and reduced funding resulted in program cuts. As usual, the arts were among the first courses to be dropped from our timetable. In class, opportunities for students to be exposed to and learn about art, music, and drama gradually disappeared. The only opportunities available were extra-curricular activities and even these were limited in a small school. If it had not been for the variety show, theatre would have been finished at our school.

The significance of the show is that it did not only involve those students who had a natural passion for theatre. In fact, the majority of students involved were the type who would profess no interest in live theatrical performance. The show always had vocalists, dancers, and instrumentalists who had legitimate talent. The show gave them the opportunity to display their talents, and in a small town, there aren't very many chances to do this. But, the heart of the show was always the skits and production number parodies performed by students who had no "official" talent. The imagination, wit, and antics of these students gave the show its heart and its reputation. The show also included a number of students who worked as technicians and Front of House workers. Most of the students who took on these jobs would never have been involved in a stage production if it were not for the show. In any given year, from 15% to 25% of the student body was involved in the show in some capacity.

From the early years on, I and the other staff advisers set very high expectations for all students involved. We recognized that the students were not professionals, but we knew that they were capable of performing in a professional-like manner. And have fun doing it! This is exactly what happened. The students invariably met the standards set for them, and in many cases, they set the standards for each other. As a result, audiences were always impressed with the pace and quality of the show regardless of how rough the talent was.

The significance of the variety show at our school is very simple. It gives a great number of students exposure to and insight into the world of theatrical production. This is an experience that most students in a small rural school rarely get. Along the way, they learn about working as a team, making a commitment, building self confidence, and meeting high standards. Most students involved in the show will tell you that it is a high school experience they will never forget. All this from a little variety show!!

Books To Look At

Five books that offer chapters on skits and sketches. All these books are about comedy writing in general and provide insight into the genre.

The Comic Toolbox

http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Toolbox-Funny-Even-Youre/dp/1879505215
By John Vorhaus
1994
Silman-James Press
Los Angeles

Vorhaus offers a 'nine point' method to writing sketch comedy.

Comedy Writing Secrets

http://www.amazon.com/Comedy-Writing-Secrets-2nd-Best-Selling/dp/1582973571
Mel Helitzer
2005 (2nd ed)
Writer's Digest Books
Cincinnati, OH

A very reader-friendly book with a ton of technique, genre and style examples. Each chapter has exercises to try. Even though it's not directed specifically at the sketch comedy writer, there's quite a bit of learning material here. I would recommend this book.

Comedy Writing Step by Step

http://www.amazon.com/Comedy-Writing-Step-Gene-Perret/dp/0573606056
Gene Perret
1982
Samuel French
Hollywood, CA

"Certainly a sketch is a collection of jokes, but it is much more. Remember the bricks metaphor? Gags are the bricks from which sketches are fashioned, but a pile of bricks at a construction site doesn't make a decent dwelling. You can't simply mortar the bricks together either - that just forms a collection of glued together bricks. You need a master plan to build a house." (pg 153)

In general this book is aimed at the older writer, but has a nice chapter on sketch writing. I also really like the above metaphor for writing sketch. You don't just pile a bunch of jokes together, you need a plan.

Writing Comedy

http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Comedy-Handbooks-John-Byrne/dp/0713670703
John Byrne
2005 (3rd ed)
A & C Black Publishers Limited
London

A British author and therefore written from that point of view. But the tradition of British sketch comedy should definitely not be ignored!

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Comedy Writing

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiots-Guide-Comedy-Writing/dp/1592572316
James Mendrinos
2004
Alpha Books
Indianapolis, IN

Again, a more general book, but very reader friendly and I like the exercises.

And check these two out on Amazon!

The Art of the Laugh: A Handbook for Sketch writers, actors and Directors!

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Laugh-Handbook-Writers-Directors/dp/0976218410

Build to a Laugh: How to Construct Sketch Comedy

http://www.amazon.com/Build-Laugh-Construct-Sketch-Formula/dp/096488822X

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In the Next Issue

June is our "Best Of" Newsletter. We'll put together the best articles of the past year as we head into the summer!

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