When we come down to it, there are only three integral components necessary to create a successful opening: character, action, and setting.

Barnes and Noble editorial director Liz Scheier offered an anecdote that sums up the necessity of these three elements:

A professor of mine once posed it to me this way, thumping the podium for emphasis: “It’s not ‘World War II began’! It’s ‘Hitler. Invaded. Poland.’”

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2013/07/where-should-you-begin-your-story.html

"Writing For SNL
Instructor: Ali Farahnakian

This class is for anyone who has EVER wanted to try their hand at sketch comedy writing but was afraid to make the leap. The class will focus on commercial parodies, one-page sketches and two-person sketches. You will be shown what an SNL-type sketch should look like and how to take your ideas and flush them out into sketches in a very nurturing environment.

Ali's SNL writing class is so valuable for 2 reasons: First, where else in NYC, or the planet for that matter, can you take a sketch writing class taught by someone who has actually written for the show? Just hearing what his packet consisted of and how he got his foot in the door is phenomenal. Secondly, his notes ALWAYS focus on the positive rather than the negative. Even if you bring a crappy or hastily thrown together sketch, he can usually pick out the one funny nugget, concept or idea — even just a single line or joke sometimes — and say, "that's it, that's what your sketch is about... write about that." That right there's worth the price of admission for any writer who wants to get better. And for me personally, when a TV writing opportunity came my way, he took the time after class to read over my submission, give me notes, and wish me luck. Now I'm writing jokes and getting paid for it. Kick ass. — Andrew Goldstein


Dates of next session TBA. Please email the PIT to be put on the waiting list for the next class session.

ALI REZA FARAHNAKIAN (SAG, AEA, WGA, AFTRA) studied extensively with Charna Halpern and Del Close in the 1990s at ImprovOlympic (IO). He was also a founding member of the UCB with whom he helped to create the critically acclaimed show Virtual Reality. At The Second City in Chicago he was part of the Jeff-nominated show The Revelation Will Not Be Televised (dir. Jeff Richmond) for which he also received a Jeff nomination for Best Actor in a Revue. His one-man show Word of Mouth was an official selection to the US Comedy Arts Festival 2001 in Aspen. He was a writer on Saturday Night Live during its 25th anniversary season and received a Writers Guild Award nomination. He has worked on The Steppenwolf Mainstage in Chicago and BAM in Brooklyn. Television credits include all the Law and Order's, All My Children, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and 30 Rock. He has been in many films, 3 of which have gone to Sundance and one went to Cannes. In 2002 he founded The Peoples Improv Theater (aka The PIT). Spread the Word!"