Arts & Entertainment

Closing

Lesson time 04:28 min

Judd ends his class with some parting advice: Take a risk, find the courage to express yourself, and start writing jokes—because he’s not going to write them for you.

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Topics include: Closing

Judd Apatow

Teaches Comedy

Judd Apatow teaches you how to write, direct, produce, and perform comedy for film and television.

Preview

In this day and age, in this internet era, there really is no reason to not make things, because you can afford to make things. There's also a way for people to see things. And it used to be that if you had a short you made, there wasn't really a way to get it in front of people, or it was a huge pain in the ass to get people to watch it. So, for instance, when Ben Stiller was young, he did a Broadway show. And he was working with John Mahoney. And he made a funny comedy short with his own money, and it was a parody of Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money, and instead of being about pool it was about bowling hustlers. Now, nobody knew who Ben was at the time, so he had no way to really get it to people. So what he did is he waited in the lobby at NBC for anyone who worked Saturday Night Live to walk by. And then one day, Jon Lovitz was walking by. And he walked up to Jon Lovitz, and he said, hey, I made this short film. Would you show this to Lorne? And he said, OK. You know what I would have said? No. I don't want to get sued. I don't know who you are. There could be anthrax on this. But Jon Levitz, he did. He brought it upstairs, and showed people, and it got to Lorne. And they called Ben, and they said, OK, we're going to air it this Saturday. You need to come here and trim a little time out of it. And Ben trimmed some time out. They aired it on Saturday Night Live. And at some point later, they asked him to join the cast. And-- and that's how he got his foot in that particular door. These days, you could make a short, put it on Funny or Die, who I work with, or on YouTube, or Vimeo, and send somebody a link. So now it's much easier. You don't have to get them to open the mail, and look at the tape, and you know, it's all very simple. And making a short doesn't cost that much money. You can find a way to make it cost money, but it doesn't have to cost money. And all you really need do get someone to do is click on a link to see it. There's a few things I've done that I think have been helpful. You know, one is, I worked very hard, and I cared a lot, and I-- I love comedy more than anything, and-- and so I have a great passion for it. And I think that is one of the reasons why my career has gone reasonably well, is because I want to challenge myself. I want to grow. I'd like to figure out what else I can do that I haven't done before. So I certainly encourage people to take that risk, and find the courage to sit down and express yourself fully, and believe in your ability to pull something like that off. Because if you don't have the courage to do it, you're never going to just make Swingers with your friends, or Clerks, or Tiny Furniture. It does require a massive leap into the unknown. And there will never be a logical reason to do it, other than madness. All right. You've done it. You've finished my MasterClass. Now go sit your ass down and write a goddamn joke. Nothing happens if you don't write that ...

About the Instructor

No joke: at age 15, Judd Apatow took a dishwashing job at a comedy club to watch the acts. Today, he’s the comedic genius behind hits including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Bridesmaids, and Freaks and Geeks. In his first-ever online comedy class, the Emmy Award winner teaches you how to create hilarious storylines, write great stand-up, and direct movies that leave audiences laughing.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow teaches you how to write, direct, produce, and perform comedy for film and television.

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