Thursday, August 5, 2010

Comedy Gurus Steve Kaplan and Paul Bassett Davies to guest on August 8, 2010

USA CHAT:


For almost 20 years, Steve Kaplan. @SKCOMEDY, has been the industry's most respected and sought-after expert on comedy.  The artists he's taught, directed or produced have gone on to be nominated for 43 Emmy Awards, 1 Academy Award, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 1 American Comedy Award, 6 Writers' Guild of America Awards and several others. (They've WON 10 Emmys, 1 Oscar, 2 WGA Awards and the American Comedy Award.) In addition to having taught at UCLA, NYU, Yale and other top universities, Steve Kaplan created the HBO Workspace, the HBO New Writers Program and was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre. He has served as a consultant to such companies as DreamWorks, Disney, Aardman Animation, HBO and others.
In New York, Steve was co-founder and Artistic Director of Manhattan Punch Line Theatre, where he developed writers such as Peter Tolan (Analyze This, Finding Amanda), writer and producer David Crane (Friends, Joey, The Class), writer/producer Tracy Poust (Ugly Betty, Will & Grace), Michael Patrick King (The Comeback, Sex and The City, Will & Grace), David Ives (All In The Timing), Will Scheffer (Big Love), Steve Skrovan (Everybody Loves Raymond) Howard Korder (Lakeview Terrace), and Mark O'Donnell (Hairspray) and introduced such performers as Lewis Black, Nathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Mercedes Ruehl and Oliver Platt.
In Los Angeles, he created the HBO New Writers Project, discovering HBO Pictures screenwriter Will Scheffer and performer/writer Sandra Tsing Loh; and the HBO Workspace, a developmental workshop in Hollywood that introduced and presented performers such as Jack Black and Tenacious D, Kathy Griffin, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross (Mr. Show), Josh Malina and Paul F. Tompkins. At the Workspace, he was Executive Producer for the award-winning HBO Original Programming documentary DROP DEAD GORGEOUS. Steve has directed in regional theaters and Off-Broadway (including Sandra Tsing Loh's ALIENS IN AMERICA at Second Stage) and has developed, produced and directed other one-woman shows with actress Lauren Tom and comediennes Nora Dunn and Kathy Buckley.
Steve last visited Australia, serving as an International Mentor as part of Film Victoria and ABC’s STITCH comedy pilot initiative. In addition to private coaching and one-on-one consultations, Steve has taught his Comedy Intensive workshops to thousands of students around the world, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand and Singapore.
Check his website for his amazing workshops!

EURO chat:

Writer, director and actor Paul Bassett Davies, @thewritertype, founded the Crystal Theatre, whose pioneering multimedia work in the 1980s was acclaimed in Britain and Europe. In radio and television, Paul's credits include: SPITTING IMAGE; SMITH AND JONES; RORY BREMNER; JASPER CARROT; BROGUE MALE; KYTV; HELLO MUM; UP YOUR NEWS; MIDWEEK; NEWS HUDDLINES; AT HOME WITH THE HARDYS (with Jeremy Hardy), and many more.

He created a series of one-man shows, two of which were Perrier Award finalists at the Edinburgh Festival. Other shows, like SLAVE CLOWNS OF THE THIRD REICH, combined live performance with video and other media to create innovative theatrical experiments.

He has written, directed and presented numerous corporate projects. Awards include Best Film at New York Film and Video Festival and IVCA Best Script award. And he has scripted music videos for everyone from Kate Bush to Ken Russell.

He has also worked as a DJ in a strip club, a minicab driver and a gardener.

Paul was the writer and vocalist in the band Shoes for Industry. Album: TALK LIKE A WHELK. Singles: SHEEPDOG TRIAL INNA BABYLON and INVASION OF THE FRENCH BOYFRIENDS.  He’s been a busy boy the past fews years compiling a great list of credits:  The screenplay for the feature animation film ‘The Magic Roundabout'. The screenplay for a feature film based on legendary underground comic book heroes ‘The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers' (in pre-production). Writing and producing BBC Radio 4 series ‘Do Go On’ with Griff Rhys Jones and Graeme Garden (Sony Radio Silver Award for Best Comedy). Writing and directing ‘How Do You Feel’, an award winning short film about Artificial Intelligence for Channel 4. Several plays for BBC Radio 4 featuring, among others, Bill Nighy, Linda Smith, Martin Clunes, David Hemmings, and Alison Steadman.   

Paul also writes articles for online magazine www.twelvepoint.com and does a bit of teaching, as he has a prejudice against starvation. He also runs some writing workshops with Euroscript, which is a company dedicated to helping writers develop. 

Skills: Ventriloquist. Own doll (Sailor Boy).
Check out his blog to crawl into his fabulously twisted mind.

















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