How to Find Your Comedic Voice Without Copying Other Comics

A short comedy sketch by Jared Volle and Luke Lacoy from The Clean Comedy Podcast.

Today, I want to share my first comedy sketch written for TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

The unique challenge was that I only had one minute to set up and complete the sketch. Everything had to be short, clear, and fast.

It was also a learning experience because I had never produced my own comedy sketch before.

I kept my notes throughout the development of the sketch so I could share them and give you a look into my writing process.

From start to finish, the sketch took us 17 days to complete. Most of that time was downtime because my partner, Luke Lacoy, and I were working in different time zones. A lot of the process was simply waiting for the other person to respond to the last message.

All told, I spent around three hours writing and filming this sketch. If we had been in the same time zone and had enough free time, we probably could have produced it in a single day.

As you will see below, most of my writing was done on dog walks, which is very typical of my process.

Enjoy.

My Comedy Writing Process, From Start to Finish

Day 1: Initial Idea

The initial idea for the sketch came from me trying to learn how to market my new podcast, the Kaizen Creativity Podcast.

I reached out to several people asking for help, and all of their advice seemed to be the same:

You have to market yourself.

I found these answers frustrating. Being a comedian, I responded the best way I know how: by lampooning the advice.

So this was the beginning of the sketch. I started with the vague idea of wanting to make fun of marketing coaches who all seemed to give the same basic, unusable advice.

In Playfully Inappropriate and my online comedy classes, I teach students how to go from a generic premise all the way to a finished joke or story. I used the same method to write this sketch.

The first step was highlighting the problem. The problem I chose was that marketers all had the same basic advice: market yourself.

Simple enough.

The second step was coming up with the generic premise. I used a lot of “What if?” questions to test different ideas.

The question that stuck was:

What if I were on a Zoom call with a marketing coach, but the marketing coach kept frustrating me with the same answer?

I settled on the idea that it would work best as a comedy sketch, and the scene would show me getting advice from some type of marketing coach.

All of this took place in my head. I was not writing anything on paper yet. I was simply playing around with ideas.

There was no formal brainstorming. I was not sitting down and “working.” Most of the thoughts came while I was walking my dogs.

I settled on the idea of a comedy sketch in which the marketing coach always responded with some version of:

You have to market yourself.

At first, I was torn between two ideas:

1. The marketing coach literally says “You have to market yourself” as a response to every question I ask. If I went this route, I was going to use the exact same clip of Luke for each response. So not only would the advice be the same, it would actually be the exact same video clip.
2. The marketing coach gives slightly different advice, but the advice is basically the same: “You have to market yourself,” “You should market yourself,” “You need to market your podcast,” and so on.

I settled on option two.

Option one was funny, but I thought it would run its course too quickly. It probably would not still be funny by the end of the sketch.

As far as punchlines go, I started thinking of different problems I could have and different responses the marketing coach could use.

The phrase “You have to market your marketing” was the first punchline I wrote.

I do not think that was a coincidence. It came directly from my original frustration with talking to marketing coaches on Fiverr.

By the end of Day 1, I had not really sat down to work on the sketch yet. Everything was taking place in my head. I prefer to work this way because it keeps me in a playful mood.

The moment I “sit down to write” is often the moment I start feeling overly serious.

My best ideas tend to come from dog walks, showers, or lying in bed. If I had to guess, I would say I spent around 20 or 30 minutes thinking about the sketch at this point, almost all during dog walks.

Day 2: I Contacted Luke Lacoy

My next step was to start filling in details.

I already had the generic premise of the sketch, but I did not have anything specific written down yet.

This is when I thought of the topper, which is the ending joke that finishes a bit. It is usually the strongest joke in the group.

I settled on the idea that I would get frustrated throughout the sketch, ask why I had spent so much money on the coach, and then the coach would respond with the same idea:

It’s because I market myself.

I loved this idea immediately. It uses the same advice from the rest of the sketch, but now the advice becomes a slight insult. It is also a callback.

My next step was to contact Luke Lacoy from The Clean Comedy Podcast about working together.

I sent him this message:

You interested in some type of sketch collaboration? I was thinking of doing something short that pokes fun of how all the advice I get seems to be “you gotta market yourself.” Would probably be a two-person sketch, maybe TikTok length. The way I see it in my mind right now is you would be the advice giver, like a Fiverr consultant or marketing coach. Here is a super generic version of how I see it going. I haven’t timed it, but it would be around 45 seconds or so. Still need to fill in details, but that is the generic premise.

While waiting for lunch at a restaurant, I spent about 10 minutes jotting down ideas.

Here is the first draft:

JARED: How do I sell more?

LUKE: Market yourself. Make a podcast.

JARED: Ok. I’ve got a podcast. How do I get more listeners?

LUKE: You’ve got to market yourself.

JARED: That’s what I’m doing. The podcast is the marketing.

LUKE: You’ve got to market it.

JARED: Market my marketing? How?

LUKE: Why not get a big name on your podcast?

JARED: How do I get a big name interested?

LUKE: You gotta market yourself.

JARED: Look. Six months and $500, all you’ve ever told me is to market myself.

LUKE: You know why you’ve spent so much money on me?

JARED: W... if you say...

LUKE: It’s because I market myself.

At first, I saw the sketch as taking place over multiple sessions. In the first session, I would be advised to make a podcast. Then I would come back later, tell the coach I made the podcast, and ask for more help.

I abandoned this because it did not flow well. I did not like the idea of adding a subtitle that said “Three weeks later.”

Reading the first draft, you can see a lot of future ideas inside it, but they clearly were not developed yet. They evolved over time as Luke and I traded ideas.

This is where many new comedians make a mistake.

The first draft is not supposed to be stage-worthy. It is supposed to lay out the path forward.

It might contain a funny joke, but it might also just be a generic idea that promises good punchlines if you pursue it further.

If you are unwilling to write the first draft, you give up on all the stronger ideas that could appear as the idea evolves.

Day 4: Luke Sent His Ideas

Luke sent feedback on the sketch and added his own ideas.

We started to fill out the coach character. We considered making him a really obnoxious coach or using a dry, monotone delivery.

We eventually settled on the monotone delivery because it felt like a more realistic character.

I am a big fan of point-of-view humor, which is humor the audience gets to enjoy even though the characters in the scene do not feel the humor themselves.

Having a character “act funny” does not fit point-of-view humor very well. I wanted both characters to be deadly serious in the sketch. The audience would be the only one seeing the humor in the situation.

In point-of-view humor, all the characters are fully committed to their position. It is the tension between those positions that creates the humor.

From my position, nothing is funny because I am getting more and more frustrated.

From the coach’s position, nothing is funny because he thinks he is giving good advice.

The audience is the only one with the whole picture.

That is how point-of-view humor works.

Day 5: Rising Tension

Luke had a great idea about rising tension in the scene.

We started organizing the punchlines so each punchline would add more frustration before climaxing at the final topper.

We also liked the idea that the final freakout would be funnier if it was filmed from a different angle. We chose that because it felt more playful. I did not want to simply scream at the screen.

I sent Luke two versions of the ending to get his opinion.

Version 1

JARED: Look, six months and $500, all you ever tell me to do is market myself.

LUKE: You know why you’ve spent so much money on me?

JARED: W... if you say...

LUKE: It’s because I market myself.

Version 2

JARED: Look, six months and $500, all you ever tell me to do is market myself. So, you tell me, why am I spending so much money on you?

LUKE: It’s because I market myself.

I sent Luke this message:

The first one has the fun line “If you say...” but the second one feels like a better surprise. Like you were almost forced to admit that I’m spending money because you market yourself. Which do you think plays better?

We settled on Version 2.

The first one looked funnier on paper, but the second version felt like less of an insult. It did not feel right to have the coach intentionally deliver an insult, so we kept Version 2.

Day 7: Combining Our Ideas

We combined both of our ideas into a new version of the sketch.

At this point, the script was nearing completion. We also had new ideas pop up, such as tossing the pen in frustration. Slowly, the script took its final form.

Here is what we had at the end of Day 7.

Notice that I used the word “BRIDGE” in several places. This was a placeholder. It let me keep the punchlines I wanted without knowing the setups yet.

Whenever you see “BRIDGE,” it means:

We need to find a way to transition from one idea to the next.

I love using placeholders like this because it gives me time to find the most natural segues.

Script Draft

[BRIDGE]

LUKE: You gotta market yourself. What about a podcast?

JARED: I’ve got a podcast. How do I get more listeners?

LUKE: You’ve got to market yourself.

JARED: The podcast is my marketing.

LUKE: You gotta market it.

JARED: Market my marketing?

LUKE: Market yourself.

JARED: How do I market myself?

LUKE: Now you’re asking the right question.

JARED: I do not even know... I just want more podcast listeners.

[BRIDGE]

JARED: How do I get more listeners?

LUKE: Get a big name interview.

JARED: Ok. How do I do that?

LUKE: By marketing yourself.

JARED: Look, six months and $500, all you ever tell me to do is market myself. So you tell me, why am I spending so much money on you?

LUKE: It’s because I market myself.

[Jared freaks out]

Day 7: I Sent Luke My Audio

I recorded audio for both characters so Luke could get a feel for how I thought the lines would be delivered.

He probably had similar ideas, but it is always useful to make sure you are on the same page with your team.

We also played around with different beginnings.

At this point, our biggest problem was figuring out how to launch into the sketch. The first 10 seconds needed to set up the situation in a realistic way.

We tried a few openings:

• “I built a website and I’m not getting any sales.”
• “I took a sales funnel course, but my website isn’t getting hits.”
• “My Shopify store isn’t generating any income.”

Here is the script we settled on.

The timestamps were used to make sure we stayed under one minute. Knowing how long each joke took allowed me to ask, “If I edit this joke out, how much time would I free up? Can I add something funnier or shorter?”

Timed Script Draft

0:00

LUKE: This is your marketing coach with the most. How we up to today?

JARED: How do I get more traffic to my website?

LUKE: You gotta market your website.

JARED: Yeah, you said that last time.

0:15

LUKE: Make a podcast.

JARED: Ok. And how do I get listeners?

LUKE: You’ve got to market your podcast.

JARED: The podcast is my marketing.

LUKE: You gotta market your marketing.

JARED: Market my marketing? Do you hear yourself?

0:25

LUKE: Alright, look. What about a big name interview?

JARED: That could work. How do I find a big name?

LUKE: You gotta market yourself.

[Jared tosses pen in frustration]

JARED: I’ve spent $1200 on your marketing courses, and all you ever say is to market myself. Why am I spending so much money on you?

LUKE: It’s because I market myself.

[Jared freaks out]

0:55

Oddly enough, one of my favorite parts of this draft was adding the chuckle to my second line.

That tiny reaction gave history to the relationship. In half a second, the audience realizes this has been a problem before. It implies this is not the first time I am getting upset about his advice, which makes the rest of the sketch funnier.

That is a great return for such a small setup detail.

Day 8: I Sent Luke Video

I filmed myself doing both parts of the sketch and sent it to Luke.

I blacked out Luke’s part of the video so he could insert his own performance into the empty spots. This helped make sure his side would fit and we would not run over the one-minute limit for TikTok videos.

From there, Luke worked video-editing magic and brought the video down from 55 seconds to 48 seconds.

Without that edit, we never would have had room to create the second topper: “You have to put yourself out there, Todd.”

That line had not come to us yet. The editing gave us room for the idea to appear later.

Luke used Final Cut Pro to edit the video. If you want a free video editing option, Luke recommends DaVinci Resolve, though it has a steep learning curve. If you want to edit on your phone, you could also use apps like Splice or CapCut.

Like me, Luke recorded several versions of his lines to get a feel for which delivery was funniest.

We settled on the deadpan approach, and Luke absolutely nailed it in the final version.

Day 9: Sent Alternative Endings

The first version of the sketch was ready.

I let a few friends watch a private video link and give their opinions.

Unfortunately, the pen flip I did when I got frustrated did not fully make it into the final version.

I filmed my side on my laptop, which had a wider camera angle. When the video was edited to fit TikTok’s portrait format, the pen flip moved slightly out of frame.

You can still see it in the final video, but it was unfortunate to lose. The original version was much funnier and did a better job escalating my frustration before the final punchline.

I decided it was not worth re-recording, so we left it as is.

Day 13: Alternative Freakouts

I was not quite happy with my final freakout yet.

The first version of the video had me yelling directly into the computer. I still did not have the camera angle change I wanted.

I sent Luke three separate versions of the freakout from different angles and let him choose his favorite.

This is one of those small production choices that can change the feel of a joke.

The line may be the same, but the camera angle, timing, and physicality can make the joke feel more playful.

Day 14: First Completed Video

The first version of our final video was complete.

At the last moment, I had the idea of adding Luke’s final line:

Well, you gotta put yourself out there, Todd.

Like many of my ideas, this came to me on a dog walk.

I sent Luke a message asking for his opinion:

I’m not sure if it is possible to add, but if we cut to black for a moment and then did a post-roll where you said, “This is your love coach with the most. How we doing today? Well, you gotta put yourself out there, Todd.” It might break the current ending. It would be hilarious though.

Luke responded:

LOL! That would be a hilarious ending. I’ll work on that this week. Yeah, there is definitely extra room at the end to play with.

I replied:

Just make sure you do not kill the first ending. We would need a bit of black screen before the post-roll. Otherwise, it would be awkward transitioning from one shot to the other.

This is another good example of how editing creates writing opportunities.

Because Luke had shortened the video earlier, we had enough time to add one more joke without weakening the main ending.

Day 17: Final Video

The final, final version of the sketch was ready.

From there, we waited a few days so we could post it on a weekend and hopefully get more views.

The finished video was not wildly complicated. It was a simple sketch built around one frustration, one repetitive piece of advice, rising tension, and a callback.

But that is exactly why it worked as a first sketch.

It was simple enough to finish.

And finishing matters.

What This Process Taught Me

This sketch reminded me that comedy writing is often less formal than people think.

A lot of the real work happened while walking my dogs, sending messages, recording rough versions, testing different endings, and slowly solving small problems.

The sketch did not arrive fully formed.

It developed through:

• A real frustration
• A simple premise
• Multiple rough drafts
• Collaboration
• Rising tension
• A strong callback
• Editing for time
• Testing alternate versions
• Leaving room for one more joke

That is a useful lesson for new comedy writers.

You do not need the perfect version at the beginning.

You need a workable first version that gives better ideas a place to land.

Last Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at the development of my first comedy sketch.

I was excited to try my hand at a new type of comedy writing.

Fortunately, I had already studied a lot of sketch comedy in the past. If you have gone through Playfully Inappropriate and the joke writing workbook, you already know how much I love quoting and dissecting sketches from Key & Peele and Alternatino.

This sketch was small, but it was complete. That is the point.

Write the rough version. Solve the next problem. Finish the thing.