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Interviews - Laura Lawson - Part Two
Laura Lawson explains her writing process and working with the cast members in the second part of our interview...
So, how was the production stage? Did anything go drastically wrong?
No, it was an absolute joy. People who say never work with children and animals have obviously never worked with children and animals. Children have no egos, they just do it all in one take and they are just a pleasure to work with.
Was there a stage when you suddenly thought, "This is great... this could be a winner"?
Oh, I thought that years ago. I thought that from the minute I saw the children do it in class. I thought, "My god! It's Bugsy Malone but better!"
We at Channel 4 Comedy love Bugsy Malone!
Well, it's my favourite film and that's where it all sort of began. I can't believe someone hasn't done it before, because Bugsy Malone was such a hit and it was cult for adults and children.
And I think that's the thing with this, even though it's for adults, children absolutely love it because they can relate to it. You sort of get a mass market, audience-wise, which again I think is really different because you're hitting all sorts of targets. Apparently there's some stuff on YouTube where children actually learn verbatim the sketches they have seen School of Comedy do on BBC3's Comedy Shuffle and then they perform them to their parents and then their parents have dinner parties and they all record it and put it back online. I always thought it would be a winner. How can you fail to be charmed by these amazing children?
What was involved in the writing process for School of Comedy?
Basically, what we do is I write alongside a massive team of writers. What you can't do is write scripts, then just give them to the kids, because then it's not coming from them.
What we do is we workshop with the kids, so then they have input and they come up with lots of characters and lots of ideas and that's also the thing when, you know, adults say, "Oh, they're just making kids swear." We're not actually making kids swear at all, we say to the kids, "Show us what you see, how you see us, and then we can write around that." So what you see comes from them really, which is really important because their twist on us is far funnier than our twist on us. And it's a little bit embarrassing because they do see us for what we really are.
Have you got any advice for people thinking about making a comedy lab themselves?
Make sure they just keep it as simple as possible. Like location-wise or studio-wise. We complicated it as much as we possibly could and as a result it looked amazing, but, my god, it took a lot of planning and a lot of work, so the budget slowly rises and rises and rises! You end up thinking s**t; it's only a Comedy Lab not a Hollywood film!
Would you like to do a Hollywood film?
Yeah, I'd love to a film. I'd like to do Hot Fuzz, that sort of thing with them. You know, Bugsy Malone... it's a brilliant film!
Would you have a musical number in it?
Well, if you see the School of Comedy, Comedy Lab, we've got loads of musical numbers. We've got a version of You Don't Bring Me Flowers by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand! It's the duet in a sketch with two of the kids miming it. They're in a relationship, a sort of couple having arguments and they're on a day trip and it breaks into song. It's hilarious! I can't explain it because I can't do it justice; you have to see it on the television!
I know you say it's really difficult to explain what it is without seeing it but for the benefit of the audience who haven't yet seen it can you try to explain?
Basically it's an adult sketch show but the cast happen to be children. And they are absolutely brilliant. It's a satire; they show us how they see us. Think Bugsy Malone, but filthy!
- Forward to Part Three of Laura Lawson's interview
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