As one half of the renowned Sitcom Geeks, Dave knows more than a little about what it takes to be a successful comedy writer. From his early association with Rik Mayall and co, through award-winning sitcoms and sketch shows, right through to his latest novel, Dave’s offcuts cover the various trends of comedy from the past 40 years.
Cast: Chris Pavlo, Emma Clarke, Keith Wickham and Rachel Atkins.
OFFCUTS:
- 04’40’’ – You Are Here; sketch for a radio pilot, 2004
- 11’25’’ – In Loving Memory; extract from a novel, 1973
- 18’17’’ – song lyrics, 1974
- 26’52’’ – Slobs: A Portion of History; extract from an unfinished novel, 1983
- 32’34’’ – Thatcher: The Last Ten Minutes; screenplay, 1994
- 36’23’’ – blog post about comedy, 2020
- 40’43’’ – Edinburgh Diaries/How I Invented Alternative Comedy; extract from a novel , 2019
Dave Cohen was a stand-up comedian and founder member of the Comedy Store Players with Mike Myers and Paul Merton and now works as a writer, script editor and tutor (or as he describes himself on his Huffington Post page: “comedian, writer, typist”. ) On TV his many writing credits include panel shows, sketch shows and sitcoms with programmes like multi-award-winning CBBC series Horrible Histories (for which he’s written over 100 songs), Have I Got News For You, and Lee Mack’s Not Going Out. On radio he co-created Radio 4’s 15 Minute Musical, and performed in his own series Travels With My Anti Semitism as well as writing for many flagship comedy shows such as The News Quiz and The Treatment.
He’s published 2 books about how to write comedy: The Complete Comedy Writer and How To Be Averagely Succesful At Comedy, with a third book, a novel, out shortly. As well as teaching comedy and script editing for other writers Dave has also co-hosted the Sitcom Geeks podcast with James Cary for the past 5 years, which at the time of publishing has nearly 150 episodes and is still going strong.
More about Dave Cohen:
- Twitter: @DaveCohen
- Website: davecohen.org.uk
- Podcast: Sitcom Geeks
- Facebook: Sitcom Geeks page
