Writing Tips & Guides

How TV Comedy Writers Find Agents

A successful comedy writing career can be very lucrative. There are several ways in which writing comedy can be quite rewarding. Last but not least, being a comedy writer can be a lot of fun.

Do you need an agent to be a successful comedy writer? The answer to that question depends on what kind of comedy you’re talking about.

If you freelance jokes to standup comedians, you don’t have to have an agent. If a comedian puts you “on salary” to write comedy material for his her act, you do not need agency representation.

On the other hand, if you are hired to be part of the writing staff of a television comedy program, you really should have an agent.

If you specialize in writing funny radio commercials, you don’t need an agent.

But if you want to focus on writing a sitcom script, you’ll find that to make it in sitcom writing you WILL need an agent.

As a sitcom writer, people often ask me how to get an agent. Frankly, it’s very tough for a new writer to land an agent. One thing you can do is write to the Writers Guild. They have a comprehensive list of agents. Most agents don’t accept new material, but some agents will and that will be indicated in their listing. Find out who those guys are. Then send ALL of them your material. Don’t select just a single agent to sent your sitcom script to and wait for that agent to respond. Send each and everyone one of them your pilot or your spec script.

Otherwise, it really helps to be in Los Angeles. If you live in L.A., you can go to seminars. You can take comedy writing classes at UCLA. Often agents speak at such classes, which gives you a chance to chat them up a little bit at the end of the class.

Here’s something else you can do. Believe it or not, if a funny video that you upload to YouTube goes viral, you might actually be contacted by an agent. Agencies actually have people whose job is to monitor online vidoes.

But as I’ve said, it can be extremely difficult. So be creative and persistent. Also, if your next-door neighbor’s cousin has an old college roommate who once knew an agent, contact that person. To find an agent to represent you as a sitcom writer, you want to use any and every contact you might possibly have.