Dave Cohen

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Freelance Writer at BBC

New book How To Write A Funny Novel out in September New approach to building your comedy writing career Find out more https://t.co/0YGZV6xxDf

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Have I Got New For You: Course I can take a joke! (If it's at your expense)

Sep 24, 2024 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

What's next for topical comedy? Part 2 of Dave's deep dive looks at how Twittification almost killed the funny news industry. Last week I asked how we can continue to create topical comedy during this relatively rare moment in the country's history. Normally I wouldn't expect a new government to make any difference. But there were a number of recent changes in how we watched comedy that made me worry about how we make it in the future.
Have I Got New For You: What now for topical comedy?

Sep 19, 2024 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

Topical humour has been a staple of British comedy for decades and remains one of the most significant ways in which to forward your writing career. In the first of a three-part series, Dave Cohen charts the journey of jokes about the news and looks to the past for clues about what the future holds. I'm officially an extremely old git - this year I've joined Paul Weller, Kate Bush and Lenny Henry down the cyber Post Office to pick up my old age pension.
Balancing Your Product Roadmap: A Portfolio Approach to Innovation

Aug 19, 2024 | medium.com | Dave Cohen

When working with my teams, I often compare a product roadmap to an investment portfolio. Think of your roadmap as a reflection of how you’d manage your own investments. In a typical portfolio, you might have a 70/30 split between stocks and bonds. Bonds offer stability in a volatile market, while stocks provide potential upside — historically doubling in value every ten years but fluctuating unpredictably in the short term.
Ready, Steady… Joke!

Aug 13, 2024 | davecohen.org.uk | Dave Cohen

Summer’s here and the time is right for thinking “I’d love to be a comedy writer”. Special offer (until Sun 18 August) pick up a free copy of Ready Steady Joke! for tons of tips how https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CC9HW25NThere are a million reasons to not take that leap from your lifelong desire to become a writer. And a million more to steer clear of funny. I was lucky, in 1983 was able to give up journalism and become a writer almost immediately after.
Korea opportunities

Aug 8, 2024 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

I don't normally talk about politics on here because... well, cos this is a comedy platform ffs. Occasionally politics crosses over with what we do. For those of you interested in what's going on in the news, politics provides a route to your first BBC writing credit. I'm proud to say that in the last three years our topical comedy courses have helped more than 40 comedy writers gain theirs. That's the one good way it affects us. Now onto the many bad ways.
- Dave Cohen

Aug 4, 2024 | davecohen.org.uk | Dave Cohen

I never imagined I’d spend most of my working life making comedy. For the first five years as a stand-up, I only ever heard one person use the word ‘career’. Apart from when my parents regularly asked me when I was going to stop doing comedy and look for a proper one. Not one of us when we started imagined we’d ever be on telly – and that ‘us’ included Mike Myers, Jo Brand, Paul Merton and Harry Enfield. Or that we’d be doing it for so long.
Three comedy writing competitions to enter - now

Feb 22, 2024 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

I love this time of year - the sun's a-rising earlier, the first gorgeous blossoms of the season are springing forth and the most promising comedy script competitions are in full bloom. This month we've had no less than four - yes, four, count 'em - competitions come to life, all looking for scripts from you. That's you, specifically, reading this now. I say four competitions but there have probably been more, so let me be more precise - four competitions that you should give some attention to.
DMs Are Open - But closing fast

Jan 4, 2024 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

Good old BBC! While we're all shuffling out of the bleary-eyed stupor that is the final week of 2023, slowly cranking ourselves up to prepare for whatever the new year might bring, BBC Studios have rushed out news of Series 3 of DMs Are Open - the only in-house radio show specifically aimed at developing new comedy writing. And if you want to write for the show you'd better hurry because the deadlines are hurtling towards us. If you don't get anything in by 24th January you'll be too late.
How to pick up radio credits

Sep 24, 2023 | comedy.co.uk | Dave Cohen

October 1983 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Earl Tupper, the Costa Rican designer who was best known, you might not be surprised to discover, for inventing Tupperware. I mention this because it coincides with the 40th anniversary of my first ever BBC writing credit, which I gained on the topical radio show Week Ending.