My eyes were transfixed in shock when I heard my name. My mouth opened briefly then shut on its own without a word proceeding from it.
Source
“Okay young lady, when can I get it?” The graying man with bald hard and round glasses perched on his nose asked.
“She can submit it next week, sir” my best friend, Treasure, who was busy enjoying the whole episode, chipped in for me.
“Are you her spokesperson?” He snapped, peering sternly at her from his glasses before turning back to me. “Yes, my dear. When can I get it?”
We were sent out to a radio station within the city by the professor handling us on a course titled ‘Writing for the Radio, Stage and Television’.
After a lengthy interview session with the human resource person of the station, he then asked to know those who had a writing career already amongst us.
Echoes of my name rang out randomly from my coursemates. There were smiles on my face when I was asked to rise for recognition but when the man said he needed me to produce a comedy script for the station, the smile vanished from my face, leaving me gaping in shock.
“Next weekend Sir,” I finally replied to him. He shook his head slowly from side to side and took his glasses off his nose.
“That would be too far. Let's work towards Monday next week….” I nearly screamed, it meant I had just the weekend to come up with the comic script.
We all rose after that to take different poses so one of the staff members could take our photographs. While my mates were whispering excitedly to one another about their experience at the station, I was unusually quiet.
“What's up?” Treasure poked me in the side as we descended the stairs, heading back home.
“The script!” She made a giggling sound that made me turn warning eyes to her
“But you write, why the fuss about a comedy script?”
“You don't understand,” I began, “I'm not even funny…” This caused her to explode with laughter.
“See? You're very funny!” I dragged my lashes at her in a disdainful up-and-down movement.
“So, you want me to document what we just said into a radio script?”
“Relax, madam. All you need is to sit down and think carefully, scripting is your thing, this one cannot be too hard”
I eyed her warily, sometimes I wondered what gave her the confidence that just because I was a writer, I could work magic to produce any script at all.
I dragged her by the hand when she attempted to take a separate bus to her house.
“What are you doing?” She asked.
“You're coming with me. We're going to think about this script together.”
Before she could protest, I dragged her along with me into a tricycle that was headed to my house.
“I don't understand you o,” she said when we dropped from the tricycle, “Do I look like I have a good sense of humor?”
“I was wondering the same thing when you said the script would be nothing for me to write. We will sit together and brainstorm. Even if we have never had a good sense of humor, today is the day to develop one”
We both laughed as we began to walk home, talking loudly about prospective ideas for the script. By the time we got home, we were both frustrated.
“I didn't know this was what you had to go through to create a script,” she said glumly. Somehow, that made a smile appear on my face, the effort I put into writing was greatly underrated.
“I don't think we need to have a sense of humor to get a comic script though. I think we just need to see what other people are doing and try to replicate it. So, let's channel our energy into looking for radio comedy script samples.”
By the end of that day, I had written over 6 samples of comic scripts that I found on the internet and barely any of them made us laugh.
“This sense of humor thing must be a gift,” I began “It's a special talent that God gives to certain people and none of the writers of these scripts are one of them”
That made us laugh again.
“So, what are you going to do about this script?” Treasure asked as she picked up her things to leave
“I'll call the man and tell him I'm not a funny person…” We both laughed again.
“That's a first,” Treasure said, picking up her bag as we prepared to step out “I have never seen you giving up on a writing job before”.
“There's a first time to everything please” We both burst into laughter again.
I wonder if you were successful in creating the script at last. During my secondary school days, when I was a superb writer (not anymore, sadly) but with a very poor sense of humor I might have turned it down or if I had no choice I would have found a friend with a good sense of humour and worked with them. They would give me the raw comedy ideas and I would them turned it into a script. Or watch comedy movies or listen to tapes and alter the ideas a little into my own. I think the professor or your course mates thought too much of you. Thanks for sharing this experience, @iskawrites. It's very relatable. Have a great day.
I did not create it, @aloysiusmbaba
Yes, they thought too much of me, I am not sure I knew anyone to collaborate with which is why I asked my friend to tag along and brainstorm with me. Thank you for reading darling
Lol! Did you call it off at the end? I'm curious to know.
Honestly, it's not easy to write a script with the intention of making people laugh. Especially when you don't even have that sense of humor, you may end up being the only person who laughs at your comedy. And that too is embarrassing 🥹.
Truly making a joke and being the only one who laughs is not nice, there are sometimes when I told a joke and no one laughed then another person will tell a joke of how no one laughed and then everyone laughs. So humiliating 😂.
Hahahaha, I would ask the ground to open up and swallow me 😂😂😂
Hahaha 😂
It happens, you become the laughing stock 🤣
Yes, I called it off
Thank you for reading
You faced a terrible dilemma, in truth, when you do not feel confident and secure about writing something it is better not to do it. You made a good decision.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Good day.
It's very true, doing anything with no iota of confidence will reflect on the results. Thank you for reading my experience.
Different talents for different people, some people are simply very talented with a great sense of humor, I think it is smart that you stick to something you know how to do best. !LUV
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It's really smart of me to stick what I know seriously. Thank you for reading.
!LUV
It is always wise to stick to what we know best.
Simple and short. Thank you.
That must have been a frustrating situation! Good writers are called upon to write all kinds of things, whether or not it is their chosen line of work or genre. Non-writers really don't get it!
There is one rather funny thing in your story:
We think you must have meant bald head.
Thank you for sharing your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well, and for reading and commenting on the work of other community members. You are a model citizen when it comes to engaging in the community!
Non-writers really think we are writing gods and goddesses so we can write anything... Lol
Oh, yes, that was supposed to be "bald head", forgive my keypad and my fingers
Oh, no worries, the community has given and supported me so much and it's my way of giving back ☺️☺️
Thank you for the appreciation Inkwell 💖💖
Iska, assuming you knew me back then, I would have given you some hints on writing something very very funny. 😂😂
Just make a joke about his round glass and it’s good to go. It was funny tho. Sometimes we think what we do aren’t what people expect but that is actually the thing they need.
Hahaha 😂
Now you are making me regret not knowing you then, I could have gotten out of this mess as if I was a pro 🤣🤣
Hehehe
But now you’re a pro 🌚💯😏
Issa lie 😏
You know I can’t lie for you na 🌚😚
True, I am not a funny person as well. But from the beginning of your writing, I was thinking about a friend of mine who is the best at this. Even the simpleest caption of him would put a smile on anyone's face, he delivers them so beautifully that anyone would find that pleasing. If I were at your place then I would have surely tagged him to help.
But yeah, I do admit that everyone is not good at everything.
Oh wow, that's amazing 😍
Please pat your friend on the back for me, it's not easy to create humour out of anything and everything. He is a boss and more ☺️☺️
Writing comic scripts is a gift just like writing generally. I love the fact that you accessed yourself and decided according to your conviction. To crack joke no be joke. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha 😂😂
Omo, you people did not tell me 😆😆😆
An interesting read! Comedy is a gift. If you're not funny, you're not funny. I love the life and feeling you brought to this piece.
Kudos!
Lol... I learned it the hard way, my brother. There are those who aren't gifted and the rest of us are not. We should just stick to what we know and perfect 😂