How to Come Up with a Good Premise

A quick two-step process

1. Brevity

A “high concept” is an idea for a story or sketch that you can tell to someone in a sentence, and they’ll immediately understand its appeal.

Less than a sentence is even better.

All the creators of the excellent teen-boy fantasy movie Under Siege had to say was, “Die Hard on a boat.”

James Cameron’s pitch for Titanic was even shorter. He just opened a book and pointed to a painting of the Titanic.

2. Strange Attractor

More important than brevity is the strange attractor, that hard-to-define quality about an idea that makes people interested in it. It usually taps into one or more of these three things, ideally all of them:

• A reference: a common experience in life that no one’s exploited in quite the same way

• Existing IP: this doesn’t have to be something owned. There’s plenty of IP that’s free (like the Devil, Sherlock Holmes, Santa, and the moon landing)

• A twist: a surprising way the above elements are put together.

• A feeling of “I wish I’d thought of that.”

Stand-up premises usually have a strange attractor, too.

3. More Tips

I’ll be dropping my best tips for how to consistently come up with a ton of great premises for short comedy this weekend, Saturday, August 9 at noon CT at the "From Meh to Ha” comedy workshop. It’s free! Sign up here.