Comedy Writing student lands script commission for Legoland
22 November 2023
A second year Comedy Writing MA (Online) student has been commissioned by Merlin Entertainment to write scripts for Legoland’s popular puppet shows.
Kayleigh Jones – a stand-up comedian and full-time puppeteer at the Legoland Windsor theme park – was approached to write a script for this year’s Halloween-themed puppet show. “[Legoland] usually commission external script writers to produce the shows, but they knew about my comedy background and that I was doing an MA in Comedy Writing. So, when I was asked if I'd like to write a script, I was excited to give it a go!”, Kayleigh told us.
So how did Kayleigh get here? With a background in acting and musical theatre, Kayleigh discovered her talent for making people laugh almost by accident. “In my teenage years I wanted to be in musicals, so I moved to London - but it never really took off; I didn’t get cast in many things, or if I did, I'd get cast in comedy roles”, she explained.
When I came across the Falmouth course, I liked that it was comedy-focused and more connected to the industry
“I've always been interested in writing, and whenever I wrote anything it tended to be comedy. So, I decided to try making my own opportunities. I started doing a bit of stand-up, as well as writing comedy songs which I posted online. They did quite well, so I thought ‘oh, maybe musical comedy is my thing!’ By that point I’d caught the bug for comedy, and I started writing scripts, several of which were longlisted for things like the BBC Writers Room.”
Kayleigh joined Falmouth’s comedy writing course with the ambition of taking her writing more seriously. “I really wanted to learn how to properly format scripts. I looked at a few other creative writing courses that covered everything from novel writing to dramas, but when I came across the Falmouth course, I liked that it was comedy-focused and seemed more connected to the industry. It helped being online and part time, so I could work full time while studying, and it just seemed to tick all the boxes for me”, she said.
Alongside her growing scriptwriting prowess, Kayleigh’s stand-up routines are flourishing; her show I Fed My Dad to a Pelican sold out at both the Camden Fringe Festival and Women in Comedy earlier this year, and she credits the course for helping her to bring structure to the show, as she explains: “I used to sit down to write a script with a rough idea of plot and characters, but it’d take me ages because I’d be figuring everything out as I was writing. Now I have learned all about the planning required; there is so much work to be done before you write a single word, and so by the time you sit down to write the script, it's easy.”
I wrote a pilot episode for a new comedy for one of the modules, and really enjoyed developing that script
After a successful year, the future is looking bright for Kayleigh, with a second script commission under her belt and ambitions to take I Fed My Dad to a Pelican to the Edinburgh Fringe. As she told us: “Off the back of the Halloween show’s success – which they said was one of the best puppet shows they’ve ever put on – Legoland have commissioned me to write next year's main puppet show, so I’m now in the process of writing that script.
“Beyond that, I'd love to do the Edinburgh Fringe with my show, and above all just keep writing. I wrote a pilot episode for a new comedy for one of the modules, and really enjoyed developing that script, so I’d be keen to work on that some more and maybe try and get it commissioned.”
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