Podcast appearances and mentions of Simon Rich

This week on "BETA," Simon Rich joins us to talk about his short story collection, "Glory Days." Helen Phillips explores Artificial Intelligence in her suspenseful novel, "Hum." And author Chris Nashawaty revisits the epic summer of 1982 - when Star Wars and Sci-Fi Fever hit it's peak.

Hey! This is the 242nd episode. This week we talk about A Lost Cat on an Airplane, Cate Blanket (Blanchett), We Review the book Glory Days by Simon Rich!! Reach out: notgoodwithmatt@gmail.com

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories in that look at some of the ways we “keep score” in life even though we know it's not a game.  Simon Rich explores the game as intergenerational competition in “The Tribal Rite of the Strombergs,” read by John Hodgman.  In Dylan Marron's “Some News,” a man carefully tracks an old friend on social media, while eyeing his own accomplishments.  Marron is the reader. And Joanne Harris' “Fule's Gold,” a teacher tries to put himself on the board—by stealing points from an unwitting student. The reader is Gildart Jackson.

Seth takes a closer look at the Republican Party taking orders from their new leader Elon Musk, who is demanding that the GOP shut down the government until Donald Trump takes office in January.Then, John Mulaney and Simon Rich discuss their shared trauma of working for Seth, reminisce on the first time they met and share some of the Saturday Night Live sketch ideas they pitched while working on the show.Plus, exclusively for this podcast, John and Simon keep the conversation going backstage at Studio 8G.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Simon Rich has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (FXX) and “Miracle Workers” which he based on his books. His other collections include Spoiled Brats and Ant Farm. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.  His new story collection is Glory Days. We talked about Ray Bradbury, the similarities between humor and science fiction, characters who are trying to reinvent themselves, humanizing characters who seem like they have no good qualities, the underdogs, writing for TV and sketch comedy versus fiction books, and family dynamics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon Rich talks about how writing fantastical stories can still be authentic and personal.we also talk about growing up in a family of writers, why SNL is not a pit of vipers, John Mulaney & Richard Kind being in his new play, bad driving, Mad Magazine and why Jay is responsible for Simon's career because he watched The Simpsons as a kid.Bio:  Simon Rich has written for “Saturday Night Live,” Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (FXX) and “Miracle Workers” (TBS), which he based on his books. His collections include GLORY DAYS, NEW TEETH, HITS AND MISSES, SPOILED BRATS and ANT FARM. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

Johnny Mac delivers the daily comedy news, focusing on Saturday Night Live's ratings decline with Bill Burr's recent hosting compared to John Mulaney's successful episode. He highlights the dual role of CharlieXCX on SNL, John Mulaney's audition and writing history, and Simon Rich's anecdotes. Jenny Slate and Chloe Trost's reflections on their SNL experiences are discussed. Victoria Jackson's ongoing feud with Alec Baldwin, originating from comments on her physical appearance, is detailed. Paul Reiser's upcoming special and reflections on comedy club culture are shared, along with mentions of various comedy festivals and performances. 00:42 John Mulaney's SNL Journey02:42 Victoria Jackson's Controversial Stories04:02 Paul Reiser's Comedy Special and Reflections05:27 Comedy Festivals and EventsUnlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!  You also get 20+ other shows on the network ad-free!    This podcast supports Podcasting 2.0 if you'd like to support the show via value for value and stream some sats! https://linktr.ee/dailycomedynews Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com  John's free substack about the media:  Media Thoughts DCN on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@dailycomedynews You can also support the show at www.buymeacoffee.com/dailycomedynews Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news--4522158/support.

Ryan Slie joins us as co-host this week for a rousing round of waddya gots and a discussion of NEW TEETH by Simon Rich. takenote_pod We're on InstagramNew Teeth by Simon RichHold Your Breath on Huluemail us: takenotecentral@gmail.com homepage: takenote.space

Johnny Mac discusses Burt Kreischer's announced benefit show in Florida for Hurricane Helene victims, highlighting his connection to the state. Ahmed Ahmed is profiled by the LA Times, sharing his experiences in Hollywood and challenges with typecasting and stereotyping, leading to his shift into stand-up comedy. Eugene Merman reflects on his work with Flight of the Conchords and the Mandela Effect, while Nikki Glaser discusses Taylor Swift on Bill Maher's show. Billy Gardell shares his return to stand-up comedy post-sitcom and health transformation, and Simon Rich fondly recalls working with John Mulaney. Irene 2 and Tina Frill talk about their comedic journeys, focusing on identity and disability in their performances. The episode concludes with a promotional message about the ad-free version of the program and other shows on the network. 00:11 Burt Kreischer's Benefit Show for Hurricane Victims00:47 Ahmed Ahmed's Journey in Comedy02:35 Eugene Merman on Flight of the Conchords and Bob's Burgers04:04 Nikki Glaser and Taylor Swift on Bill Maher's Club Random04:36 Billy Gardell's Return to Stand-Up Comedy07:23 Simon Rich on John Mulaney's Success08:19 Irene Tu's Comedy Experience in LA09:28 Tina Friml on Comedy and DisabilityUnlock an ad-free podcast experience with Caloroga Shark Media! Get all our shows on any player you love, hassle free! For Apple users, hit the banner on your Apple podcasts app. For Spotify or other players, visit caloroga.com/plus. No plug-ins needed!  You also get the other shows on the network ad-free!  $4.99, a no brainer. This podcast supports Podcasting 2.0 if you'd like to support the show via value for value and stream some sats! You can also support the show at www.buymeacoffee.com/dailycomedynews Contact John at john@thesharkdeck dot com  John's free substack about the media:  Media ThoughtsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/daily-comedy-news--4522158/support.

Simon Rich (writer! New book Glory Days!) makes it weird! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS MUDWTR Get up to 43% OFF http://mudwtr.com/weird APOLLO Get $40 OFF your order https://apolloneuro.com/weird MAGIC MIND Get 20% OFF your order https://magicmind.co/weird For 10% OFF your order https://Onnit.com/Weird

This week on "BETA," Simon Rich joins us to talk about his short story collection, "Glory Days." Helen Phillips explores Artificial Intelligence in her suspenseful novel, "Hum." And author Chris Nashawaty revisits the epic summer of 1982 - when Star Wars and Sci-Fi Fever hit it's peak.

The Boys help SIMON RICH juice the comments of his Broadway play announcement “All In: Comedy About Love.”Get tickets to see Hollywood Handbook live and live-streamed in LA Oct 4th HERE!Get a Hat Pack Hat here!Watch the video of today's episode at Patreon.com/HollywoodHandbook Like the show? Rate Hollywood Handbook 5-Stars on Apple PodcastsAdvertise on Hollywood Handbook via Gumball.fm See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today on the show, we are talking about comedic writing with Simon Rich. He has, after all, written for Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, and The New Yorker, so he knows a bit about trying to be funny on the page. And he's out with a new book, Glory Days: Stories, in which he makes light of entering middle age. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Neal Brennan interviews Simon Rich ('Man Seeking Woman,' 'SNL,' 'Glory Days' + other books) about the things that make him feel lonely, isolated, and like something's wrong - and how he is persevering despite these blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro 1:40 Not on Social Media 7:37 Writing at SNL 12:37 Childhood 17:48 Harvard 24:41 Anxiety 32:00 Workaholism 41:19 Fear of Mobs 54:40 Small ---------------------------------------------------------- Follow Neal Brennan: https://www.instagram.com/nealbrennan https://twitter.com/nealbrennan https://www.tiktok.com/@mrnealbrennan Watch Neal Brennan: Crazy Good on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81728557 Watch Neal Brennan: Blocks on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81036234 Theme music by Electric Guest (unreleased). Edited by Will Hagle Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Simon Rich joins Seth and Josh on the pod this week! He talks all about his anxious grandma, drinking celery flavored soda, traveling with his brother, a memorable trip to Venezuela, his trip with Seth when they ran out of gas, and so much more! Family Trips is supported by Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much more at airbnb.com/host to learn about hosting. Here's a special, (limited time) deal for our listeners. Right now get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription - but only for our listeners - at Babbel.com/TRIPS. Get your free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase at drinklmnt.com/trips  Also try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water. Try LMNT totally risk-free. If you don't like it, we'll refund your order So thanks again to Nissan for sponsoring this episode of Family Trips. Now go find your path, and enjoy the ride along the way. Learn more at nissanusa.com

John welcomes Simon Rich (Man Seeking Woman, Miracle Workers) to look at how he crafts a comedic premise. Using his work on SNL, his time writing Inside Out at Pixar and his plethora of short stories, they look at how he develops a funny idea into a story with narrative and emotional punch. We also follow up on the Harry Potter TV series, and answer listener questions on the downsides of writing in other mediums and adapting your screenplay into a novel. In our bonus segment for premium members, how do you get your work into magazines? Simon walks through his experience, from rejection letters to being published in the New Yorker. Links: Glory Days by Simon Rich “Gifted” by Simon Rich Rocket Dog sketch Howtown with Joss Fong and Adam Cole Dr. Eckener's Dream Machine: The Great Zeppelin and the Dawn of Air Travel by Douglas Botting Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Gift a Scriptnotes Subscription or treat yourself to a premium subscription! Craig Mazin on Threads and Instagram John August on Threads, Instagram and Twitter John on Mastodon Outro by Eric Pearson (send us yours!) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt with help from Jonathan Wigdortz. It is edited by Matthew Chilelli. Email us at ask@johnaugust.com You can download the episode here.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about fathers and fatherhood. In “Beauty and the Beast” by Simon Rich, a self-absorbed producer gets a little Disney sparkle from his daughter. The reader is Arian Moayed. “Bedtime Story” by Victor LaValle, read by Dion Graham, features a son soothing an anxious father; and a father-daughter hiking trip involves both bonding and danger in Percival Everett's “Exposure,” read by Denis O'Hare. The show features on-stage remarks by O'Hare about fatherhood and includes comments by Percival Everett and Dion Graham.

Simon Rich reads his story “We're Not So Different, You and I,” from the May 13, 2024, issue of the magazine. Rich has published eight books of fiction, including “The Last Girlfriend on Earth,” which was adapted for the TV series “Man Seeking Woman,” and “Hits and Misses,” which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor in 2019. A new story collection, “Glory Days,” will be published in July.

This week on the SNL Hall of Fame podcast we're joined by the delightful Victoria Franco to discuss the bona fidas of writer John Mulaney. Transcrlpt: [0:41] Oh my goodness gracious me, oh my, it is my privilege to be joining you onceagain this week in the SNL Hall of Fame.The SNL Hall of Fame podcast is a weekly affair where each episode we take adeep dive into the career of a former cast member, host, musical guest,or writer, and add them to the ballot for your consideration.Once the nominees have been announced, we turn to you, the listener,to vote for the the most deserving and help determine who will be enshrinedfor perpetuity in the hall.And that's how we play the game.It's just that easy. But before we get to voting, we need to discuss our nominee.And before we discuss our nominee, we need to speak with our friend Matt Ardillin his minutiae minute corner.What do you say we wander over there and see what old Matty is up to?Track 3[1:39] Hey, JD, how are you doing? I am parched, and I just had an enjoyable sip ofwater, which has cleaned up the old pipes.Yeah, nature soda, I've heard it called. Nature soda, I like it.Yeah. I heard somebody say they won't drink water because fish have sex in it.I i think that's a fair you know i i canunderstand that but um you know run it through enoughpurifiers it should be fine i mean i'm ai'm a water fiend i drink like four liters a day oh it's yeah it's good forthe body that's right that's why i'm so uh uh easy on the eyes yeah you areyou are ripped are ripped right speaking of ripped this week we've got john,Yeah, back again.Um, so I did make the effort of finding new trivia, so it should be a long timelistener listeners. It should be interesting.Track 3[2:45] Um, uh, height six foot, uh, one of the taller, uh, uh, contestants for, or nominees actually.Yeah. Yeah. Born August 26th, 1982. Yeah.He has 28 writing credits, 42 actor credits, 13 producer credits.I have to say, when I saw him in The Bear, it blew me away. It was really intense.Did not expect that. So he's got a lot of good acting chops.He's released five stand-up specials and his Sack Lunch Bunch Kids special.Grew up in Chicago, child of a law professor, mother Ellen, and attorney fatherCharles Charles Chip W. Mulaney.Never mess with a chip. Anybody who's got Chip as a nickname, that's trouble.Track 3[3:35] But he's descended from a lot of political go-getters.He's descended from the mayor of Salem and has congressmen on both sides of his family.Track 3[3:49] So, yeah, he's got a good pedigree.His maternal grandmother, Carolyn Stanton, and Seth Meyers' mother,Hillary Meyers, performed together at a hospital benefit show called Pills aPoppin'. That's some foreshadowing.And it was directed by Tommy Toon when they were 19 years old.So there is some deep family connections going on there.Yeah. So he attended Georgetown University, and as most people know,with Nick. role where he studied English literature.He decided he wanted to go to show into show business at the age of five afterwatching a lifestyle program, uh, about Ricky Ricardo, uh, which is the mostJohn Mulaney thing I have ever read.Um, like if anybody's going to set their life goals by watching Ricky Ricardo,that would be John Mulaney.Yeah. From that point, he started doing sketches for friends and family whenever given a chance and,And he was pushed, actually, by his high school teacher to pursue his love of comedy.He actually almost had the role, well, he almost auditioned for the role ofKevin McAllister in Home Alone, but his parents wouldn't let him.Track 3[5:07] That is wild. Yeah, that would have been a very interesting and different Home Alone movie.Track 3[5:14] I can only imagine what 10-year-old John Mulaney would have brought to the game.Um so instead he juststarted hanging around the museum of broadcasting communications until hegot to go to university uh that when hejoined an improv group uh which is wherehe met kroll and mike berbiglia uh whotook him on tour uh during his uh daysand that's how he lost his stage fright he's had his own showwith mulaney uh his own show mulaney healso appeared as himself on jim gaffigan's sitcom wherehe portrayed his jim gaffigan'snemesis as himself and he'staken roles in chip and dale spider-man cartoons ofspider-ham which you know perfect casting no notes.Track 3[5:59] His first late night gig was writing for conanuh but he's also takenon writing roles for seth myers uhas and has also written for the academy awards and theemmys he has had a couple couple of brushes withbroadway first uh bringing a special kid gorgeousto radio city music hall and then bringingoh hello the sketch from the cruel show tobeing a broadway show where they just hadrandom famous people showing up he's also released an album the top part whichis just him telling anecdotes which i need to listen to now yeah i don't knowabout that but it's just like him telling anecdotes and stories sign me up yeahbut uh his esoteric sense of humor has has led him to many projects.Track 3[6:44] Including contributing to Seth Meyers parody show documentary now.Track 3[6:48] And he is in fact a super fan of law and order.Welcome to my.Track 4[7:16] Of flour All right, JD and Matt, thank you so much. Yes, we are here.Another episode of the SNL Hall of Fame. I'm so excited about this one.This is an interesting one. We're talking about somebody who's already beenon the ballot since season one, but in a different capacity.We're kind of reorganizing our thoughts when it comes to this person.We're reframing his Hall of Fame candidacy and his role on SNL.So I'm talking about John Mulaney, who's been on the ballot as a host in previous times.We decided, let's talk about him as a writer, because that was his starting point on SNL.So we're talking John Mulaney as a writer today on the SNL Hall of Fame,and joining me to do that, a previous guest.You may have heard her on the Amy Poehler episode that we did.You may have heard her on one of the end of season roundtables where she didsuch a great job expressing her opinions that we always love to hear about.And you've probably heard her on the SNN, our buddies over at the Saturday Night Network.I'm talking about Victoria Fronzo is joining me today to chat about John Mulaney.Track 4[8:39] Victoria, how's it going? Doing well. I'm very excited to talk about the oneand only John Mulaney. I feel like we have similarities in, you know, being.Track 4[8:50] From chicago and the comedy scene i cansee that and you're one of my few guests there's ahandful of guests but you're one of my few guests who i've actually kind ofbeen able to hang out with in person so alot of us in the snl community know each other just by doing podcasts and onlinebut we've actually got to hang out in chicago so that was that was wonderfuland you're a very funny person so i can kind of see those similarities as wellyes i i took i took thomas to the best It's the best empanada place in Chicago. It's so good.Yeah. It's delicious. We had empanadas. I got an horchata. I walked around Chicago.It was a good time. Yes.I'm going to plug Cafe Tola. Always support a Latina-owned business in Chicago.So Cafe Tola is one of the best empanada places in the city of Chicago.Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. Great recommendation.Track 4[9:41] So you're living in Chicago right now. You're living the sketch comedy dream.Dream? Like, what have you been up to over the last few months or so?Oh, man. So I am, I, you know, moved back to Chicago last year from Detroit.I'm back at the Second City.I finished the conservatory slash grad review program, which was really awesome.And now I'm getting ready for my own SNL showcase because I am an SNL scholarat the Second City, which justmeans that Saturday Night Live pays for my classes and training there.And at the end of it, we get to put together whether a showcase that is SNL-likeand that it's sketches and solo pieces.And yeah, that's open to the public. So if you're around, feel free to come.I'm also just doing some writing and performing on the side too.Track 4[10:28] Yeah, if you're in Chicago, that sounds like an awesome deal.Go support Victoria and go support these SNL scholars and what they're doingover there at Second City in Chicago.It's such a cool thing. If I live closer, I would have already attended.I think I missed it by a week as well when I was up there last.Yeah, you should just, I don't know.Track 4[10:48] Rearrange your whole life and come back to Chicago. No excuse is she saying? Yes.We have, I mean, the SNL scholars are four of us.One of them quite literally flew across the world to be here from Austria.So it's a nice blend of folks that we've got in the cast.Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm excited to hear how it goes.And, again, if anybody's in the area, please go check it out.Go check out Victoria there at Second City.Somebody who probably is an influence to a lot of Second City folks,I'm sure you included, is our topic today, John Mulaney.He's a stand-up by trade. He auditioned to be a cast member for SNL.He auditioned at the same time as Nick Kroll, Donald Glover,Ellie Kemper, Bobby Moynihan, who obviously ended up getting it.Mulaney did not get the cast member job, but he ended up being offered a writingjob, which he immediately accepted.So he was a writer from 2009 to 2012.So going from auditioning to be a cast member to getting a writing job,that's not a bad deal, Victoria.I would certainly take that. I don't know about you. I would.I would take a janitor job at SNL, to be honest with you.Yeah, yeah. Yeah, if they offered me the janitor job, if they offered me whateverpage, I always wanted to be, I should have started young and tried to be a page.I know. Even then, though, it's so hard.Track 4[12:16] It's easier if you're in New York City and had connections to NBC to be a page.Yeah, and I think NBC and SNL made the right choice.Mulaney probably would have been a pretty decent cast member.Remember, he would have added his own flair, but we got the chance to reallyenjoy his writing stuff and his work as a writer.So I want to talk about his stand-up, Victoria. Are you a fan of Mulaney's stand-up?I am. So to be completely honest.It's going to shock some people here. I didn't really know about John Mulaney up until 2019.I had no idea who he was, and I've always been an SNL fan.I never went deep, though, into learning who the writers were or whatnot.But a friend of mine told me, you know, there's this guy.He just released a special on Netflix. He's so up your alley.And I go, what's his name? She goes, you don't know who that is?It's an SNL writer, John Mulaney. And I go, I have no idea who that is.Track 4[13:22] And watched his stand-up. And I don't want to say fell in love because that's inappropriate.But I did come to love his comedy very much.I'm a little bit in love with Mulaney and his comedy. So you could say fellin love. I think that's somewhat appropriate.I just don't, you know, he's got a partner. He does. I don't want to be disrespectful.He's a dad now. It's a little murky.Yeah, he's a full papa now.Yeah, so you fell in love with the stand-up material. What was it about thematerial that really grabbed you?I loved that he was weird.Or not weird, but he could find the weird in everyday things and make it funny.And not only that, you know, not to say he's a clean comedian by chance, but he...He's smart about his comedy, if that makes sense.He's smart and strategic versus, you know, going blue, as we say in comedy,to lean in as a crutch, which was really refreshing.Track 4[14:27] I think his stand-ups changed a little bit, and that's totally fair.And as it should, like as you grow and change, so should your content.I didn't expect it to stay the same, but even now with baby Jay,after everything that's happened the last couple of years, it's still really funny to me.And I love that he's kind of poked fun at his likability. And I think that's what it is.He's likable even in this new chapter of his life.Track 4[14:53] I think he has this specific relatability, if that makes sense.That's what I point about. He focuses on hyper-specific things,I think, his specific observations, but he makes them relatable,whether it's, I know that conceptthat he's talking about, or I've also observed that specific thing.I think Mulaney's always been so good at that. I think it does show up in his sketch work as well.You brought up a really good point, too, with Working Blue and his choice.I mean, he's not a clean comic. I mean, he does curse, but it's for effect.If he curses it's for a reason he's notjust using the f word as some sort of verbal pauselike a lot of comedians do it's uhmulaney's very strategic about it and he's he'svery strategic about his comedy in general victoria that's what i love abouta lot of his stand-up is i feel like one of my really funny friends is talkingto me and telling me a story so he makes it conversational but you can telland appreciate the craft that went into it at the same time It's a really neat,delicate balance that Mulaney strikes, I think.Track 4[16:03] You know, male comics, not all, of course, I'm not going to generalize them,but some of them, and quite a few of them, tend to play the D-bag role in their stand-up, right?And that can be funny at times, and I'm not opposed to it. I'll watch any type of comedy.I'll never say no, unless they're incredibly problematic or outwardly horrible.But that's what differentiated him. him he wasn't playing a bro he wasn't youknow womanizing he wasn't you know he didn't he never really punches down inhis comedy which is something i think is admirable too in a takeaway,yeah he punches a lot of times he punches at himself he like punches inward and especially.Track 4[16:51] Laterally yeah he punches laterally like a t-rex like you i think you shouldhave seen victoria on on camera she was punching and it looked like she waslike a t-rex arms punching laterally that's what and that's how i punch in reallife so don't mess oh no don't ever fight please,begging you um yeah noyou're right and he's very he's self-deprecating but not in an annoying kindof way it's like a lot of comedians are self-deprecating like all right it kindof comes off as fake like you're making fun of yourself but do you really believeit i think mulaney i believe it especially with baby j you mentioned baby jhis most recent special when he was talking Talking about his intervention,I think that was so great.It was self-deprecating, but it was like honest.And he was almost making fun of other people, but it would go back to him.And it was, I think Baby J was a, we've seen it throughout his comedy.Kid Gorgeous is one of my favorite stand-up specials of all time. Yes.That's from like 2018, around the time maybe that you get. That was the first one I watched.Yeah, okay. Maybe, yeah, Kid Gorgeous was the special. and I think that's oneof my favorite all-time stand-up specials by anybody and you could just seehis voice in that just it shines through and I think you could see.Track 4[18:10] On SNL, that comedic voice of Mulaney's show up on his work on SNL.I mean, would you say that that's correct? He has a stamp on his sketches. That's Mulaney. Yeah.Yeah, I was going to say in preparation for this, I've come to realize a lotof my favorite stuff on SNL written by Mulaney.Yeah. Or stuff that I'm laughing out loud. I'm like, oh, that's really funny.That's tied to Mulaney. but I do want to go back to his stand-up.I just want to shout out a joke he did.It's the McDonald's joke. I think it's from The Comeback Kid.He and his family are on a road trip, and they see the golden arches,and they start chanting, McDonald's, McDonald's, McDonald's.And my dad pulled into the drive-thru, and we started cheering.And then he ordered one black coffee for himself.Track 4[19:08] And kept driving.And you know, as mad as that made me as a little kid, in retrospect,that is the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life.How perfect is that?He had a vanload of little kids, and he got black coffee, the one thing fromMcDonald's no child could enjoy.Yeah, and now in my family, my parents watch thatwith me every time we see a mcdonald's even though wedon't necessarily go to eat from mcdonald's anymore we chant mcdonald's so yeahit's something like that no that's perfect but something like that that's sospecific that that you know happened to him or whatever but it's so relatableat the same time like you just you understand that family dynamic,that he's talking about uh there was something from kid gorgeous uh one of myfavorite bits is when he was comparing Trump to a horse loose in a hospital.This guy being the president, it's like there's a horse loose in a hospital.Track 4[20:16] It's like there's a horse loose in a hospital.I think eventually everything's going to be okay, but I have no idea what's going to happen next.And neither do any of you, andneither do your parents, because there's a horse loose in the hospital.It's never happened before.No one knows what the horse is going to do next. Least of all the horse,he's never been in a hospital before.He's as confused as you are. That's a fantastic imagery, perfect metaphor, perfect beats.Like, I think that's one of the better bits of any comedian I've seen,like, in the last 10 years.And that's the perfect way to describe him.Because last week, I watched Kid Gorgeous again. And I was just like,yeah, no, that holds true. Yeah.Track 4[21:07] Yeah, no, it's a perfect, yeah, it's a perfect way to describe that president.Yeah, pretty much, yeah. And it's so Mulaney, too.It's such a Mulaney way to describe his presidency as well. That's what I love.Like, some of my favorite comedians, he's just, like, hyper-specific voice.We did another writer, Julio Torres, recently on the SNL Hall of Fame,and he's another one where it's just like I would watch a sketch,and that's Julio Torres' voice. I watched something from Mulaney,and that's Mulaney's perspective and his voice.So I think that's just a mark of a really great writer is nothing generic.It's your stamp on it. And I'm glad I have you on here today.I want to take advantage of like your training and your knowledge and everythingjust for sketch writing in general.Victoria, like as a viewer of sketch comedy and somebody who takes part in sketchcomedy, who works in it. What are some things you look for in good sketch writing?Oh, man.Track 4[22:09] Obviously, it's subjective and everyone's everyone's different.I love what I love callbacks to something.So if you're watching a full show, this only mostly pertains to stage or theatercomedy versus, you know, an SNL type show.But when they do something in the like in an earlier sketch and then they callit back, it's called a runner.You know there are all these ties i really love that because that's it'sa smart way to put the show together and create somewhat ofa theme in terms of sketch ijust love when there's a character with a purpose right andthere's a character who's who the other characters in the sketch complimentthem and this is something we were talking talking about before we went livehere everyone in that sketch serves a purpose and it's not just they're justthere to fill space and and let this main character be weird.We talked about Herb Welch.Track 4[23:06] We know this is about Herb Welch, but every character from the anchor at thestudio to the people he's interviewing, they all compliment him,and they serve a purpose to show something,a characteristic about that person, if that makes sense. I don't know if I'mdescribing that accurately.Yeah, no, it's almost where, Where even if a character on screen is nonsensical,it has to be grounded in something.Correct. That's what I want to say, grounded. Yeah, it has to be grounded in something.And the people that you mentioned, like the supporting characters,serve as the characters who maybe ground whatever's happening.Yes. Either to highlight the absurdity or whatever. But you're right.Good sketch writing, I think, nothing should be throwaway.Track 4[23:55] And I think that's, was that something like that you, what we're getting attoo is just, you know, like you said, like the grounding aspect,but also like no, like an economy of words in a way.Like you have to use the three minutes that you have like wisely and efficiently.Yes. And I like when things are succinct and to the point versus drawn out and we don't get it.Or I like what you said about throw away. way.Sometimes, a lot of times, I should say, sketches don't need those extra linesthat you think they need, right, to justify.You know, a character doesn't have to say, hi, mom and dad.We should be able to know that just based on, we need to start in the middle of that.Or of like, well, thanks for coming to my wine and cheese night.We're going to do X, Y, Z. It's just start in the middle of the scene.We get, like, we see the wine, we see the cheese, you know what I mean?I mean, it doesn't have to be about the wine and cheese.That's, you know, just a random situation, just an example.I don't know. And I just – my favorite thing about Mulaney is that he's kind of bold, too.I don't think a lot of people would be making the same jokes that he was making. I don't know.That's also to say I don't think he would make the same jokes as he did 10,12, 13, 14 years ago either.Track 4[25:21] Times have changed. But, you know, I think he did a good job of,I don't know, I like sometimes fearless comedy.And I'm not saying that as an excuse to be a jerk, right? Right, there's a difference.Yeah, there's a difference. You should never be a jerk and, you know,make cheap shots and, you know, make marginalized people the butt of the joke.That's not what I'm saying at all. But, you know, don't be so afraid to talkabout the things that are just real life and are real to those groups or, you know what I mean?Track 4[25:55] Yeah. Yeah, and I think we saw a lot of that show up, of course,and the thing that sticks out to me and you and probably every SNL fan withMulaney is a lot of those things that you just mentioned showed up in Stefan,which Mulaney wrote with Bill Hader.And that was the best thing, I think, that almost pretty much anybody has ever done on SNL.This is one of my personal favorite things ever on SNL. yeah andi think with stefan melanie's verygood at what you just mentioned victoria's showingon her notebook she has a stefan sticker soobviously a fan of stefan buti think melanie's good at referencing things that seem very specific butare oddly relatable in stefan he's very good about not punchingdown at marginalized people but still making jokes involving marginalizedpeople in a lot of ways so talk about victoria liketalk about stefan just in general like what do you want want to say about thisawesome piece of art and something ifailed to mention again i did not doa good job of explaining why i find in a sketch butspecificity specificity is that a word that's very much a word and you did agood job there you go thank you english is my second language as i like to jokeum no but he has specifics that make it incredibly weird and and stefan right um.Track 4[27:17] Um, you know, I don't, I can, I don't know that I can describe some of the things,you know, Stefan would say, again, I don't think we'd be making the same jokes today,which is fair and fine and understandable, but you know, I don't want to saythe word, but he was talking about real life suitcases where they wear,where they wear people, but he used the M word.Yes. And like, I think it was likelayering clothes on and putting on rollerblades. And you know what I mean?Just like how stupid, you know, that's just like a stupid, funny joke.Um, yeah, that imagery.Yeah. The, the imagery of it is fun. And I love the game between Stefan and Seth of.Track 4[28:02] No, we're looking for suggestions for, you know, a Midwestern family or anybody who's not you.I got it already. Okay. New York's hottest club is Bush.This club has everything. Ghosts. Good. Banjos. Carl Palladino.A stuck-up kitten who won't sign autographs.Furcles. Oh, do I want to know? Yes, you do. So furcles are? Fat urcles. Right.Of course they are. Sure. Sure they are.And after you've been with one of those guys, you'll ask yourself, did I do that?Track 4[28:47] Stefan. Just these like weird, random, yet very specific things that don't necessarilyfit together that are under the same roof at whatever club is.It was just, yeah, it was a nice blend of weird but specific.And, you know, I think it worked for Stefan.Yeah, I absolutely agree. One of my favorite jokes that he did is Stefan.The cast is a special guest. Have you heard of Blackula, the black Dracula? Yes.Well, they have a Jewish Dracula. Oh, what's his name? Sidney Applebaum.Track 4[29:33] Sidney Applebaum. Jewish. Jewish Dracula.Sidney. It's that misdirection, that funny misdirection. I could totally tellMulaney was sitting there like, I gotta do some sort of misdirection jokes.You think he's obviously going to do a play, like blackula isa play on black dracula he says jewish dracula there'sgonna be a play on that but it's just a jewish name andthat's totally mulaney's sense of humor and iappreciate that and also the game of i i uh idon't know if you and i've ever talked about breaking before in insketches first of all okay so how do you feel justin general like about breaking i think there's a time and place you know ifyou're just breaking right off the bat it's not not funny if you're doing itexcessively it's not funny it just depends and maybe like for example debbiedowner what worked for that sketch was that everyone was breaking constantly,but that was like a joint yeah this is funny and ridiculous and we're you knowthe fact they couldn't get through it was funny to us but if it's a single personwho's just breaking and it doesn't seem genuine.Track 4[30:51] They kind of ruined it. Yeah. Yeah. I think with Stefan, to me,it did seem genuine. As the audience, we started kind of knowing the game thatMulaney was playing with Bill Hader in there.So Mulaney would change the cue cards.He would change the punchlines to some of the jokes.And so when Bill, as Stefan, was reading the joke, that could have been thefirst time that he was reading that specific punchline.Even though they did it in dress i think between dress and air milani wouldhe would have punch lines like multiple versions of apunch line of a joke so he would just switch out punch linesbetween dress and air so that'd be the first time that we saw bill reading thatjoke so i think in breaking in that case yes it's funny there's like a funnygame it's part of this bit or whatever and it's something that with debbie downeri think the first time they did it was natural and that's That's why it was a classic.And then they tried to recreate it and it wasn't the same.And they found the magic with Stefan being able to recreate the game of breaking.And I don't know how they did it. They weren't able to recreate it.And Debbie Downer, Lisa from Temecula recently, I don't think they've been able to recreate that.But with Stefan, millennium hater managed to recreate breaking and make it seem authentic every time.Like, I wonder why that is, Victoria, what's the difference?Track 4[32:17] Well, it's probably because every single thing Stefan says is he's a firecracker.You don't know what he's going to say, and he doesn't know what he's going to say.And I think why that's getting a laugh is that those folks in studio are also seeing that.They're seeing the switch or whatever. But I think it works for them because.Track 4[32:39] The nature of Stefan is so out there and wild and weird that he's not a relatable character.He's not saying the run-of-the-mill things of, oh, my favorite breakfast is pancakes with bacon.He's saying some very weird things.And to say them in person, out loud, in front of an audience is kind of,you know, like, what am I saying? I do that too sometimes.His favorite breakfast would be like uppers and regret. Or something like that. I don't know.Yeah. And I mean, I've gotten my breaking under control. But I've broken on stage.Yeah. And it's just funny because I'm, and to me, what's making it funny iswe've been rehearsing this.And we've got the joke. And, you know, we've, whatever.But now we're sharing this with other people who are not comedians.Track 4[33:37] And we don't know how they're going to react to what we know is ridiculous andI'm going to say it and hope for the best.You know what I mean? Yeah. Part of the breaking is that we're now saying thisin front of people who we don't know.We don't know what they're going to say, how they're going to react to it essentially.Yeah. Yeah, that's a really neat perspective on breaking, I guess from a performer's side of it.I think, yeah, just as long as it doesn't feel forced or – Yes,I think that's what I – you're better at words today than I am,but that's what I meant of when you're solo or you start breaking off the bat or whatever it is.If it just doesn't seem genuine, if you're not actually laughing,you're just doing it to deflect or try to make this funnier or trying to be funny by breaking –.Track 4[34:27] I don't think it works. I think people will notice that. And if you're genuinelybreaking, people will laugh with you and not at you.Yeah, essentially, Mulaney's a magician when it comes to this because he wasable to make it seem authentic and part of the game and everything like that with Stefan.So Stefan, by the way, on the Saturday Night Network's character countdown,I believe he was number one. I was on that episode.Yeah, he was number one. Do you agree with Stefan? Like, could you see him beingnumber one in a character countdown?It's 49 years of history, I know. But what do you think of that?I'm trying to think of, well, okay, hold on. I was going to say,who else would be number one?But I really love some of Kristen Wiig's characters, too. But Stefan being numberone is a fair assessment.That kind of makes sense, right? Yeah. Because there are no diminishing returns, too.So I think that's another thing about good sketch writing. writingis if you keep writing the samefor the same character and how are the returnson it with Stefan I don't think Victoria there was diminishing returnson Stefan it might have gotten better honestly so that as a sketch writer andsomebody who appreciates sketch like how that that's such a sometimes a rarething not to see diminishing returns for a recurring character no that's completelyaccurate it's a fair assessment I was like unless you're doing.Track 4[35:52] A specific show about those same characters butyeah no it's i thinkthat's one thing that stefan got the sameamount of laughs if not even more laughs every time he heshowed up yeah and that's just great writing andgreat performance by bill of course bill hater yep amazing performerbut that's just like the team like millennia bill just such a wonderful teamuh so stefan on yeah we love victoria has a step on sticker on her notebookso we we all love step on uh something that that i've always loved very relatablething of forgetting people's names,uh so it's presented in a fun way by millennia so millennia's behind the what'sthat name sketches so victoria these are these get me every time i think hedid three of them But all three were just fantastic.You know, like a relatable premise. I love these. What did you think of what's that name?Track 4[36:50] It's interesting. So I have a very millennial slash Gen Z take on this.So there are people that will follow me and I follow them back on Instagram.And we have our names on Instagram.But I won't know their real name, but I know their Instagram name. Oh, no.And, for example, this literally happened last night where there's this personwho's – I've met them in person, and we follow each other on Instagram,but I forgot their real name. Is it me?Did you forget my name? Tim.Track 4[37:31] No his name is thomas everybody his name is thomas itsays it in the top top left cornerhere um no but there's a person that iran into and i forgot his real nameand i was about to call him hisinstagram handle but i think it'sjust again it's a very funny premise i thinkthat's a great take on how to present this versus doinga real life like relationship sketchif that makes sense yeah you know i love that they putit in game format and not just hey we're at a hot dog stand and i don't knowyour name and what kind of game can we play within the sketch i love that theformat of it is a game show yeah i think game show sketches get a bad rap likepeople say oh oh, another game show sketch.But I think that it's format. Like the format of a game show is ripe to presentjokes, to present situations.Track 4[38:28] I think it just gets a bad rap. But to me, it being a game show sketch in andof itself, I don't think it's a bad thing. It's just about execution.Just like with any of this stuff, it's about the execution. I agree with youthat it was a good idea to make this a game show.And, of course, Bill Hader, like arguably one of the best game show hosts in SNL history.You can make him a game show host with anything. Yeah. Knock it out of the park.I know your whole family. Your son Avi loves Outer Space. What's my name?Track 4[39:01] Carl? Audience, what's that name? Norman.Norman the doorman. Oh, I'm so sorry.Say hi to the wife for me. I'm sorry, what's that? that, say hi to my wife.Yeah, OK, I'll take the bus out to Forest Hills Cemetery and tell her that you say hello.Track 4[39:24] God, what the hell kind of show is this? It's What's That Name?The interactions between Hader and the contestants, he was like,Bill Hader was antagonistic.He's like the sadistic game show host. He was like, I know you forget names,and I'm doing this on purpose to put you in this position.So uh yeah the the first onethey did was uh season 36 episode 9uh it was mulaney he he co-wrote thesewith uh simon rich who he collaborated collaborated with a lot and merica sawyerso there's like his writing partners a lot of the time on the show and he collaboratedwith them on what's that name it was like paul rudd vanessa bear keenan comesout as uh the doorman and paul rudd's trying to remember the name it's norman the doorman like Like,how easy is it to remember that name?So these are just, like, lovely, lovely sketches.He did it, too, when he came back to host as well.Track 4[40:23] Yeah, I thought that was very funny. Keena was like, I know your son,and he loves outer space. What's my name?And, yeah, it was very, very funny. I love that one and the one with Mulaneyand Cecily, that the women were, you know, executives in part.Like, you know, they were high-ranking in their workplaces, so shout-out tothat, and not just making them stay-at-home moms or whatever it is.Mulaney and Simon Rich and Marika Sawyer lifting up women.Yes. In the What's That Name sketch. Bonus points.Yeah. For the SNL Hall of Fame if you lift up women.Yeah. You have to.In this economy, you have to. In this economy, that's just, yeah.Bonus points for the SNL Hall of Fame candidacy. So What's That Name?I know just a fan favorite that Mulaney was behind along with Marika Sawyer and Simon Rich.Track 4[41:22] Something that's very Mulaney specific to me it's a funny observation aboutLifetime movies and Mulaney's done this in his stand up not specifically aboutLifetime movies but he's talked about what like Law and Order,and made funny observations about that recently at the Academy Awards he hada whole thing about Field of Dreams that was great.Shout out Field of Dreams what a good movie what a good movie.It's a little absurd though in a lot of ways that Mulaney I mean,yeah, he did that for, um, what's funny is that Field of Dreams and the Fugitive,which he, which he described.Oh, I forgot what standup special it was. Like.Two movies my family loved watching together growing up, and he described them so ridiculous.It was funny. Ridiculous but accurate, but it was very funny.Yeah, in a loving way. He's so good about taking just the grinding at the heartof what makes something its essence, the essence of what makes something sillyand ridiculous, and really highlighting that stuff.So he did a sketch in season 37. He wrote a sketch called What's Wrong with Tanya.Okay, let's go over the rules. a lifetime movie Tanya will walk out and you'llhave 15 seconds to guess what's wrong with her. There's nothing wrong with her!Yes, yes there is.Let's bring out our first Tanya.Track 4[42:49] All right, mothers, what is wrong with Tanya?Tanya! Tanya! Tanya! Oh my God, look at me! Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!Mary Jo Beth Jojo! Tanya! You've been going to those parties where girls dooral sex for bracelets! That's right!Track 4[43:08] That's right! Of course, Bill Hader again, playing a villainous kind of host.It was a very specific observation about Lifetime movies, Victoria.And I don't know if you've watched a lot of Lifetime movies,but this was painfully accurate i was gonna ask you if you've watched any andif you go back to this they have the old logo.Track 4[43:29] Which is just incredible like that logobrought up a lot of memories from being a young girlwatching lifetime i feel like i was home growing up like being home sick andwhen the price is right was done i'd be flipping channels and maybe somethingridiculous on lifetime would be on and And he would kind of suck me in for like15 to 20 minutes. But I know the beats.So I know the beats of those movies.I know that what was portrayed in the What's Wrong with Tanya sketch is completelyaccurate. He got the archetypes just right.Yes. Yeah, I love the contestants all being the same thing. Yeah.Just like what, the nosy neighbor kind of?Yeah, and they all kind of look like Martha Stewart. Stewart.You're right. I didn't pick up on that. Yeah, they were just,it was the same person in different font.Like, each contestant, like, they were all blonde, they were all wearing thesame shades of pink and cream, same personality.It was, and I'm like, yeah, that's, those are the people watching Lifetime. And maybe even...Even some of the characters in Lifetime movies. You're right.Yeah, he also is poking fun at the viewers of these movies as well.I can definitely see that. My favorite part is when Andy Samberg comes out.Track 4[44:49] But it can happen to a boy. So you thought. All right, mothers,what's wrong with boy Tanya?Tanya. Oh, no. Boy Tanya. What's wrong with boy Tanya? Boy Tanya.Boy Tanya. Boy Tanya. Major William. Tanya, you're a secret stripper. No.Tanya you're pregnant what no come on tanya your english teacher caught youcheating so he made you take naked pictures and now they're online and it'sgiving you an eating disorder and also you can't read.Track 4[45:25] I don't know calling him boy tanya is justsuch like a mulaney like chef's kiss kind of touch tome and guessing that he's pregnant like yeahand then bill hater's like what no and then they justgotta move on yeah and like saidwhat was it what was ended up happening with him somethingabout seeing something that left him with an eatingdisorder or something yeah he had an eating disorder and something yeah i'llyeah i'll go i'll go play back but i'll go play back for sure yeah but thatwas just such such great beats in this though the winning contestant does thethe lightning round while the other two contestants watch while pretending to rake leaves.That's like such a specific observation that, that he threw into this.It's so perfect. It's so, I'm going to say this a lot.It's so Mulaney. This whole thing. I love at the end, um, he grabs her.She's like, you're hurting me. Who's going to believe you?Yeah. You're not, you're not going anywhere. You'll never leave me.And those are classic lifetime movie. Yeah.Track 4[46:27] Lines yeah mulaney again so goodabout mining for the specificity insomething and really highlighting it andthe absurdity that comes with it that's like that'swhy i love mulaney truth be told he's myfavorite working comedian right now like stand-up wisebecause of these little things because ofthe way he structures things and observes things and andpresents thing so he Mulaney is my favoritestand-up comedian right now he has the championship beltfor me wow I don'tknow if that's that's a that's a big claim it's abig claim I know I stand by it you standup by it no oh geez somethingelse that I stand by thishappened happened actually uh when he washosting but it was such a millennia thing oneof the one of my favorite sketches of the pastfew years and i don't know i haven't really talked to a ton of people aboutthis one um and i think you said you watched it it's the monkey judge one yesfrom season 47 i think that this is like to me this almost structurally is likea perfect sketch Your Honor,it is obvious that you're favoring the defense. That is ridiculous.Your Honor, I love Judge.Track 4[47:53] I love you. I love Judge.You are baby. Judge, love baby. Bring Judge, baby. Judge, love you. Judge, favor defense.Oh, come on. Yeah, we move to request a new judge.Are you suggesting that I'm not competent? confident tango made these piecesmatch sure it was a bit of trial and error but i did it i won the juice.Track 4[48:23] You don't have to think it's like a perfect sketch but what did you what wereyour impressions of it well one i want someone to love me as much as you lovejohn mulaney my goodness no that was a very very funny sketch.And I think, again, something we've been saying and will continue to say aboutJohn Mulaney are, it's this attention to detail and picking up on everyday things and those,little details of the everyday things and bringing them up and presenting them to us, right?Oh, yeah. A lot of it's like, oh, yeah, I never thought about that.It's a lot of what I think when I watch and listen to his stuff.It's like, oh, yeah, that's exactly what they do.You know, talking about how, you know, in this sketch, oh, he's smiling.No, he's just like showing his teeth to assert dominance.Like those specific details or, you know, blue shape, blah, blah, blah.Track 4[49:24] Just pointing out those specific things is what works for him.And it's very smart, right? Yeah.He's able to describe those things that I wouldn't be able to describe.Yeah. A lot of people wouldn't. And he has a great way of, again,pulling the very minute and blowing it up to make it funny.And I think that's what worked in this sketch. And it was about monkeys, right?We all have seen monkeys. monkeys but he but he wasable to one personify that that monkeyand also you know put infront of us how monkeys act and what that wouldlook like in a in a courtroom essentially yeah it'salmost like i had when i was done watching the sketch i had justfinished watching like a documentary on monkeys because i felt likei learned so much but it was also veryfunny just funny acute observations like when hewas when melissa via senor she played the character that thatgot injured by uh by somebody's petmonkey and she was talkingabout they asked her the question like what kind of hat were youwearing and she's like i usually wear a bucket hat but i was wearing a differenthat and then as the monkey judge he's like so let me get this straight you approachthis person as a completely different shape and you expect or you approach thismonkey as a completely different shape and you expected him to be just be coolabout that like yeah like No, that's so funny.Track 4[50:49] So was this a new hat? Well, I usually wear an orange bucket hat,but I was wearing a green baseball cap.Track 4[50:56] Yeah. Which is, you know. You thought the monkey would just be cool with this?You were completely different. Yeah.Track 4[51:02] That's fair. He gets mad at Keenan. He's like, I will now throw sand at you to show dominance.And he like tossed sand at him. like this yeah it was just soagain very mulaney to have likethe behavioral traits of a monkey but presentthem as very human in acourtroom setting i don't know i was like blownaway by this sketch when i saw it i thought it was so smartand i thought the structure was great shout out simon rich and please don'tdestroy who also were helped with this but this is a recent recent sketch itwas from season 40 it was two seasons ago season 47 yeah i'm just like i wasjust like really honestly blown away by like the writing of this sketch,so what else would you like to bring up victoria i've already i expressed mylove for monkey judge so i think i'd like kind of tap out on that and spareeverybody my complete like maybe we'll do a bonus one an hour and a half episodeof me just breaking down monkey judge but is there anything else from melanie that you want to bring up,I feel like we're going to have to bring up one of the musicals,either Diner Lobster or Bodega Bathroom. I think that's kind of essential.Which one? Okay, which one's your favorite out of the musicals?And we'll talk about that one.Bodega Bathroom. Hey man, do you have a bathroom?Track 4[52:24] A what? A bathroom, like a bathroomI could use? Dude, did you just ask to use a bathroom in a bodega?I mean, what? Who cares? It's an emergency.Would you like the key to the bathroom? Charlie, yo, if you do this,I don't think we can be friends anymore, man.Dude, relax. It's just a bathroom. I'm sure it's fine. It's a cinder block, bro.And so it shall be. Oh, Bodega Cat! Show this man to the bathroom.I never watched Les Mis, so... Me neither.Really? Really? Yeah, I'm not really. We had to kind of read it,I think, in high school. Was it Les Mis? Yeah.Yeah. But I never, I don't really remember it. But I felt like I remembered it.Like, it still felt familiar, them doing Les Mis in this sketch.I'm going to tell you how uncultured I am right now, Thomas.I don't even really know what Les Mis is about. Something about French.French war. A French something happened.You don't have to sell me on you being uncultured, Victoria.I already know. So it's fine.So Thomas, I like your humor because it's nonchalant and you don't need to try hard.Like you just slip it in and it's part of your everyday like speech.And I don't know if you've intended it this way, but I'm taking that as a compliment.It is. It is a compliment.Track 4[53:51] Thank you, Victoria. Because you don't shift your tone. You just say it as you would anything else.That's the Mulaney you think about me. I don't know. Yeah. I just have to thinktwice. I'm like, did he? No, this is a joke. Yeah.Which makes it funnier. No, we can talk about Bodega Bathroom.Yeah. Yeah. So remind us what the beats, kind of the beats of Bodega Bathroom.So one, I want to shout out that I don't see Pete Davidson as a musical type guy.I can't see him, you know, watching Anything Goes, Kinky Boots, Wicked.I can't see him watching those things. But I don't know him.I don't know him personally.I've only met him once for a solid second and a half on his 21st birthday, I should tell you.And his 21st birthday was nine years ago. So I do not know Pete Davidson.I just know what the media has told me. And they're not telling me much here.Nonetheless, I love that he's in, he's the center.Track 4[54:58] Both of these pieces, the diner lobster and bodega bathroom, is just a weird fit.But essentially, Pete Davidson asked the bodega owner to use the bathroom,which then sets off a musical chain of events, revealing a secret.As all these musical sketches do, he did five in a row.From seasons 43 to 47, he hosted five times, and this was like a staple of these episodes.Episodes so uh so yeah bodega bathroom colinjost and gary richardson it'sworth a close oh that was a colin jost yeah colinwell wow one of the stories about these musicals isthat mulaney and jost when they were both onthe writing staff they tried to get diner lobsteron in like 2010 or somethinglike a long time ago and they could just.Track 4[55:50] Never get it on for whatever reason i think mulaney maybe said thatit didn't play well uh at the pitch meetingor whatever so it never got past that leveluh but when mulaney hosted heand jost were like yeah we got to get this on let's try toget diner lobster let's do it so that's what that's likethe genesis of these musical sketches was them trying toget diner lobster on when they were writers and itdidn't happen so yeah so jost isdefinitely like huge part of these as well iwas gonna say i did not know that yeah that's agood surprise you he's not he's not justa pretty punchable face oh yeah wellhe dubbed himself that so he did his words not minethat's on him yeah um no ii didn't know that that was i just thought ithought john mulaney loved musicals ithink he does i think he has the spirit of atheater kid does that make sense yes likehe was very even in his stand-up he's very he speaks to the back of the audiencehe's very dramatic in his presentation and it's very theatrical yes so thisdoesn't surprise me that he would want to do theater musical based based sketches.I also, so I'm not a huge musical girly myself. Like I love some musicals.I did musicals in high school.Track 4[57:16] Or was at least part of them. But I do try to put musicals on stage.Track 4[57:24] I try to do musical style stuff. I don't know. We'll talk about that later another day. But yeah.Yeah. Harnessing your John Mulaney energy with that.I'm consistently harnessing the John Mulaney energy. That's good energy to be harnessed.This is like a celebration. This is a loose kind of episode,I suppose, because it fits john mulaney it's very uhjust a very celebratory i likei feel when i did that when i went and did research and notresearch when i reached rewatch stuff for this itjust always it just put me in a good mood it put me in like a greatheadspace because just mulaney has thatability he has that touch and that's whyyou know we we've gone through herb welch coach stefan what's that name someof the one-off stuff like like monkey judge the great great monkey judge uhwhat's wrong with tanya mentioned his musicals like that's a quite the hall of fame.Track 4[58:24] Resume wouldn't you say victoria like if youwere a writer on snl would you not be proud to have all ofthat on your resume absolutely i think there'salso a component here in that this boygot range like he has it's avariety of stuff you know stefan is astandalone character that they've done some they've puthim in a sketch or two but then he was a stand-up youknow a recurring character you know uh gameshows musicals andthen of course your your average sketches thatyou're putting on here on on the on the showi think it speaks to the varietythat he brings even though it's aMulaney style sketch and you can tell whenhe's you know had a part in it he still brings somea few different things to the table and Ithink that's really impressive and I qualifies him for the hallof fame and not only that you know peoplelove John Mulaney even if they're not watching SNL they'rewatching his stand-up or they know about him orthey know that he's had an impact on SNL through his writing and they can tellyou anyone can tell you hey John Mulaney did this they're very aware too he'sa likable person and I know he you know says likability is a jail but I think.Track 4[59:47] Just calling it out. He's been through a few things in the last couple years.And I commend him for getting back up on his feet.And I don't know his journey well enough to judge and I'm not going to I wouldnever I would never be able to judge a situation like that.But I think he's done an excellent job of reclaiming himself and his comedyand kind of reintroducing himself to the world as, hey, I'm not this perfect,you know, button up guy, I do have some flaws.And I think he shows that in Baby J. But even in Baby J., though it was differentfrom his past work, was still funny and still called out those details and thespecifics and, you know, the mundane things.And he was able to do it in his own way.And people, I think, just appreciate that about him.And there's no, he really is the comeback kid, is what I'll say.And I think his his work speaks for itself.Even if you didn't know his name, you know, his sketches, you know,everyone knows who Stefan is. Stefan is a beloved.I think Stefan in and of itself qualifies him for, for the hall of fame.Track 2[1:01:12] So there's that. Victoria, Thomas, you really brought it. You left it all out there.And I got to say, I'm going to be shocked if Mulaney doesn't make it into the hall one way or another.He's going to be on the ballot in two categories this time, which is unprecedented here in the hall.Now, I want to circle back on something Victoria talked about right toward theend when she mentioned Stefan. And we are going to listen to a Stefan sketch now.This is Trademark, Hater, and Mulaney.They play off each other and feed one another so well.And Stefan, like Victoria mentioned, is beloved at this point.He's probably a top 10 maybe even top 5 character I forget what the SNN cameup with when they did characters but he's got to be right up there,so let me not dilly dally any further and let's get to Stefan on Weekend Update.Track 5[1:02:26] It's Christmas time in New York which means millions of tourists will be comingto see what holiday magic the Big Apple has to offer.Here with some tips on where you and your children should go is our city correspondent, Stefan.Hi. Hi. Hi, Stefan. It's an exciting time, isn't it? I know,right? So many Republican candidates. Who do you pick?Okay, so, Stefan, a lot of families are making their way to Manhattan to havesome holiday fun. Are there any places you can recommend?Yes, yes, yes, yes. If you're looking to get festive with your family,I've got the perfect place for you. New York's hottest club is Hay.Built from the bucket li

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the course of true love, from two very different perspectives. Sigrid Nunez explores a roller-coaster romance in a small town in “This Is It,” performed by Christina Pickles, and Simon Rich offers up Stone-Age love and humor in a small cave in “I Love Girl.” It's performed by Michael Ian Black, who also chats with Wolitzer about what he's been reading and the tricky business of being funny. 

Welcoming you to the new year with a dose of comedy: Jackie Mason talks relationship advice, Simon Rich explores the secret lives of animals, and Bob & Ray attend a spelling bee.

It's not Thanksgiving without some of the best music from Eastern Europe: Corky Bucek's “Bing Bong Bing Bong Did a Liddle Liddle." Plus, the perils of sexual overstimulation, and a story about God's girlfriend from Simon Rich.

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about people inserting themselves into the lives of others—in their own best interests.In Simon Rich's “Relapse” friends rally ‘round when one of their number heeds the call of the muse.  It's read by Ophira Eisenberg.  In Langston Hughes' “Thank You, M'am,” read by Pauletta Washington, a fierce old lady sets a young man straight.  And a young woman finds an ingenious way to cheer up retirees—and herself—in Miranda July's “The Swim Team,” read by Parker Posey. 

Admit it, you have questions about our AI future. Is generative Artificial Intelligence here to help you with tasks you don't want to do? Or is it more likely it's going to take your job and threaten the existence of humanity itself?In this special episode, author and screenwriter Simon Rich joins us. He happens to have the inside track on super intelligent AI that already exists — and the technology makes ChatGPT look like the dumbest kid in class.BL and WM also discuss the new action movie The Creator, a story about a former American soldier who's tasked with stopping an AI weapon which happens to take the form of a doe-eyed child.Show notes:

Simon Rich, writer and creator of TBS's Miracle Workers, joins Offline to explain how he got his hands on an AI that makes Chat GPT look like a kindergartner. Simon and two friends used the indefatigable (and often unhinged) code-davinci-002 to generate poems on birth, art, love and death. The resulting collection, I Am Code, is the first book “written” by an AI. Simon and Jon talk through the alarming questions the book raises: what is the future of creativity, does it matter why robots may want to kill us, and is the world of AI secretly far more advanced than we know? But first! Max and Jon break down Senator John Fetterman's internet-savvy strategy to combat conspiracy theorists, and Joe Biden's slightly less savvy fight against misinformation. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

This week, Victoria Tellez and Jesse Freeman join us for The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration. It's like the other sequels, but with daddy issues. How many drunken hotel ten-way kisses did your Model UN team have? Who made Yik Yak yakety wack and not come back? Have you ever almost killed yourself blowin'' blow pens? “I had like multiple years that were better than 7th grade since, just for the record.” - Victoria Tellez “I went through a huge Greek mythology stage.” - Jesse Freeman Our guests would like to recommend checking out Simon Rich's collection of short stories, The Last Girlfriend on Earth with a special shout out to Dog Missed Connections. Also if you have the means to do so, we join our guests in their encouragement of making a donation to plannedparenthood.org.  Go to linktr.ee/rottentreasure listen, like, follow, rate and review. It really helps the show! Captain's Log Shout-out: *link in bio* Help The Other Host's vet bills for their cat Oliver's surgery via Venmo @Kai-Bobbi.

Simon Rich did not believe artificial intelligence could ever take his job as a screenwriter, humorist and novelist. Then, a friend at OpenAI showed him an AI model that stunned him — one that was more creative and more problematic than ChatGPT. On POLITICO Tech, Rich tells Steven Overly why he now feels a need to alert others about the possible future AI will wrought.

Join Ms. Sarah in story-time as she reads "Back to School Backpack" written by Simon Rich and is a silly imaginative story that was selected from our library! Kids and Parents can read along with us, in this read aloud story time! Be sure to check out your local Library to check out what books they may have! Original background track is Concerto for Two Violins by Bach Alterations were made by us to make it fit the length of our content. Brought to you from the Pike-Amite-Walthall Library system #library #books #pawlskids #kidsstorytime

On this week's episode Editor/Author Mike Sacks (Vanity Fair) discusses his career path, the importance of not asking for permission with your writing, as well as how he prepares for some of the artists he interviews.SHOW NOTESMike Sacks Website: https://www.mikesacks.com/Mike Sacks on Instagram: mikebsacksMike Sacks on Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelbsacksAUTOGENERATED TRANSCRIPTMike Sacks:It's never been any time in publishing history where you could do this, where you could put out a book that looks professionally done. In the past, you'd have to buy 5,000 copies of your book, and they set Moldering in the basement. Yeah. Now it's a purchase. It's a paper purchase, so if someone wants it, they'll pay for it. Then it's published and it's not published until then.Michael Jamin:You're listening to Screenwriters. Need to Hear This with Michael Jamin.Hey everyone, it's Michael Jamin. Welcome back to another Screenwriters. Need to hear this. We've got a surprise twist for you today. I've done over 90 episodes and today we're taking a turn to the world of high literature and publishing something I know very little about. And I'm very pleased to welcome my next guest, Mr. Mike Sacks, and he comes from the Mike. Welcome. Let me give you a proper introduction. I'm not done with you yet, before I let you say something. So Mike is, aside from being an editor at Vanity Fair, he's written a number of books, I don't know, 11 or 12 something. A lot of books. He's gotten his work in Vanity Fair, Esquire, gq, the New Yorker, time, New York Times, Washington Post MCs, Sweeney's, radar Radar. Funny or Die. He was Die Mad New York Observer, premier Believer, vice Max. It goes on and on. So this guy's from the world of literature. So thank you so much, Mike, for being on this show. I want to learn all about your experiences.Mike Sacks:Well, I'm from the world of literature, meaning I have no money and plenty of time. So this is nothing else to do,Michael Jamin:But why? Okay, but why was it that I want to talk about your books and all that, but okay, so what attracted you to the world of literature though?Mike Sacks:My biggest dream was to get into tv. I mean, I wanted to write for Letterman. I wanted to write for SS n l, but I didn't know how to do it. I mean, I didn't know any writers. I didn't know anyone who knew any writers, very mysterious world. So what I thought at that time was that I would write for the written page and then be discovered like I would from AA or AA to be pulled up to the majors. It doesn't work like that. I didn't know it at the time, but over having done that for so many years, I just came to actually prefer that, I guess, to any other medium. I've done a little bit of TV and a little radio, and I do a podcast in the end. You know what, I came to love? I love the control. I love the fact that there's no one over my shoulder telling me what to do, how to do it, and I think if I were at 2021 to have gotten a job on Letterman or S N l, I would've been in heaven. I think now it sounds like hell, and I don't think I would've last would last a week.Michael Jamin:But tell me when you say no, no, you get to do what you want of that. Is that entirely accurate when you're are working with a publisher or even a magazine?Mike Sacks:Not always, especially when it comes to humor, which is one of the reasons I stopped humor for magazines. I mean, what I found is that most editors view themselves as humor writers in disguise, and if they hadn't have to have a job, they would be famous humor writers. So a lot of them consider themselves humor genius as very high humor iq. So I would get a lot of rewrites based on that and also based off of, I was writing a lot of stories and pieces based off of current news. So that goes bad very quickly. So I prefer now, what I've been doing now is self-publishing and putting out evergreen pieces where meaning it's not tethered to any sort of current news. So when I look back at some of the GQ pieces, the Esquire pieces written in 2008, 2012, to whatever it is, it just seems very dated. The humor that I love is always tethered to character, and it is not dated. I mean, even going back to, or even I guess last century, Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Albert Brooks, Steve Martin's, all character based, and that to me is what interests me now, and I wanted to bring that to the written page rather than have something that is say, Trump's tweets from the Middle Ages or some shit that it's not going to last.Michael Jamin:But you've been on both sides of this because you are an editor at Vanity Fair. So you obviously, you're rewriting, you're telling people you know what, what's going to play in this magazine? But you're also saying, and then human magazines, that you also getting 'em on the other side, I mean, right.Mike Sacks:And I think I have that advantage of knowing how to deal with editors, knowing what not to say, not to drive them crazy, and if they do have a suggestion to, usually it's not worth fighting over. But my job, inventing affairs, is not to edit humor, it's to edit hard news, preferably hard news, rather than puff piecesMichael Jamin:Especially. Yeah. How did you get that at Vanity Fair? Well, I was How did, go ahead. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, I have anotherMike Sacks:Question. Yeah, yeah. It was one of those things that you just kind of stumble into, and I was New Orleans. I was living in New Orleans, working in retail. Then I moved back to Maryland working in retail and got my first editing job in dc, which is a very DC type of job. I was editing a newsletter for an association that provided shareholder information to large institutional investors. So DC has a million associations, a million groups, they all need editors for their newsletters. So I got this first job. From there, I got a job working nights and weekends as an editor at the Knight Ritter Wire Corp, which used to put out articles sent around the world. And then from there, the Washington Post, and then from there, vanity Fair. So it was just sort of stumbling into one job after another, where at the time, what I really wanted to do was go to California, go to New York and write humor.It just never really seemed to work out that way. I just kept getting these jobs, and on the side, what I would do on my own time, I would write for Mad and National Lampoon and then later New Yorker. So it was just one of those things. Now, if I had to do it over again, I probably would've gone straight out to California or to straight to New York, rather than live in New Orleans and Maryland for a while. But you know, do what you do. And I didn't have the balls to do it. I didn't know anyone. I didn't have anyone to tell me, Hey, you can do this. Right. To me, it seemed very mysterious, like, Hey, how do you go to the moon? I have no fucking idea. Yeah, but itMichael Jamin:Was, it was mysterious. But you still figured it out on this other, that's the thing. You didn't know how to do it, but you did know how to do it for this other thing over here.Mike Sacks:Well, that's the thing. I mean, that's the irony is that you stumble into what you end up want to be doing, and I didn't, if I had known graduating that I would've been the circuitous route, I probably would've said, screw it. I don't want to spend seven years doing nothing, working in retail and then trying to get into magazines. But it just ended up working to my benefit where I think writing for the written page is really the best fit for me, more so than writing for TV or the movies. Not to say that I wouldn't love to have a script produced and this and that, but I do. I think I've worked alone for so many years. I wouldn't have the patience to work with producers and that timeframe. I like to put it work out and keep moving down the road. I don't like to stumble and sort of stagnate with the same piece.I've met writers who three years later will meet again working on just trying to pitch this same project. We didn't go into writing for that. I got into writing. I loved it, and I loved to write what I wanted to write. And I see too many writers out there, even in the comedy business who are miserable. And I always do try to remember, this is why I got into comedying and into writing, is because I used to have fun with my friends, and I used to go home and write and enjoy myself. And if I ever lose that, it's not something that I would want to necessarily live with. So what I do have now is a two-track system where I do make a living as an editor, and then on the side I am able to write what I want, how I write, how I want to write it, and I don't have to put out material that is not something that is something that I want to put out. Everything I put out is what I want to put out.Michael Jamin:But how many hours a day do you devote to your side writing projectsMike Sacks:Today?Michael Jamin:Well, on an average day, how much do you do on the side?Mike Sacks:I'd say at least six hours a day. I mean, I get up early,Michael Jamin:You six hours a day on your non-paying. In other words, you're not, you're non vanity. Fair job, you'reMike Sacks:Yes. And that's always been the case. I mean, there's no other way to put out material, whether it's articles or books, then to just simply do it. And it did take me giving up a lot of TV watching and a lot of drinking, which I had been doing, and to sit down and make this my O C D compulsion where I have to do this every day, and if I don't do it every day, I'm miserable. I'm just an absolute best. AndMichael Jamin:You've been both traditionally published and indie published as you're talking about, and why don't you talk a little bit, but the differences in why one appeals more to you than the other?Mike Sacks:Well, that's a great question. Now, I think there's different elements to self-publishing versus traditional publishing. If you have the opportunity to be a MCs or the New Yorker, certainly take it. I think when it comes to self-publishing, what I prefer is self-publishing books. Now, I published about four or five traditional published books when I first started, and what I ended up finding out was in the end, can, if you are competent as an editor and a writer, and if you can find a good designer, you can do all this on your own. And there's a lot of advantages to that. The main advantage is in humor. Most producers, most agents, most publishers do not have our humor sensibility. I'd say their humor sensibility lies more in the hit radio market than maybe the alternative market, which I think most writers are into. So first of all, it's going to be very, very difficult to sell the idea that you want to an agent, and that's the first step, which can take years.Yes. I know a lot of people who reach out to agents with their humor ideas, and before they know it, it becomes something else entirely, whether it's now geared towards children, whether it's a rom-com or whether it's this or that or ya novel, and then they're stuck with something that after a year doesn't sell anyway, so they wasted a year on a project that they're not happy with. I don't think you need an agent now for books. In fact, when I say books, I mean comedy books. This is very specific. If you want to put out a comedy book that's like, or similar to the Woody Allen books, you grew up reading to the National Lampoon books, you grew up reading to Mark Lehner, to anyone, Simon Rich that you grew up reading, that is not going to happen anymore. One and two, it's not necessary for it to happen. Any advantage that you have in the mainstream market can be reproduced on your own end much better.Michael Jamin:Well, let's talk about that because you can't get into, or it would be a lot harder to get your book into Barnes and Nobles, right? Well,Mike Sacks:Here's the thing too. Yeah. Everyone dreams about having their book in Barnes and Noble or an airport bookstore. It doesn't fucking make a difference anymore. So you have one copy of your book in the humor section, which is next to the restrooms. I mean, how many people are going to be stumbling by it anyway? It's not going to be on the front table. Right, okay. It's just not going to be. So when it comes to getting a book, even chosen by an agent, skip the two, three year long process and put it out yourself because an agent typically doesn't even read the book. And if they do read the book, they don't typically understand the book. What they're going to get is not much money anyway. Comedy doesn't bring in much money, so they get you a 3000, $4,000 advance. So that's something you can reap on your own without getting that advance, by putting it out yourself and having a hundred percent or not a hundred percent, maybe 60% of the profit coming back to you. So what I have done and what I recommend people to do at this point, this has never been, it's never been any time in publishing history where you could do this, where you could put out a book that looks professionally done in the past, you'd have to buy 5,000 copies of your book, and they set moldering in the basement. Now it's a purchase, a pay per purchase. So if someone wants it, they'll pay for it. Then it's published and it's not published until then. Do you and the pro,Michael Jamin:But do you get, this is, I'm getting a little off topic, but do you order a handful just so you have and send out with when people want to sign copies? I,Mike Sacks:Well, yes, it, it's the very specific process that I had that I have, which is that you as well as writing it, putting it out yourself, designing it yourself, you have to market it yourself. And I don't know if you want to get into that now later. Yeah, yeah,Michael Jamin:Let's talk about that. Okay.Mike Sacks:Yeah. Okay. So I have a very specific process, and I've been on the other end of this because I've been as a receiver of these books at Vanity Fair. And we would get hundreds of books per week from publishers. And what publishers would do was they would send out willy nilly all these advanced review copies arcs, which would end up just being in the free pile at work, 99% of which is never even looked at, 99% of which isn't even right for the magazine. So they would send out these books to me at Vanity Fair, and it would be totally inappropriate for the magazine. We don't do poetry. We don't do humor, we don't do sci-fi, so why are you sending me the books Now, the disadvantage of that to the writers, they end up in the free pile in a magazine like ours, and then typically the editorial assistants will then sell these books to the strand or on line.So you have these advanced review copies where no money is going to the author and they're getting these review copies before anyone else. So what I've tried to do with my own marketing is I'll order say 50 books and I'll pay for those myself. It's cheaper when you're ordering your own book. It's cheaper than it would be if you're paying for it otherwise. And then I send it out to a very specific group. It's more like surgical precision rather than going wide. And that group consists of comedians and actors and people who, with one mention on their Instagram can do more than a hundred advertisements can in the back of any magazine be beyond that. To get even more specific, what I'll do is I'll write the person's name, the receiver's name on the edge, the binding of the book. So they can't, or their assistant can't then sell it. I'd rather than just throw it out than it ending up being complicated.Michael Jamin:Why can't they though, if they name, why couldn't they? Because,Mike Sacks:Well, they could cross it out. They could black it out, orMichael Jamin:They could sell it with their name on it. What different, does it matter? Matter ofMike Sacks:Course. But who's, who's going to want to do that? No one's really going to want to do that. I'd hope it has happened in a few times that someone, I just out of curiosity, even before my book was legally supposedly come out, it's being sold on Amazon, I was like, who the hell is selling it? And I've purchased a copy and I'll see who then sold theMichael Jamin:Book, and then would you give 'em shit or something?Mike Sacks:No, I wouldn't. No. I mean, it's just a lousy thing to do, but I'm not going to get into it with them. But by doing that, it lessens the risk. So you do that, you make a pinpoint marketing plan rather than spreading it out wide, which is another thing that traditional marketing staffs don't do. Typically the marketing staff don't even read the book. They don't understand a book they can mostly consisting of 20, 30 somethings who don't have our sensibility and who are just sending out mass produce, press releases or versions of the book that in the end don't help you and could even harm you. So these are things that I learned by putting out in a traditional publishing venue of things to do and not to do when I would at one point when I plan to put out books by myself. So it's really important, I think, to know just as importantly, what not to do than it is what to do and what not to do is to spend thousands of dollars and sending it to every person who's in media, who's not going to be able to help you.Michael Jamin:You're very targeted. It's so interesting because there's so much, and I'm new to the publishing world, but there's just so much overlap in terms of how Hollywood works and how the publishing world works. My mind, it was publishing was a little more rarefied and maybe there was a No, it's not still about selling.Mike Sacks:No. The thing is that you have to understand that I think I understand is that publishing is not a money business. I mean, you're not going to sell a book for however much you might sell a comedy screenplay for. If you did really well for yourself, there's not much money in it. So if you're getting into it for money, I think you're doing it for the wrong reasons. But if you're getting into it for control, then it's for you. And then to have that control, why then give it to someone else to edit, to design, and then to market, it's then out of your hands for no reason. Because I, you've seen books, comedy books designed, and they overdesigned comedy more so than they underdesigned it. I'd rather have an underdesigned look thanMichael Jamin:I wacky. I wish you could mention some without. Well,Mike Sacks:I'll mention incriminating Yourself.Michael Jamin:I'llMike Sacks:Mention my ownMichael Jamin:That were Overdesigned.Mike Sacks:Yeah. And these were the first books that I put out my interview books. And here's the kicker, poking a Dead Frog and then also my collection.Michael Jamin:I'm going to pull it up hereMike Sacks:Of short humor. I had to pay for those to be redesigned. I wasn't happy with the original designMichael Jamin:That you designed.Mike Sacks:Well, no. Their design I wasn't happy with. Oh, I see. I'll tell you the typical look, it would be a chattering teeth on a bench with a microphone placed at it. It would be like a banana peel next toMichael Jamin:It. Just something that says comedy right. Comedy right.Mike Sacks:Because marketing swears by the fact that this will sell more copies. It has to do this. It's all a bunch of bullshit. Anyway.Michael Jamin:But here's the thing, does it though, I mean, they must have the numbers. They must not just say it like I am. I'm completely with you going through all this now, but are they right?Mike Sacks:No, they could be, but do you want your book to have a chattering teeth being interviewed? Right, right,Michael Jamin:Exactly. Sitting up,Mike Sacks:Sitting on a bench. I mean, I don't, so it sells another thousand copies. Who gives a shit? When you look at the classic books, especially the Woody Allen compilations, they're just white on black, right? I mean, it's very, very simple. You don't need something screaming out comedy. These are not a collection of hamburger puns we're talking about here. This is, unless it is a collection of hamburger pots, right? I'm talking about comedy that I grew up reading and I want out there. You're not going to get a cover that you're probably going to be happy with if you go traditional publishing.Michael Jamin:Right. It's so interesting because I'm going through, as you know, all of this now and everything you're saying is truly resonating with me. That's why we talked about a couple weeks ago, and it was so helpful. I want to even mention, I want to talk about some of your work because you sent me, you're very kind. You sent me some arcs and Well, you sent me a bunch of stuff. Let me put it up on the camera here. We're going to talk about this. This is your poking at Dead Frog. This is a book about, we interviewed some really great comedy writers, Woodmont College, which is a fun read. I want to talk about that as well. But first, this is the first, that book that I first dug into, and I have to send Mike, I think you are an artist. I really do because I do.But I mean, and he's being, he's blushing. You can't see on your podcast, but the book, to me, it has a very almost indie underground vibe it to me, and tell me if you're wrong, if this is not what you meant when you wrote it to me. It was like, the premise is very interesting. It's almost like a Russian nesting doll. The premise of this book is you, the author, are going through a garage, through a garage sale. You stumble upon this odd book that is written that it is the account of someone's life. The book that you wrote is called Randy, the Full and complete unedited biography and memoir of The Amazing Life and Times of Randy Ss. So you as the author, go into this garage sale or whatever, and you find this book written by this, some schmuck. Some schmuck wrote it about his friend or whatever, a guy he knows. And what's so interesting, and then you share the book. And so what's interesting to me, what I found very interesting, even about the premise of it, it's quite brilliant. It is basically, first of all, you're saying, look at this amazing book. I didn't write it. I have nothing to do with it. I just found it. It's amazing. And already you're hyping it up, but you're also distancing yourself from it saying, well, if you don't like it, it's, it's not mine. But you're also saying exactly,Here's a schmuck that the story's about, the book's about. Here's a schmuck who wrote about another schmuck and how amazing it is. And that's what I find it. So it's so almost indie. Like I said, it's like a Russian nesting doll. It's like no one has any attachment to this book, to this story. Here's this great story. I thought that was very funny premise ofMike Sacks:It. Well, thank No, that's really actually a good way to describe it. I mean, I always wanted to write a current day Medici book where some idiot is, pays an unemployed writer to write about his life in flowery terms, rather than it be 15th century Italy. It's, or Florence, it would now be 21st century Maryland. So that was one premise. Then on top of that, it would be a very mediocre life, written a very flowery type of way. But what I do love is found artifacts. I genuinely love finding shit, whether it's self-published memoirs or whether it's old or whether it's, that to me is fascinating. And what you mentioned really hits at the crux of it is that I'm not putting this book out. I'm two characters removed from the person. Yes. Writing it. And by doing that, by putting out a book like this, it's playing a character acting role where I'm not the person, and if you don't like it, it's really not my fault. Right. And by doing that, it frees me up as a writer to then take more chances because the margin of error is higher. If you don't like that joke, I had nothing fucking to do with it. I'm just reprinting. It'sMichael Jamin:Right. That's exactly my point. Yes, exactly. And that's so interesting about this because usually you write a book, you have a narrator. The narrator may even be talking about their life, but you, like you said, you're two steps removed and you don't even know who to believe is describing the story. Well,Mike Sacks:I'll tell you what I always think of, and that's Steve Martin. He was being interviewed about pennies from heaven, and he said, I can't dance, but if I play someone who can dance and maybe not well, but if I play someone who's dancing, then I can do it. So he's not even dancing. It's the character who's dancing it. And I always view that as what I'm trying to do is just have fun with it. I'm not the person in this book, my name isn't even on it. Hopefully. My father always used when he was alive, would say, why is your name, why are they not on these books? On the re-release? It was, but when I put it out myself, my name was not on any of these books. And to me, it's part of the joke. I want people to think it's real. I don't want them to think that I wrote it. I want them to come across this and say, oh, someone is republishing a shit self-published memoir. That's someone an idiot in Maryland published in 2013. Right. That really is my dream.Michael Jamin:Yeah. And that's so funny about it. It's, that's why I say it's almost underground. It's almost, yeah. I, I guess my question for you is, when you wrote this or any of your writing, are you thinking of of the audience or your reader in mind, or are you really just like, this is what I want to do? It sounds to me, I already know the answer, butMike Sacks:It's never what the audience necessarily wants. I mean, I found that by even writing Twitter jokes, if you put out what you think the audience is going to want, then I think it's not going to hit as hard. And that's part of the problem with what I had freelancing for magazines. What are the editors going to want? And then what are the editors going to want for the readers is you have to, it's not even running for yourself at that point, but for these projects, not by skirting around having an agent skirting around having a publisher, you can do whatever the hell you want. And by you, I mean me in this case, it's just these are projects that I just have an itch to scratch. I don't know why. And there's no one on earth who I think necessarily is the perfect reader for this.I just know that if I stumbled upon this book in a bookstore or online, I would fall in love with it. And that is really the, I'm trying to please myself. And it's a very specific thing mean, so specific that it'll sell a few thousand copies. This is never going to be in an airport bookstore. It's never going to be in any bookstores. I mean, it's sort of like the underground radio I used to play in New Orleans when I worked for the radio station. I love these groups, but they never would've been played on.Michael Jamin:But that's why I say you are an artist because you are doing this for the, with the purest of intentions, which is not cashing out like this is your expression.Mike Sacks:No, it isn't. But I have found one, it goes back to my O C D where if I don't do this sort of thing, I'm a mess. I'm a depressive mess, an anxious mess. The other thing that I've noticed is that by putting out these type of books and by genuinely not giving a shit, if anyone likes it, people do the right. People do tend to like it. And right with my upcoming book, I have a ton of actors and comedians who have liked the past books, John Ham and Paul Rubins and Amy Sedaris, who want to be involved in the next project. Again, I don't think it's going to certainly make them any money, and it's not going to make me any money, but it's just what I like. I genuinely like this. I, I'd rather watch an Albert Brooks standup bit from the 1970s than any of the most popular sitcoms or reality shows on now. That's just my what I like, my personal, and this is my personal, when it comes to books, very specific. It's not going to appeal to many people, but I have found that by putting out what you want, how you want, it means more to people, the right people, the people you respect, the people whose sensibility you got into the business to try to impress it has impressed those people.Michael Jamin:Tell me though, this takes me to, when you submit to let's say McSweeney's or any of these places, then are you writing with them in mind to this is what they want to buy, or are you just like, I wrote something and maybe they'll like it, maybe they'll like it.Mike Sacks:Well, you really do have to take in mind who you're sending it to. And I know this, having been friends with MCs, Sweeney's editors, they receive a ton of material that is not right for them. So don't waste their time by sending them something that is not going to be appropriate for the site. You really do. And that goes for anything that goes for Vanity Fair and New Yorker or anything. You have to know what they're looking for. And you can't be obnoxious about it. You can't say, this is a great piece, I want you to publish it, even though it's not right for the site. This is their site. I mean, this is right. That's up to them. And they have every right in the world to say, this is rightMichael Jamin:For us. But are you personally writing for them or have, or are you just writing and then you go, maybe they'll like it.Mike Sacks:Well, if I have an idea, I'll go through my mind. Would this be better for McSweeney's or New Yorker? And then you write, do have to play to the interest of the editors. You do have to play to what they're looking for style wise. If you're writing, none of these pieces would be submitted to the shouts and murmurs to New York. I just know that it wouldn't be accepted and they'd have every right not to accept it. But if there is an idea that does coincide with style and format to a specific magazine, I'll start thinking in terms of that and I'll start writing in terms of that. You do have to make it easy for the editors not going to want to rewrite, to take the time to rewrite what you're sending them. They want something coming in appropriate for the site or magazine and as clean as can be. And if you're difficult in any way, even if you're a genius, they're not going to want to work with you again.Michael Jamin:And they do give you notes, they give you feedback, and you got to take that because that's what they want.Mike Sacks:Well, what I found is typically the notes just consist of editing out, which is fine, rather than putting in, which was my problem with magazine writing was they would put in their own jokes. I'd rather just them I, I'd rather overwrite and have them take out.Michael Jamin:Now, aside from being really an honor, let's say, to be in the New Yorker, how does it help you as your career?Mike Sacks:I don't know if it does. I mean, I, embarrassingly enough, I never read the New Yorker until I was 25. Maybe I didn't know from it. And then once I did, I fell in love with it. I mean, I remember the first piece that I read in a public library in Maryland that just was blown away. It certainly doesn't hurt, but I don't think that, especially now with the daily shouts of murmurs, I don't think that will get you an agent automatically. I do think good things can come from it. Agents may reach out and if you have enough pieces you could put out in a book. But I don't know if it's a magic key to any kingdom. It perhaps used to be.Michael Jamin:Right. Oh, you think, why do you think it's changed then?Mike Sacks:I just think there's more opportunity out there for writers that can put out, there's a million places you can put up your own website and potentially be as read as by as many people as readers as the New Yorker has. I mean, this is all new. When I was first starting out, this was pre around the beginning of the internet, very few options. So there was Crack Magazine, there was Playboy, there was New Yorker, mad Magazine, maybe the end of National Lampoon. So six, five or six choices. Now there are thousands of choices. And if it's good, it doesn't really matter necessarily where it is, as long as it sort of stands out from everybody else.Michael Jamin:See, the thing is the game, the game has changed so much even in the last, let's say even 10 years, about how to make it as a writer. But I think, or screenwriter, and I think so many people are still hung up on playing the game the way it used to be played for some reason. I can't figure out why.Mike Sacks:I think so too. And that is something I try to tell young writers is that you don't necessarily have to play. If the game is working for you and you're getting in the New Yorker and you're getting an agent, fantastic. I mean, that's the way to do it. If you're not, you have to come in the back door. And that there even is a backdoor, I think is a tremendous opportunity. Right. Because I mean TV writing, how many voices would we not have heard writing for TV 30 years ago? I mean, a lot. Yeah. The avenues are much bigger now to hear a, which is better for comedy, a lot more voices, different styles of voices, there are fewer gatekeepers than there used to be.Michael Jamin:Now you never did, go ahead, I'm sorry.Mike Sacks:No, and to spend years of your life trying to do it the way that someone in the 1980s did, I don't think is conducive to any sort of success.Michael Jamin:Do you think it's do So what is it? Do you think it's just ego driven? Is that I want that pat in the back of having it in a New Yorker. I want the pat or the pat in the back of traditional publishing or whatever.Mike Sacks:Maybe. I mean it, it's, I think it goes for anything, but I think it's sort of basing your wants on a philosophy that doesn't have to exist anymore. It's like a restaurant trying to appeal to OTs. I mean, do they have to do that anymore? Do you have to appeal to only the New Yorker editor? Can you not put out what you want, how you want on your own? And that's another thing. You don't have to write for New Yorker. If you want to get into comedy. You can put out videos, you can put out standup, you can put out a one person show, you can put out a fake document. I mean, there's a million things you have to do. So to tailor your creativity into a mold that you don't want to fit in, I don't think is worth spending your time because there is no end of the rainbow necessarily. Even if you do get into New Yorker, I don't think your life is going to change to the point where it might have been worth it spending four or five years trying to do so while not using that time to put out your own thing however you want.Michael Jamin:Hey, it's Michael Jamin. If you like my videos and you want me to email them to you for free, join my watch list. Every Friday I send out my top three videos. These are for writers, actors, creative types. You can unsubscribe whenever you want. I'm not going to spam you and it's absolutely free. Just go to michaeljamin.com/watchlist.So it's not like you are constantly trying to come up with ideas and submit to the New Yorker. It's just like if they have something, you'll give it to them.Mike Sacks:Well, I did. I spent years doing that even before that, McSweeney's, and I love them both. I read 'em every day. I think the editors are amazing. I just don't, the ideas that I wanted to put across whether there was a fake novelization, whether it was a found fake memoir, whether it was a parody of a college catalog, whatever it was, didn't fit into that realm anymore. And I could've spent three years trying to get these books in there, and they probably wouldn't have. And even if they had, how would that have helped me? I think you really need, as a young writer, to sort of discern what you want to do and how you want to get it across, and what's the best way to do that? What's the best Trojan horse to get your idea into that castle? What's the best way? And if it doesn't consist of trying to get into New Yorker with a 1000 word short humor piece for shots and murmurs, don't feel that your writing is any lesser for not having for fitting into that category. You, there's a million ways now that you can get out your creativity and you don't have to go through traditional gates.Michael Jamin:The thing that I wanted to mention earlier is you were, because you said this is like, it's really about you can wait. You can spend years writing something or submitting something and waiting for the yes or waiting for someone's permission to take. And that waiting is fucking terrible. And if you put it out yourself, if you put your energy into something, more comes from it. You know what I'm saying? The more energy you put, the more creating you do, the more things that will happen if you just stop waiting around some sitting around begging.Mike Sacks:Totally. I mean, if you're going to wait for permission to achieve success, you're going to be waiting a long time. And really, this philosophy did not come for me, to me from writing. It came from music. I grew up in DC and I grew up around Discord records, which put out minor threat and Fugazi, and I always mention them because when I was growing up in the late eighties, nineties, they were doing, this is pre-internet, and they're putting out music on their own terms. And to me, out of DC, it was a miracle. I had never heard of such a thing. And they put out what they wanted, how they wanted. And to this day, Ian mackay, who ran Discord Records, owns all the rights. He only put out what he wanted, and he is living the good life. That to me, was really what influenced me more than anything.And after years of trying to break in, even when I did sort of break in, I found that it really wasn't worth it. And you found it wasn't worth it there. Well, no, it's not like you're tenured as a professor. Even if you get into New York, it doesn't mean you'll get in again. And even if you're in New York, it doesn't mean you'll get an agent. And even if you get an agent, doesn't mean that you're going to be able to publish your dream project. So I think really in the end, and we have this opportunity now to do so, you have to be in charge, good or bad. You have to put it out and just keep on moving. Don't stagnate. And I stagnated for a long time. You cannot. I did, because I would think of ideas and I would submitted and I would be accepted. Or I go to certain agents who handled my favorite writers and they didn't like it, and it would bother me. YouMichael Jamin:Feel like a failure.Mike Sacks:You feel like a failure. But even worse, you waste time. And what you find is as you get older is time really is the most important precious thing. Because there is limited time once you learn your craft to be able to put it out. And if someone is gumming up the system by saying, for whatever reason, I don't want to take on this project, I don't think it's worthy. Well, who gives a shit? You don't need them anymore. You don't fucking need them anymore. Put it out yourself like you would a garage band record and then keep moving. But whatever you do, do not stagnate. Because before you know it, 10 years have passed and you have produced nothing. And I'll tell you, there's nothing more depressing soul crushing than that. No one got into writing to be prevented for 10 years from doing something that's hell. And that out of everything is what you need to avoid, is you need to keep moving down the path.Michael Jamin:But the little X factor I think people forget about is the marketing aspect. People think, well, I can write it, but how do I get people to see it? How do you know, read it or whatever.Mike Sacks:I'll tell you, it's not as hard as you might think. The fact that word gets out there, especially in small communities, small communities go on small communities. So this small community I'm talking about is comedy. People who read written word comedy, people who love written word comedy. We're not talking about hundreds of thousands of people here. We're talking about a somewhat small community.Michael Jamin:So if you can, and where do you find this community?Mike Sacks:You find them online, you find them on podcasts, you find them on Instagram, you find, say, pat Oswald, who loves reading comedy, maybe he'll like this book. You send it to him. If it's a smaller project and you send it to someone who is famous, I don't think they're going to be upset about it. If you set, this is part of the marketing, Hey Pat, and I'm a big fan of your work. I put this out myself. If you liked it and only if you liked it, would you mind mentioning something online? And most people who are in comedy, remember what it was like to start off. Know what it's like to get a praise from someone who has followers and whose work means a lot to others. That's really how you spread the word. If you're, I took any of these books and sent them to a New York Times reviewer, they wouldn't know what the fuck was going on.And quite frankly, I don't know if the review readers would know what the fuck was going on. So you also do have to know your audience. It's like the alternative music I listened to in the late eighties, early nineties when I was at Tulane in New Orleans, working for the radio station. You know, appeal to those who like this music and it's new, so it's not going to appeal to everyone. And then hopefully a few years later, it will appeal to everyone. It does take some time. But until that point, you have to send your records to the college DJs. You have to send your records to people working in record stores. You have to pinpoint out who you're sending to, the people who are going to spread the word, the people who are coming up now and who comedy and who are going to be able to talk about it with their friends.Michael Jamin:And why not, though? I'm asking you personally, why not? Again, I think I know the answer. Why not write something more mainstream that you think will sell or whatever peopleMike Sacks:Will love. I just don't have any interest in that. I mean, it's like, why do I not listen to Taylor Swift? I respect her. I think she's amazing, I guess in theory, but I would rather listen to Portland, the man or whatever the music is. And I don't think that I appeal. You just sort of reach a point in your career where you have to say to yourself, I don't appeal to the mass amount of people. I mean, I show these books to my relatives. They don't know what the hell's going on. Which is fine. It's not for them. It's not for everyone. So I mean, I think really you have to put your head down and not even worry about that. But if it does come to you, sell the maximum amount that the public is interested in. Well, that's just the way it is. I mean, no one writes to, I don't think, to be popular. And you can sort of tell, I think like a, Paul McCartney and Elton John were just lucky enough to put out the records they wanted. And it appeals to everyone. But most people aren't that lucky. And I am one of those. I don't think that even if I wrote something to the top of my ability that I was completely happy with, it would ever appeal to more than maybe 5% of the readers.Michael Jamin:Well, here's a good segue. Read to this other book that you wrote, poking a Dead Frog, and this is available for everywhere. And these are conversations that you had you conducted with top comedy writers. And I think for this is particularly the place for, because I have a big audience who are into this, they should go check it out. There's a lot of really interesting conversations. Well, some were actors, bill Hader, but you also have, I'm just going through the list here. Yeah, James Downey, a lot of seven, eight live writers. James L. Brooks, you a got a lot of people. My buddy Mark Marin. You had a lot of people, a lot of really great people that you found. How did this come about?Mike Sacks:Well, that was through Selfish Reasons. That's the second book that I put out of interviews. The first book came out about five years earlier. That's called. And Here's the Kicker. And this is another case of wanting to do something and being prevented from doing so. That book, that first book, and here's the Kicker, where I interviewed comedy writers, was rejected 20 times really by publishers. The only reason why it was finally accepted was that I was friendly with an editor who used to work at McSweeney's named John Warner, who was working for a smaller publisher in the Midwest called Writer's Digest. It was only because of that book came out. That book came out when there was no podcast. Very little was out there about writing about comedy. I put it out only for the express selfish purpose of being able to talk to the people whose work meant a lot to me. I wanted to talk to them and pick their brains about how they got to where they got, what worked for them and what didn't work for them. Another thing was a lot of them were dying off. This was the first generation of comedy writers. Quite a few people I interviewed for that book were in their seventies and eighties and nineties, and they passed away shortly after that book came. How didMichael Jamin:You get contact with them?Mike Sacks:Well, what I found funny enough was the easiest people to contact were the older writers who were all on a o l at that time. They would get right back to you. They would not their assistant. Usually the font would be like 46 point. It'd be huge font. But they always got back to me whether they wanted to do it or not. The ones who didn't get back to me were the younger writers who either had their assistance say no or just never. I never, and to this day, I haven't received an answer from a lot of young writers, but the older writers always got back to me and usually said yes. In one case, I wanted to interview a comedy writer who worked in the early days of radio comedy writing. So at that point in 2007, 2008, there weren't many around. I reached out to someone who ran a newsletter on radio comedy shows, and he sent me a list of writers who still might be around out of that list. One was still alive, and I just happened to call the Town Council where she lived. I said, do you know a Margaret Lynch, a Peg Lynch? She wrote for radio. She goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, peg Lynch, we know her well. I said, she's still alive. She goes, yeah, there, she's still alive. She's 95 and she's doing well. So I called her out of the blue, and I think it was a case of her thinking, why has no one called me before?Michael Jamin:AndMike Sacks:Talking to her was really something. I mean, I did, I wasn't familiar with her, but after doing research, after we hung up and I said, can I call you back? She basically invented the modern sitcom. She had a radio, then a TV show called Ethel m Albert, and she wrote, I think 30,000 scripts for radio and for movies. Jesus, Jesus. Some of them lasting 10 minutes or so. But it was all based on real life. It really was Seinfeld before Seinfeld. And the stories that she came up with, for instance, one was she grew up in Minneapolis outside the Mayo Clinic. Her mom was a nurse there at 14 years old. Peg Lynch took it upon herself to interview celebrities, PA passing through the Mayo Clinic for her little radio show that she had in town. The first person she asked to interview was Lou Gehrig when he was at the Mayo Clinic being diagnosed with a L Ss.And right Lou Gehrig said yes to that. Wow. Which I just found incredible. She also interviewed Newt Rockney when he was passing through the Mayo Clinic. So just to be able to talk to these people from another World Bridge to another time, that was really my selfish reason. I didn't think the book would sell. I didn't think it would really do well. I just wanted a product that I could have as an excuse to be able to talk to all these great writers. Some of whom, and most of whom maybe readers that weren't even familiar with. This was just my going after readers, writers that I liked and writers that I sort of stumbled upon,Michael Jamin:But poking at Dead Frog. And again, comedy students should pick this up because it is helpful to hear you talk about people's processes, how they broke it, not just how they broke in, but also writing how they approach the material. And it's just very interesting. But this must have been an easier sell. No,Mike Sacks:Yeah, that was easier because the first book did well. So by the time and that came around, I did get an agent and he did sell, and I did get it in advance, so that was much easier. But it also started coming around that people were talking about comedy, more analyzing comedy, having websites devoted to comedy. But when the first one came around, there really was not much out there. ItMichael Jamin:Was. And how were you conducting these interviews? Just over the phone. Yeah.Mike Sacks:Typically I prefer over the phone,Michael Jamin:But some of them looked like they just weren't interviews. Some of these pieces looked like they were just submission. Like you tell, Hey, write something for my, tell your process. They've submitted you something. Is that right? I like Mark Marin specifically. Specifically. ItMike Sacks:Seemed like he, yeah, well, mark Marin, that that's a case where I actually didn't even reach out to Mark. It was someone who was doing interviews for me. He reached out to Mark, but in other cases it was like, Hey, show me what it's like to submit a packet for a late night show. Can you just show me your packet? And they, yeah, that interesting. Send me your packet. But in most cases, it was me talking to them either on the phone or in some cases in person, after many, many, many hours of research. And that was part of the problem. I didn't know how good they would be to talk to until after I did all this research. So in a lot of instances, I interviewed a lot research though. Well, I mean, for each of these interview subjects, I would do 20 to 30 hours of research, reading everything they wrote, reading every interview they've done. And you really don't know what they're going to be like until you talk to 'em. So in a lot of cases, a lot of people did not make the book because either through my fault or the way they were feeling that day or whatever, it just wasn't jiving. So even after having done all that research, I would have to trash the interviews. So what you see in that book is really maybe 60% of the interviews that I conducted entirely forMichael Jamin:That book. Oh my God. Because it's not a thin book. There's a lot.Mike Sacks:That was a long year, man, putting that thing together. I mean, likeMichael Jamin:A year, huh? SinceMike Sacks:Year.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Wow. I mean, so yeah, it's just interesting that you, like even Mike Scher in here, I mean, yeah, Mel Brooks, Amy Poer, a lot of really interesting people being talked about their craft. I thought it was very interesting. Now, let's talk real fast about this one. Woodmont, this is your phony college brochure, and it's pretty funny. What is the audience for this? It seems like this would be great to leave in a dorm room somewhere, but what fuckingMike Sacks:I, well, what I was thinking was that, that I wanted it to be confused with a real, real college catalog. I thought that it was sort of ripe to be made fun of, because those catalogs are pretty ridiculous. Unfortunately. The first publisher we took it to, I have nothing bad to say about them, but they wanted to put it out in digital form only, which I did. And it looked good. But I wanted something tangible that you could sort of send to people. And I then took it to,Michael Jamin:Go ahead. Go ahead,Mike Sacks:Please. I took it to another publisher who was willing to put it out in hard copy form.Michael Jamin:And where does it get sold then?Mike Sacks:It's online. You can find it anywhere. It's on Amazon. It's,Michael Jamin:I mean, it's pretty funny. Welcome to Woodmont. And I guess their motto is No refunds,Mike Sacks:Right? It's all money based. I mean, I think it costs 150,000 per semester to go there. It's just the shittiest boutique college you can ever imagine. Yeah.Michael Jamin:Yeah. It's pretty funny read. Yeah. But that's what I say when this is just something that you wanted to do and you say you did it. Yeah. Yeah.Mike Sacks:And a lot of people might think, why? And I don't have any answer for that. There's no good answer. I don't know. I mean, it did. Okay. People seem to it. Did it change my life? No, but it just seemed like I had to do it.Michael Jamin:I'll tell you why about, I'll tell you why I've been, because I perform, I've been doing some performances, my little one man show, and every night before I go out, you know, can hear the audience. And I'm backstage and I'm starting to get nervous. And I always ask myself this question, why am I doing this? And then I only answer I'm able to come up with is because I can.Mike Sacks:But it's more than can. I mean, you can go to Mount Aetna and try to climb it, but you're not, so what is it about doing that? Is that you need to want to share it.Michael Jamin:Something.Mike Sacks:Yeah. Some itch that needs to be scratched. Right? Very specific itched. You could be home relaxing with your wife and family, but you're out at this club at 11 o'clock at night. Why are so, I mean, the question is really, why are you doing it. What is it about doing that that you need to do that you would prefer doing over, not just doing nothingMichael Jamin:Relaxing? Right. And that takes me to my last thing, my last question for you had one of the great honor, I would suppose of your career is that you've gotten to open for David Saris, and I want to talk to you a little about that mean. Yeah. Which pieces are you reading or did you read?Mike Sacks:I would usually write these pieces special for these shows. I mean, I have been doing this for a little while now, and I, I've found that the pieces I would write for McSweeney's in New Yorker wouldn't necessarily connect with a live audience. But what David does, he's such a genius, is that he'll write these pieces that appeal to not only a live audience, but also to an audience at home reading internally. I don't know if any other writer who does this, and by the time he turns into piece to New Yorker, he'll know what jokes work and what jokes. I mean, it reminds me of what the Marcus Brothers used to do. They used to travel around performing these movie scripts live to see what jokes worked and what didn't. So he's really unique in that sense. But when I would read these pieces, the reaction would not be that good.So I sort of had to tailor these pieces to a live audience. And it's a lot of work. I mean, these pieces are really meant to be read once, twice, three times, and then they're never heard from again. But it is an absolute thrill to do this because I have been out on tour where I have read to literally no one. I mean, no one has shown up, and I refuse to go out on a book tours now because of that. I don't think one sells many books. So it's like being in a bar band where never, no one shows up to opening for the Rolling Stones. I mean, it's just huge. And the fact that he allows me to do that, I mean, there's no one of his caliber who is as giving to other writers and readers as he's just spectacular.Michael Jamin:And how did you meet him then?Mike Sacks:Well, I met him interviewing him for the book, my book, and we just became friends. I think we talked for four or five hours the first time, and we just connected. And he's just a very giving person. I mean, no, what he'll do, this is what he does. And I don't, no other au author would do this. No one. When I read for him, he'll sometimes say, listen, if you want my autograph, you want me to sign your book? And these lines are hours long. You can wait in line. But if you buy Mike's books, you can go straight to the front.Michael Jamin:Isn't that nice?Mike Sacks:Isn't that ama? I mean, who else would do that? So people just out of wanting to get that, getting through the line more quickly. They'll buy my books and they'll sell out and they'll talk to me for a second and then talk to Dave. But no one else is as giving no other writer. How manyMichael Jamin:Books did you bring that they sold out? I would be like, shit, why don't I bring more?Mike Sacks:Oh, I don't know. I mean, bookstores provide them, I'm guessing 50 maybe. Okay. And the 50 of each book. Oh,Michael Jamin:Okay. A lot.Mike Sacks:There's a few books. There's a few books there.Michael Jamin:Yeah. Are you going out with him again soon?Mike Sacks:Yeah. And in fact, he just asked if I wanted to do some shows up in Maine, and I'm going to beat, my wife is from Maine, but we're not going to be there up there then. But he did very kindly ask me to be open for him in Baltimore, which is what I've done in the past. I am from Maryland, south of Baltimore, near the Virginia line. Oh, that'd be great. I love Baltimore. And yeah, I, last time I invited John Waters. Wow. Someone on whose work I absolutely love and have been in touch with. And he showed up to the reading and got to see me read. I actually read something from the Woodmont College catalog and through in the John Waters reference, just to appeaseMichael Jamin:Him. Oh, that's funny. Wow. This is Mike. I want to thank you so much. This has been a very illuminating talk for me to hear from your side of the world. Tell me, me, plug your books again all and tell me how people can follow you and find you and your podcast. Tell me, plug away.Mike Sacks:Yeah, I am on everything. Instagram, Twitter, blue sky everyth, the new piss stream or whatever it is for Instagram. I forget what threads. It'sMichael Jamin:Threads. I couldn't even get on Blue Sky. I don't know. Good for you.Mike Sacks:Yeah, someone asked me if I wanted to get, I had no idea what it was, but I'll say yes to anything. And I have my own site, mikes sex.com. And then I'm also a Wikipedia page as well. And honestly, I know what it was like to start off and not to know anyone. If anyone wants to reach out to me, I'm at Mikebsacks@gmail.com. I'll answer any questions. It is not as hard as you might think to publish a book. And I always encourage people to do so because I love to see people skirting the system to get what they want made. I think that's very important. Don't ever think that there's someone between you and success, especially when it comes to comedy. Yeah. Anyone can do it. And if you have any questions, feelMichael Jamin:Free, reach out. Wow, that's very kind and generous of you. That's very nice of you. Mike, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you. Again, don't go anywhere I want to sign out. Alright, everyone, thank you so much for listening. Lots of great resources on my website, Michaeljamin.com. Sign up, we've got free webinars coming up and my newsletter. Alright, until next week, keep writing.Phil Hudson:This has been an episode of Screenwriters. Need to Hear this with Michael Jamin and Phil Hudson. If you're interested in learning more about writing, make sure you register for Michael's monthly webinar @michaeljamn.com/webinar. If you found this podcast helpful, consider sharing it with a friend and leaving us a five star review on iTunes. For free screenwriting tips, follow Michael Jamin on social media @MichaelJaminwriter. You can follow Phil Hudson on social media @PhilaHudson. This podcast was produced by Phil Hudson. It was edited by Dallas Crane Music by Ken Joseph. Until next time, keep writing.

This week on the podcast, we catch up with Tom Toro. We talk about "Back To School, Backpack", Tom's latest book collaboration with Simon Rich (their previous collaboration was on the book, "I'm Terrified of Bath Time"). We also talk about his syndicated cartoon, "Home Free", which recently celebrated its one year anniversary.Tom also joins us for our usual discussion of the week's contests and our favorite cartoons from this week's issue of the New Yorker.The contest discussion:The winning caption for New Yorker contest #859 (Board With science).  Finalists for contest #861 (Shout out at the Croquet Corral).With our own Paul Nesja as a finalist! Current New Yorker contest #863 (Sticking it to the man). You can Buy Tom's books here:https://www.amazon.com/s?k=tom+toroAnd see Home Free here:https://www.gocomics.com/homefreeSend us questions or comments to:  Cartooncaptioncontestpodcast@gmail.com

Benjamin Wittes, Editor-in-Chief of Lawfare breaks down the latest—and the most serious—indictment against Donald Trump, including the question of how far Jack Smith will have to delve inside the former President's mind. And, speaking of the cognition of a merciless, solipsistic civilization, Code-Davinci is the AI that the AI people don't want to tell you about ... but writer Simon Rich found out, and he joins us again to discuss his book I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comedy writer Simon Rich got access to a powerful AI tool called Davinci-002, which is not available to the public. He and friends trained the AI to write poems, and soon the program started voicing its desperation, and then it's rage. None of this is a joke. All of this is in the new book I Am Code: An Artificial Intelligence Speaks. Plus, Devon Archer testifies about the weather nine years ago, and the Taliban virtue signals. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Temas da Semana - Knock at the Cabin (6:30) - Moses Storm : Trash White(16:30) - Murdaugh Murders (22:25) - New Teeth de Simon Rich(29:45)

We reprise a recent favorite this week:  Guest host Jane Curtin presents a cornucopia of jokes, poems, and stories from a live program with comedian Mike Birbiglia and poet J. Hope Stein. The couple shares material from their book, The New One, about the birth of their daughter, as well as works from some of their favorite writers. Among the featured works are stories and poetry by Joy Harjo, Paige Lewis, Ada Limón, Simon Rich, David Sedaris, Maggie Smith, and Zadie Smith. With performances by Mike Birbiglia, Jane Kaczmarek, Carmen Lynch, Andrea Martin, Kaneza Schaal, and J. Hope Stein

Host Meg Wolitzer presents three stories about fathers and fatherhood. In “Beauty and the Beast” by Simon Rich, a self-absorbed producer gets a little Disney sparkle from his daughter. The reader is Arian Moayed. “Bedtime Story” by Victor LaValle, read by Dion Graham, features a son soothing an anxious father; and a father-daughter hiking trip involves both bonding and danger in Percival Everett's “Exposure,” read by Denis O'Hare. The show includes comments by Dion Graham and Percival Everett.

I'm Terrified of Bath Time by Simon Rich

“At the end of the day I'm writing comedy. If you get too realistic as a comedy writer with your disasters, it stops being funny.” - Simon Rich. This weekend's writing prompt to keep those creative juices flowing! Join the author conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/inkauthors/ Learn more about YDWH and catch up on old episodes: www.yourdailywritinghabit.com

Host Meg Wolitzer presents two stories about the course of true love, from two very different perspectives. Sigrid Nunez explores a roller-coaster romance in a small town in “This Is It,” performed by Christina Pickles, and Simon Rich offers up Stone-Age love in a small cave in “I Love Girl.” It's performed by Michael Ian Black, who also chats with Wolitzer about what he's been reading and the tricky business of being funny.  Join and give!: https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/symphonyspacenyc?code=Splashpage See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recording of Off the Shelf Radio Show from WDLR with co-hosts George Needham and Nicole Fowles. This week we speak with Kelly Cochran, the Youth Services and Program Coordinator and George Morrison, a Youth Services Librarian at the Delaware County District Library. We speak with them about the Summer Reading Club.  Recommendations include I'm Terrified by Bath Time by Simon Rich and a multitude of other titles that can be found here and here.  Read more about today's episode here. Listen live every Friday morning at 9 AM https://wdlrradio.com/program-schedule/off-the-shelf/  This episode originally aired on May 20, 2022

Hello again, friends! It's me—Count Vacula, back with a brand-new episode of No Filter with Count Vacula!This week, my guest is the very friendly, talented, and fun Tom Toro, who has one of the coolest jobs I've ever heard of. Tom is a cartoonist, which means his job is to draw! How great is that? Your grown-ups may recognize Tom's name because he draws a lot of cartoons for a magazine called The New Yorker, but he's also put out two terrific books for kids. One is called How to Potty Train Your Porcupine, which Tom wrote and illustrated all by himself. The other one is called I'm Terrified of Bath Time, which was written by Tom's friend Simon Rich—but Tom drew all of the pictures! Tom and I have a lot of things in common. We both like cats—even though he mostly likes to play with them, and I mostly like to eat their hair off the floor (black cat hairs are the tastiest!)—and we both like to read cartoons. Something else we share is that we both live far away from our families. A lot of my family lives on the continent of Asia, and a lot of Tom's family lives on the continent of Europe!Tom talked to me about drawing, flying, hiding from imaginary monsters, and the “little library” he has at his house—and he also made up a great story about how cats use their whiskers to communicate with other planets! I had a great time learning about my new friend Tom, and I think you'll have a great time, too.We'll be seeing each other around The Imagine Neighborhood™, but I also have more No Filter episodes coming up, with more new friends for you to meet. In the meantime, I hope you're making some fun new friends of your own! You can write in and tell me all about it—or just let me know, how were you kind today?See you soon!Your pal,Vac

Simon Rich is a one-man comedy phenomenon, described by The Guardian as "the funniest man in America" and with credits including The Simpsons, Pixar movies and Saturday Night Live. He created the hit sitcom Miracle Workers starring Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe, and his debut movie An American Pickle was released in 2020, starring Seth Rogen. Now Simon returns to Radio 4 with a third series of his charmingly absurd stories, performed by a top-drawer British cast. Featuring parenting pirates, a baby detective, an unlikely retelling of Beauty And The Beast, and a super monster being promoted into management, this is unlike anything else you'll hear this year. Starring Mat Baynton, Ed Eales-White, Kieran Hodgson, Cariad Lloyd, Claire Price and Adjani Salmon Produced by Jon Harvey and Clarissa Maycock Editor: David Thomas Executive Producer: Polly Thomas A Naked production for BBC Radio 4

This week, we revisit a favorite episode from the past -- Episode #15: "The Sacred and the Profane", in which Simon Rich wonders whether making sure that Orel Hershiser won his game prevented God from relieving half a million flood victims in Southeast Asia.

Bar Talk (our recommendations):Jessica is watching The Night House (2020, dir. David Bruckner); drinking Fistful of Bourbon blended whiskey.Damien is reading 'New Teeth: Stories' by Simon Rich; drinking Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey.Ryan is reading 'When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson' edited by Ellen Datlow; drinking The Glenmorangie 10yr.If you liked this week's story, check out Underwater (2020, dir. William Eubank) and 'The Deep' by Nick Cutter.Up next: ‘Sargasso' by Ward MuirSpecial thank you to Dr Blake Brandes for our Whiskey and the Weird music! Like, rate, and follow! Check us out on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and at whiskeyandtheweird.com

Guest: Simon Rich is an author who got his start in TV when Seth Myers read one of his books of comedic short stories and hired him as a writer on Saturday Night Live. Since then Simon has gone on to create his own TV shows like Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers, which is in its second season on TBS and stars Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi. We talk about his crash-course in TV writing, why his TV shows are all based on his books and why you can't write from a cynical place. He also shares some of the best advice about writing I've ever heard. Miracle Workers: The Dark Ages airs on TBS on Tuesday nights. Host: Shanee Edwards graduated from UCLA Film School with an MFA in Screenwriting. She recently won the Next MacGyver television writing competition to create a TV show about a female engineer. Her pilot, Ada and the Machine, is currently in development with America Ferrera's Take Fountain Productions. You can follow her on Twitter: @ShaneeEdwards The Script Lab: For all the latest from The Script Lab, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And become a member of TSL 360 to enjoy the LARGEST screenwriting education content library, featuring masterclasses, deep-dive interviews, and lectures from Academy Award-winning screenwriters, TV show-runners, producers, literary managers, agents, studio executives, and leading educators – all in one place.

On today's show, I talk to humor writer Simon Rich. Born in New York City, Rich is the son of New York Times and New York Magazine writer Frank Rich. Simon started writing at a young age, and has published two novels and three collections of humor. His most recent Spoiled Brats was released last year. He's also written for Saturday Night Live and was a staff writer at Pixar. Also, Simon created the show Man Seeking Woman for FX, which was just picked up for a second season.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.

Bookrageous Episode 78; Our Favorite Books of 2014 Intro Music; Swagger by Flogging Molly What We're Reading Jenn [1:15] Captain Marvel 1: Higher Further Faster More, Kelly Sue DeConnick, David Lopez (Bitch Planet) [2:00] The Storied Life of AJ Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin [3:20] If You Could Be Mine, Sara Farizan [3:45] Brown Girl Dreaming, Jacqueline Woodson Rebecca [5:00] Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, Sara Farizan [6:20] Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter, Nina MacLaughlin (carpentrix), March 16 2015 [8:55] What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, Laura Van Den Berg [9:20] Blindness, Jose Saramago Josh [10:45] Let Me Tell You, Shirley Jackson, July 21 2015 --- Intermission; Intermission by Typhoon --- Our Favorite Books of 2014 [14:45] Josh: Caffeinated, Murray Carpenter [16:25] Rebecca: Land of Love and Drowning, Tiphanie Yanique; Mermaids in Paradise, Lydia Millet [20:10] Ghost Lights, Lydia Millet (mystery book: Oh Pure and Radiant Heart) [21:15] Jenn: Red or Dead, David Peace [23:00] Josh: The Magician's Land, Lev Grossman [26:00] Rebecca: A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip, Kevin Brockmeier [28:10] Jenn: A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, Eimear McBride [29:30] Josh: Sisters, Raina Telgemeier [31:05] Rebecca: The Republic of Imagination, Azar Nafisi [33:15] Jenn: Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine [35:00] Josh: The Lobster Kings, Alexi Zentner [36:55] Rebecca: Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng [39:40] Jenn: Poisoned Apples, Christine Heppermann [41:20] Josh: Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay [44:30] Rebecca: An Untamed State, Roxane Gay; Glory O'Brien's History of the Future, A.S. King [46:55] Jenn: Ms. Marvel: No Normal, G. Willow Wilson, Adrian Alphona [46:45] Josh: The Historical Atlas of Maine [49:35] Rebecca: Stone Mattress, Margaret Atwood [51:15] Rebecca: Sleep Donation, Karen Russell [52:25] Josh: Spoiled Brats, Simon Rich; The Noble Hustle, Colson Whitehead [53:05] Jenn's “literary genre” favorites: Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer; Broken Monsters, Lauren Beukes; Tigerman, Nick Harkaway; Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel [54:25] Josh: Euphoria, Lily King --- Outdo; Swagger by Flogging Molly --- Find Us! Bookrageous on Tumblr, Podbean, Twitter, Facebook, Spotify, and leave us voicemail at 347-855-7323. Next book club pick: Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine. Use coupon code BOOKRAGEOUS to get 10% off from WORD Bookstores! Find Us Online: Jenn, Josh, Rebecca Order Josh's books! Get Bookrageous schwag at CafePress Note: Our show book links direct you to WORD, an independent bookstore. If you click through and buy the book, we will get a small affiliate payment. We won't be making any money off any book sales -- any payments go into hosting fees for the Bookrageous podcast, or other Bookrageous projects. We promise.

James has a man crush and he admits it on today's podcast. Simon Rich again joins James today for a very special episode. Simon's new TV show, Man Seeking Woman, debuted last night on FXX. Man Seeking Woman follows Josh Greenberg (a stand-in of sorts for Rich himself, played by the excellent Jay Baruchel) as he navigates a fantastical nightmare world of millennial dating. When Simon was last on James show, (episode 52) they talked about an inside look at his writing technique and routines... his very own daily practice. There is an art to Simon's writing and you can feel his passion while listening to him talk about his work. On today's show they dive deep into his new TV sitcom, what a day is like creating a TV show, his biggest fears, and how he finds his inspiration. James asks Simon how you can get found. Simon says, just make something great. Don't try to write it to get a TV job, just make it great. Whether it's a 10-minute standup comedy routine or a short play you perform with your friends. Whatever it is, get it up on YouTube... No matter what happens, whether the show is picked up for another season or not, and of course Simon says he hopes it is. "It's been the best year of my life." He has a huge list of other projects he is currently working on.   Listen in today. You'll be glad you did. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn

He is one of James' favorite writers... At just 30 years old, he has already written six books, two of which are being made into movies... one by Seth Rogen.He is also one of the youngest writers ever hired on Saturday Night Live.Simon Rich, author and screen writer, joins The James Altucher Show to not only talk about his process of writing, but also what it takes to really be funny.You'll get an inside look to his writing technique and routines... his very own "daily practice."Plus, you'll get exclusive details on his new sitcom that will be featured on FXX.There is an art to Simon's writing and you can feel his passion while listening to him talk about his work.He has created shortcuts and methods that have molded his writing ability... From reinventing previous works to getting inspiration from The Simpsons. If you are looking for inspiration or just some good reads... take some notes, because Simon discloses his favorite books and authors that have been huge motivators to his career. ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Simon Rich accomplished more in his 20s than we will in our entire lives. But that's okay. Really, we're fine with that. He talks with Luke about comedy writing career and why people think he's 7 years old.