John Krasinski is one funny bastard. He could make me laugh at the drop of a hat. I would say everyone is generally much more low key than their characters. Except for Oscar. He has a very natural energy on the show its pretty close to who he is. But he's a lot less judgmental and more friendly in real life!
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Related posts tagged 'Making a show'
Hannibal and I have very different approaches. I write stuff beforehand; he drifts in and out of consciousness.
I wanted to do an episodic, non-serialized show. There's no real interest in that kind of storytelling on the Netflixes out there - they like continuing stories you can binge-watch. So the network made sense.
Well, I always felt especially bad that Charlie was disappointed by the show because he uprooted from LA and was definitely expected the show to be innovative and groundbreaking. Now, lots of people think it was, and if you check it out, there are plenty of sketches like Grandma the Clown, First Ladies as Dogs, Waiters Who Get Nauseated by Food, The Stupid Pranksters, and, yeah, the first Ace and Gary cartoon, and I'd say those and others were smart and original. We also had a legendary star performer who did amazing impressions and had beloved characters. So writing to the star's strengths, which included writing for his Regis, Perot etc. was always going to be an important ingredient. I ki...
One of the great things about the internet - beyond the amazing reddit AMA experience - is that you can research any voice you want, just by going to YouTube. Which was very helpful in figuring out the Canadian accent, the Pennsylvanian accent, C-Czar (I watched a lot of Riff Raff to get that accent down).
I tried not to ever think of it as replacing Steve Carell. No character or person is replaceable. Everyone is different and we all bring our own set of strengths, skills, and foibles to the table. That mindset was really liberating and allowed me to focus simply on Andy and how he, as a character, would adjust to the new job. And that was definitely a big challenge. But a really fun and exciting one.
I thought it was really funny. They flagged our cutaway setups, which had been getting a little fast and loose at the time. Props for that. RE: the cutaways themselves, though, they were off the mark a bit. The cutaways are actually the hardest things to write on the show. Story-centric jokes come a little easier, but when you have to conceive and invent a whole independent little sequence several times in a episode, it's challenging as hell. Like doing a Far Side cartoon 10-12 times an episode.
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At the end of the day when Duncan and I sit down and have these podcasts it's just two comics trying to make sense of shit and bouncing ideas of each other and out to you folks. I try to emphasise things that I've found to be true in my own life, and things that have resonated with me, and Duncan does the same, but we're really just two stoned comedians shooting the shit.
All of us, you folks included, everyone that is really pondering the mysteries of life - we're all doing the same shit. We're thinking, pondering, dissecting - and hopefully extracting something out of these conversations that we can hold onto, like some sort of a psychic shield protecting you from worthless thoughts. Dunca...
I loved it when Conan came in and interrupted us from working to make us laugh for hours while production was waiting for us to write a sketch. Conan wasted more time than anyone on that show, but it was a lot of fun.
I was closest with Mindy Kaling, and also least close with Mindy Kaling, on a minute-by-minute basis. And I wouldn't trade it for the word. Actually, I would trade it for the world. What am I talking about: I'd trade it for a more consistently positive relationship with Mindy Kaling. She's the best.
One, the first time I met him he kept saying he was thinking about quitting comedy and playing baseball, and I thought he was joking. I know that doesn't read too funny, but...Now I'm paranoid like, Brody's looking down at me telling boring stories about him and being like "thanks Todd! hundreds and literally hundreds of stories, and THAt's what you choose to share with people. NOT me at my best."
I nervously ran a bit by Louis CK and he said, “it’s a funny idea but who cares? Every bit is funnier if it’s personal. Make it more about you.”
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My favorite Stefon thing ever was "three screaming babies in mozart wigs" because it made my wife laugh really hard.
Not necessarily like, "What's the blow for the end of Act 2?" But big-picture things of how should I live my life, how to handle this person, jobs to take or not take, ways of managing people.
Someone asked "will there be a Garfield 3?"
I don't think so. I had a hilarious experience with Garfield. I only read a few pages of it, and I kind of wanted to do a cartoon movie, because I had looked at the screenplay and it said "Joel Cohen" on it.
And I wasn't thinking clearly, but it was spelled Cohen, not Coen.
I love the Coen brothers movies. I think that Joel Coen is a wonderful comedic mind.
So I didn't really bother to finish the script, I thought "he's great, I'll do it." So then it was months before i got around to actually doing it, and I remember i had to go to a screening room in somewhere, and watch the movie and start working. And because they had had trouble contacting ...
Garry Marshall. He seems the happiest and most easygoing and just generally seems to LOVE LIFE.
Constantly. We all thought he was crazy. Little did we know!
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