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...
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Related posts tagged 'Making a show'
I had very strong opinions about Andy's wardrobe! I felt it needed to be a combination of Northeastern, yacht-club preppy and Southern District Attorney showing up for the Kentucky Derby. I loved Michael Scott's description in one episode where he said Andy "dresses like an Easter egg."
I definitely play up certain parts of my personality and exaggerate vulnerabilities I have for the sake of comedy. I feel like the Nathan on the show has a much tougher time reading social cues and is way less self aware than the real me. He's also much more confident. So yeah, it's different, but at the same time it's not like in my real life I'm strollin' around scorin' babes. It all comes from a real place. A lot of the time I feel like I'm emulating a younger version of myself.
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.
The Christmas episode where Michael asked Kevin to sit on his lap, and Steve had to pretend to be crushed under his weight. I think I'm laughing on camera.
we shoot a lot of their stuff independently so they don't know what's going on. we try to keep them completely in the dark.
Netflix gave 8 alt comics the chance to do whatever we want for 30 min, and it really was so wide open. They didn't give many notes during the process and were very cool with us sticking to our guns if we preferred something a specific way. Almost all of the characters in my special are from my podcast or CBB.
plotting can be tough because you're never quite sure you're doing it right - it's usually kind of like an exploration. You try something, and figure out what it needs. For instance, one episode we were plotting last night, I felt like it was all things happening, and no emotional connection from our charaters. So we figured out what my own personal connection to the plot would be, and that actually helped us figure out the things that would happen more easily. It's also helpful if your characters can have opposite points of view about what's occuring.
To motivate, I would try to outline as much as you can before you ever start writing a line of dialogue. If you're having trouble plotting, ...
I did. I write about this a great deal in my book. McKenzie had a brilliant sense of being unhinged and taking himself completely seriously. I just outright stole that. He's amazing. I love watching him and I was thrilled to take the mantle of that character from Gareth to Dwight.
At first I thought he was kidding, and it took me asking a lot of questions before I realized he was for real. As crazy as it was though, I still felt the need to be respectful of this practice if it came from a culture or tradition I didn't understand. Weird, conflicting emotions inside of me.
Related posts tagged 'Working with other comedians'
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Related posts tagged 'Working with other comedians'
I started doing comedy in 2002 and I had a VHS tape of one of my first few sets. I took it to my RA, Open Mike Eagle. He watched it and said you sound like this dude, he played some Hedberg for me. I thought it was amazing.
Mitch played Zanies in Chicago in 2005. I was brand new and I went up to his green room and asked for a spot. (This was really obnoxious but I was hungry and ambitious.) The next night he let and 3-4 other Chicago comedians that he never met perform on a sold out show of his fans. That's unheard of. Comedians just don't do that type of shit. I won't do that shit now. I can be in the greatest mood ever and I won't let a stranger on my show. It went well and he let me open...
The thing that I love about Scott is that he is not an agent of chaos, but he is an agent of mischief. He loves to paint other people into a corner. And it’s fun, it’s really fun. You know, there are times when it’s frustrating because you might have a thing that you wanted to do but now because you did screw up a word or something, he jumps on that — but, you know, everyone is in agreement. ... It’s entirely up to the improviser, to the guest, to say, 'You know what, yes, I am going to go along with this idea, this very challenging idea that he has pushed me into, because it’ll be fun to try to get out of it. It’ll be fun to try to make sense of this.'
And, ultimately, that’s one of the th...
I loved them. So much. I love Eric Andre. He is a lunatic too. One of the few legit ones. I missed his birthday and it is a major regret this year. He's a ton of fun. I called him before the show and said "I'm gonna do something really fucking crazy on the show. I'm not going to tell you what it is but I wanted to give you the heads up." He said "Okay cool, I'll go nuts too." I loved it. A lot. So I always welcome him in any situation to do whatever the fuck he wants. I've riffed against crazier things than he could ever bring to the table.
It was amazing fun. I discovered Louie online and cast him in The Invention of Lying. We became great friends and he returned the favour by letting me work on his first series of Louie. He said I could ad lib , so what was I meant to do but insult the big, fat, sweaty, bald, ginger slob?
[I love him]
Q: What was it like working with Jonathan Winters? I remember him being one of my father's favorite comedians and you were mine so we kind of bonded over Mork & Mindy in a slightly bizarre way.
A: It was a joy. I believe i said in the Academy Awards it was like dancing with Fred Astaire but it was even better than that, because being around him, he would perform for anybody. There was no audience too small. I think I once saw him do a cat for a beagle.
And I had the same experience watching the Tonight Show with my dad. Watching and laughing at Jonathan with my dad helped us become closer, very much so. My favorite Jonathan Winters one liner is "Have you ever undressed in front of a dog?"
Farley offstage was everything you would expect him to be. Fun loving, reckless and often inappropriate. We had a thing -- If he was getting out of hand I would raise my eyebrows and he would respond with, "What? Take it down a notch?" Miss him.
Bill Burr is as funny as you would imagine, but he is also a very serious actor who was not afraid to show a kind, sweet, vulnerable side in the film. I think people will be blown away by his performance.
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