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read a book called save the cat, watch every great pilot, read as many tv scripts as you can, watch you tube videos on great writers processes
i felt compelled to share my mental health challenges to help take the shame and stigma off it, but i couldn't do it on stage-was just too insecure and nervous. i wanted to write the book that i wish had been available to me when i was suffering--self help books are usually very boring and i wanted to write a cool, funny one! i also wrote about getting my ear getting bitten off and almost getting arrested in guatemala which i couldn't really do while making eye contact with humans
id be one of those annoying people who try to be funny all the time at their not funny job, like the joke-y dentist or something. i hope i'd be a crazy dog lady/dog trainer.
i think a comedian can go into any dark are if they earn it and have an honorable motive. as long as the joke is clever and fresh enough and not just for shock value, a comedian can go anywhere and make people laugh and heal about the darkest topics.
i really hope so dude. sane people don't try to kill people en masse. theres a mental health epidemic in this country and its very distressing that there's still such a stigma around it. i also hear a lot of misdiagnosis i.e. doctors conflate ADD with schizophrenia, which is a very dangerous mistake. in this book i wrote about my mental health struggles in an attempt to do my part to help remove the shame around mental health challenges. i was harming myself and possibly could have harmed others due to my adrenaline addiction. i really hope one day people won't have to hide or feel ashamed about mental health challenges. its so much more common than we think, and so unfair to the people who ...
he always teaches me so much. i worry I'm a boring guest because I'm always just trying to soak in his knowledge and process it all. i made the mistake this last time of smoking weed before the show so i blacked out and don't remember anything. he's the best
i just started watching tons of pilots and reading pilot scripts. i also read a book called "save the cat" which is an excellent way to learn the math of writing tv and movies. i got note cards, a cork board, the whole thing! I'm a dork but i couldn't afford classes or anything on it. watch your favorite tv pilot, write out the math of it, and follow that template.
I think in the presence of a monster I get a little nervous, I think that's natural. To be humbled by someone who is "better" than you. I'm sure I make other comics nervous but all they have to do is say hi and be cool and I'll be cool. I should remember my own advice.
I don't mind speaking my mind, some questions are important others are just lazy journalism. I admire many women but I think growing up I looked up to men because there were more men in comedy - I think my fearlessness comes from modeling myself after guys like Chris Farley or just male comedians.
Honestly? A large part of it is genetics. I'm not gonna lie. People think I'm a health nut, I just don't pig out (often) I know they want a better answer, I've just always had strong legs. So... Drink water, always go to the gym and try... and...I don't know, clench your butt a lot?
IT is for sure legit. Parallel thinking comes because most of us have similar experiences as humans. If you did a joke about what it's like to fuck a piece of bubble gum and go yak riding and someone else did it, then I'd say they were stealing. you have to look at the subject to really judge, it's a case by case basis. Also, we absorb stuff accidentally, which is why I don't watch a ton of comedy- never wanna steal on accident.
I think your limits should ever evolve- there are certain things I am sensitive to being a woman, jewish and a few other things. I don't think rap jokes are funny- they are hacky- that being said, in my youth I'm sure I made a squirrel rape joke or something. Hard to decide absolutes for an every changing art
The first time I did it when I was 20 was sweet because I got to leave college and miss a week of school. And I met a lot of comedians of whom I was a huge fan because I was competing against them. Which is ridiculous because I had been doing it for less than a year and a half. But i had fun and became good friends with a lot of comedians I still know today like Tig and Doug Benson and Brendan Walsh.
My favorite television series is probably 30 Rock but since that is gone, I will say Keeping up with the Kardashians. But only because it's the one show that I really keep up with because I don't have an attention span for TV anymore, and that show you don't have to pay attention to at all. I also LOVE Inside Amy Schumer.
It was very fun. Amy is a joy to watch work. I learned a lot from seeing her on set. She is involved with every part of the shoot and she is extremely upbeat and charismatic at 5'oclock in the morning even if she didn't want to be because she knew it was important for everyone involved in the shoot.
My friends in my freshman year of college in mydorm told me i should be a comedian and there was a stand up showcase on campus. And one of my friends ripped down the poster and ran in my room with it and said "You are signing up for this" and I did. And not many other people did because she stole that poster.
I have things that I definitely want to tackle onstage, but I need more distance from those things I think. I am working on understanding those things because they are not funny to me yet but they will be someday. I hope. Because therapy ain't cheap.
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