Hello, Hubsters!
How is everyone? This is Karenatasha, your roving New York City reporter, come to give you the lowdown on a fun late night writing panel held at the New York Television Festival on October 26th. Hosted by former SNL cast member Rachel Dratch, the lively discussion focused on politics, the writers’ backgrounds, and the workings of their respective shows.
Starring:
Your host: Rachel Dratch
Panelists: A.D. Miles, Head Writer, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Barry Julien, Co-Exec Producer, The Colbert Report
Matt Roberts, Head Writer, Late Show with David Letterman
Dratch greeted the speakers with a cheery “Gentlemen, welcome”—with, I believe, a slight emphasis on the word “gentlemen.” Indeed, it was not lost on me that, except for our moderator, the group was made up of all (white) males. Fortunately, Dratch went beyond her officiating role to add her own personal experiences from SNL, so we did get a bit of a woman’s perspective. She opened up the questions by asking the trio about their journey to their present position.
A.D. Miles admitted that he actually moved to New York from Knoxville, Tennessee because of the images that opened David Letterman’s show—the nighttime scenes of the city in the introductory montage. “For a long time I actually thought New York existed only at night!” he said.
Barry Julien became a comedy fan thanks to his brother, who played Bill Cosby records “on a cheap player.” He said “it was my first experience of laughing so hard you get scared because you can’t breathe” and that it was “eye-opening” to discover that “you can say words and render me incapacitated.”
In addition to Cosby, Julien admired Johnny Carson because of “how in control he was of his world” (kind of like another late night host I could name, but don’t have to, right?) and, then, Letterman. For obvious reasons, all three speakers constantly referred to the groundbreaking Carson and Letterman throughout the evening.
Talk about having a dream come true: Matt Roberts—a Midwesterner like Letterman—wanted to work for Letterman since he was 11 years old and he managed to make it happen. Even as a kid, Roberts kept sending in his resume! But his interest in comedy also was piqued by The Dick Van Dyke Show. For those unfamiliar with this fabulous sitcom—and if you are, why are you?—Van Dyke played a writer for a TV comedy show. The backstage action and humor were inspired by Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, which Carl Reiner, the creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, had worked on.
At this point, Dratch mentioned that she had called up Letterman too, when she came in town. (Apparently, it didn’t pan out for her.) Moving on, she brought up “the elephant in the room . . . also the donkey in the room”: the recent government shutdown. She wondered if it put any extra pressure on the writers, since they all dealt with political material. Rather than the shutdown, the writers dealt with the question of pressure by jumping to their favorite topic: Anthony Weiner. Miles simply called him a “gift from the gods,” and Roberts remembered when the Carlos Danger story broke. His reaction was “Please god—be true!” It first appeared in the Huffington Post, which wasn’t quite good enough to go with, then New York Magazine, and finally Associated Press—at which point they felt secure enough in its truth to use it.
Dratch wondered what it was like when the politicians usually mocked on these shows turned up as guests. In general, the trio agreed that the situation isn’t generally awkward. Miles focused on New Jersey governor Chris Christie, calling him “super generous,” and mentioning that the extremely overweight Christie even pulled a doughnut out of his pocket and self-mockingly began to eat it. “He knows what side is bread is buttered,” Miles pointed out and then noted that “politicians regularly sling mud, while other celebs don’t,” making them perhaps more sanguine about becoming a target of satire. (In my opinion, “the bread is buttered” is an accurate comment for these politicians, some of whom use their appearances to humanize some pretty lousy beliefs. Christie is one of them; another is Mike Huckabee, who can be very charming, but whose political views are reprehensible. Stepping off soapbox now.)
Julien focused on the crucial difference between The Colbert Report and the other shows: “Our show is peculiar [because] Stephen is in character. It goes better when they accept Stephen’s character and speak to him like a moron.“ He specifically pointed to the wonderful interviews with Eleanor Holmes Norton, who always treats “Stephen” like the idiot he is. The point is to “inhabit it the game”; “winking guests deflate everything.” In fact, he thought that this winking came from “ego” and called it “a drag.” Of course, as committed members of the Nation, we have seen this in action numerous times—guests who don’t honor the separation between man and character and try to out-clever him. That tactic just never works.
Dratch then asked each of them to describe a typical day. Miles began by swiftly joking that he got there at 6AM, but then admitted it was really closer to 9:45. He immediately attends a pitch meeting where they pick out the best ideas of the day, which then go to script. At noon, Fallon joins them to give the final yes to the pieces he wants. Final rehearsal takes place at 3:20. The show has six monologue writers and seven sketch writers, and each one writes about 4-5 pages of jokes a day. They end up with about 1000. (WARNING: Looking at my notes, I believe that is the number, though I the scribbles are a bit unclear.)
Julien went next, saying that the process is similar: a writer’s meeting at 9:45 in which everyone pitches ideas followed immediately after by a meeting with Stephen and the production staff. The most unusual thing about the show (also true for The Daily Show) is that all the writers work in pairs. Julien admitted that at first he didn’t like it, but now he says he couldn’t go back to writing alone. Then the scripts are prepared, there’s a “read-down” with Stephen, and they decide on the final pieces; about 12 ½ minutes has to get written each day. (Presumably, that doesn’t count the interview and does count the time out for ads.) Afternoons are dedicated to planning for the upcoming day until the 5:30 rehearsal. The taping begins at 7:30. Immediately after it’s over, they head to the rewrite room.
He then went on to talk more about the pairs situation for the writers. It’s inherited from The Daily Show, brought over by Ben Karlin, who initially produced both programs. Matt asked Julien whether he was “assigned to a writer? Like a college roommate?” Julien laughed and said that everyone gets along and that you just get over your nervousness. You “trust them,” he pointed out, and “if they laugh” at what you’ve done, you know it’s good. He stressed the “esprit de corps,” the fact that the writers were a team. He also clarified that you constantly rotated who you worked with; the pairs are “malleable,” but what you pitch, you will get to write.
Someone from the audience chimed in at this point for an early question, and asked what happens when a new writer comes in. Julien commented that there are two new writers who have just been hired, and that it can be a terrifying prospect to the join the group. He claimed that when he was hired he was “scared shitless to go into that talent,” but that a more experienced person helps bring the newcomer along, explaining how to structure things. The newbies pitch jokes while the established ones write.
Roberts mentioned that you “develop a shorthand” after a period of working for a show and “so you really have to have sympathy for the [ones] in the most vulnerable position.” Julien agreed, saying that he had “no idea of the pace, how much you had to write and how fast” when he joined the Report Staff. He recalled an episode with Sean Penn and poet laureate Robert Pinsky in which he hosted a game show with metaphors, calling it “wall-to-wall brilliant”—but he didn’t think he would actually be able to do it . . . until he actually DID it.
Matt agreed with Julien’s comments about the pace, saying that every morning he hopes “there will be something that day” that will make things a little easier. Julien did note that as a dad he has no choice but to take a break and turn it off every night in order to focus on his child—but that he MUST at least read a little news before he goes to sleep because of the show.
Dratch asked about their personal interest in politics, and how strong it was. Julien said he didn’t really have a strong interest and comedy was his main concern, although he mentioned that one of TCR’s new writers came out of politics and DC. Referring to Stephen, Julien mentioned his background in sketch and improv more than political humor, and Dratch—who’s also an alumna of Second City—recalled a bit Stephen wrote for Second City called “Talking About the Balkans.”
Moving a bit backward, Matt began to talk about his working process with Letterman (as he’d sort of gotten overlooked when the discussion began to center heavily on Julien and TCR). Asked when Letterman would mingle with the writers for a daily look at the material, he dodged a bit. Unlike Fallon and Stephen, Letterman doesn’t get involved early in the day because he concentrates on writing his own monologue and doesn’t really participate much in the other pieces—for example, the “Top 10.” “Dave doesn’t look at [the full script] until late—about an hour-and-a-half before the show.” They can still make modifications and a piece might be reconsidered and reworked for another night.
Barry Julien queried if the production team worked on all the ideas they came up with—even though some certainly wouldn’t end up getting on air. Matt said that they did, and Julien responded: “They must love that.” (Think sarcastic, there!) One skit that Miles remembered took off when someone said, “but, wait!” and it got transformed through the comic mind into “butt weight.” From that point on they kept working on a “butt weight” joke with the props to match—yet somehow it just never came off. Julien dryly noted that “It sounds like you were on meth!” and Dratch wondered where the faux butt prosthesis created for the skit was. “In New Jersey somewhere,” Miles responded.
Roberts mentioned that Letterman wants to see what his possibilities are later rather than early in the day, and Julien stated that “people would be surprised at how much dies.” Dratch agreed, saying that something could be “killing at the table! Think of the franchise!” And then . . . it’s off after rehearsal. Roberts then asked about SNL, “it’s brutal, right?” Dratch said that it was and that only “at 11:00, you’d see what in and what’s out.” Till that last moment, you just didn’t know exactly what the program would be. She especially recalled a Halloween skit about an intervention that had the best costumes—and it just was CUT.
Dratch asked Miles about Fallon’s big upcoming move to The Tonight Show, and what changes might take place. He said they’d done a “recent vetting of all their regular things [to] . . .begin dropping what doesn’t feel like an 11:30 idea.” That sparked a riff on the very idea of an “11:30 idea,” with Dratch bringing up some Letterman skits and wondering what hour they’d be for. Roberts said that something being an 11:30 as opposed to a 12:30 idea was kind of crazy, and Barry Julien joked about “I wouldn’t laugh at that an hour from now.” Miles did say that Fallon would have a longer monologue when he moved to The Tonight Show.
At that point, the audience Q&A began—and I will say that Julien got the majority of specific ones, including the first. The questioner particularly liked the Prescott Pharmaceuticals pieces and asked for some details about it. Julien said that the writers LOVE thinking those up the side effects, calling it “like a vacation from the day” and “the most fun thing in the world.”
Julien called the recurring segments—Prescott, the Threatdown—“refillables,” and said they were worked on over days until they achieve a “critical mass.” For example, a writer might bring in one idea for a Threatdown, and at some point a little later another writer will come up with a second, and they’ll start looking for a third to round it out. He noted that these tend to be “evergreens”—ideas that don’t have a quick expiration date, the way news-breaking items do. Amazingly, Miles asked what Threatdown was—he didn’t know! Julien explained that it involved something dumb that Stephen then elevates to a constitutional level.
The second questioner asked the three who they would like to see be president in 2016. The writers wondered whether the person meant politically (who should actually be in charge of the country) or comedically (who would actually make their jobs easiest by providing plenty of material). Cruz came up but the winner was (start dancing now, though they didn’t): CARLOS DANGER!
The third question concerned the writers’ backgrounds, what they did previously, and how they got started in the business. Miles had done standup, starting with open mike night and working his way up. He studied both acting and writing, and said that with either stand-up or improv you get immediate feedback on your material and see if people are getting your work.
While Julien has a similar background, Roberts actually began in college radio, on a 300-watt station. He wrote and produced short comedy pieces with characters and sound effects. Dratch wondered how he forged the Letterman connection, and Roberts said that he actually began as an intern! After some gasps of amazement, he pointed out that many people with Letterman had begun that way—at least six of the executive producers started either as interns or receptionists and several writers had begun as pages or interns. This is true throughout all the ranks of the show. Miles inquired if the interns and pages are looked at as a “farm team” and said it was definitely not the same at NBC where “we don’t know where they come from.”
Barry Julien asked Rachel about her start, which—as she’d mentioned before—was in Second City. She stated firmly that she thinks any writer should go to the improv scene and take a class to free up your brain. Julien told aspiring writers to perform even if their ultimate goal is to write because only by doing that can you learn what works in front of an audience—and he said he can tell when writers haven’t had that experience.
Dratch added that while she originally would have said that you should go to Chicago, or to LA’s Groundlings, now she thinks that the UCB in New York is invaluable and offers great training and opportunities. Both Miles and Julien agreed, having been involved there and taken classes. “It’s never not useful,” Julien stated. (I should note that the last time I attended a TCR taping, Stephen was still recommending Chicago above the other options, because he felt the city provided more performance opportunities.)
Dratch then asked the panel to discuss their high moments and their lowest.
For Miles, the high involved a re-imagining of the famous Abbot and Costello “Who’s on First” routine with Jerry Seinfeld and other greats. He admitted he was “shitting in his pants” but that it was “unbelievable.” The lows were simply those times he’d bombed on stage—been booed off.
Barry Julien said the low for him was the feeling of “I don’t have any work,” when “you have ambition and don’t know how to do it” and “can’t get in the door . . . and I have a mortgage.” The high, as you might suspect, was hearing that he was hired at Colbert. He also mentioned the show’s visit to Iraq as something special.
Roberts mentioned “heart-wrenching lows.” He came up through talent producing and in his first week got to produce a segment with Paul Reiser. But he’d never actually produced before—which everyone was keeping secret from Reiser. Well, everyone except Roberts, who managed to blurt it out accidentally. There were also times—especially one where an explosion didn’t come off as planned, leaving Letterman kind of standing there—when he was really worried that he was going to “single-handedly bring down Letterman’s name . . . get Dave booed.” (The explosion finally occurred AFTER they’d cut to an ad.) His high point? Still getting to come back to work the next day!
Someone asked how a person could get his work in front of them. Miles asked if he had an agent. When the questioner shook his head no, Julien stressed that they “cannot look at unsolicited (material) because of the danger of plagiarism accusations.” Dratch sympathetically noted the “catch 22: you need an agent to submit but how do you get an agent?” Julien said to take anyone as an agent, and Dratch suggested that in Chicago it would be easier to find one, as well.
Miles helpfully pointed out that solid joke writers are at a premium, and they are always necessary. Dratch said people used to pitch to SNL’s Weekend Update all the time. Julien also mentioned that they’d hired friends of friends at Colbert, which I guess means to utilize all your contacts for an in. (But I must wonder whether that doesn’t contribute to the paucity of women and racial diversity.)
With that valuable advice—and Rachel Dratch’s “good luck to you” to the hopeful writer in the audience, the delightful evening came to an end, I really enjoyed it and laughed quite a lot, and while I knew some of the information, it was fascinating to see the different paths the writers had taken and how the three shows worked. Even if there were many similarities, those slight variations were quite meaningful.
Event ReporT: Long Day’s Journey into Late Night
Hello, Hubsters!
How is everyone? This is Karenatasha, your roving New York City reporter, come to give you the lowdown on a fun late night writing panel held at the New York Television Festival on October 26th. Hosted by former SNL cast member Rachel Dratch, the lively discussion focused on politics, the writers’ backgrounds, and the workings of their respective shows.
Starring:
Your host: Rachel Dratch
Panelists: A.D. Miles, Head Writer, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Barry Julien, Co-Exec Producer, The Colbert Report
Matt Roberts, Head Writer, Late Show with David Letterman
Dratch greeted the speakers with a cheery “Gentlemen, welcome”—with, I believe, a slight emphasis on the word “gentlemen.” Indeed, it was not lost on me that, except for our moderator, the group was made up of all (white) males. Fortunately, Dratch went beyond her officiating role to add her own personal experiences from SNL, so we did get a bit of a woman’s perspective. She opened up the questions by asking the trio about their journey to their present position.
A.D. Miles admitted that he actually moved to New York from Knoxville, Tennessee because of the images that opened David Letterman’s show—the nighttime scenes of the city in the introductory montage. “For a long time I actually thought New York existed only at night!” he said.
Barry Julien became a comedy fan thanks to his brother, who played Bill Cosby records “on a cheap player.” He said “it was my first experience of laughing so hard you get scared because you can’t breathe” and that it was “eye-opening” to discover that “you can say words and render me incapacitated.”
In addition to Cosby, Julien admired Johnny Carson because of “how in control he was of his world” (kind of like another late night host I could name, but don’t have to, right?) and, then, Letterman. For obvious reasons, all three speakers constantly referred to the groundbreaking Carson and Letterman throughout the evening.
Talk about having a dream come true: Matt Roberts—a Midwesterner like Letterman—wanted to work for Letterman since he was 11 years old and he managed to make it happen. Even as a kid, Roberts kept sending in his resume! But his interest in comedy also was piqued by The Dick Van Dyke Show. For those unfamiliar with this fabulous sitcom—and if you are, why are you?—Van Dyke played a writer for a TV comedy show. The backstage action and humor were inspired by Imogene Coca and Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, which Carl Reiner, the creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, had worked on.
At this point, Dratch mentioned that she had called up Letterman too, when she came in town. (Apparently, it didn’t pan out for her.) Moving on, she brought up “the elephant in the room . . . also the donkey in the room”: the recent government shutdown. She wondered if it put any extra pressure on the writers, since they all dealt with political material. Rather than the shutdown, the writers dealt with the question of pressure by jumping to their favorite topic: Anthony Weiner. Miles simply called him a “gift from the gods,” and Roberts remembered when the Carlos Danger story broke. His reaction was “Please god—be true!” It first appeared in the Huffington Post, which wasn’t quite good enough to go with, then New York Magazine, and finally Associated Press—at which point they felt secure enough in its truth to use it.
Dratch wondered what it was like when the politicians usually mocked on these shows turned up as guests. In general, the trio agreed that the situation isn’t generally awkward. Miles focused on New Jersey governor Chris Christie, calling him “super generous,” and mentioning that the extremely overweight Christie even pulled a doughnut out of his pocket and self-mockingly began to eat it. “He knows what side is bread is buttered,” Miles pointed out and then noted that “politicians regularly sling mud, while other celebs don’t,” making them perhaps more sanguine about becoming a target of satire. (In my opinion, “the bread is buttered” is an accurate comment for these politicians, some of whom use their appearances to humanize some pretty lousy beliefs. Christie is one of them; another is Mike Huckabee, who can be very charming, but whose political views are reprehensible. Stepping off soapbox now.)
Julien focused on the crucial difference between The Colbert Report and the other shows: “Our show is peculiar [because] Stephen is in character. It goes better when they accept Stephen’s character and speak to him like a moron.“ He specifically pointed to the wonderful interviews with Eleanor Holmes Norton, who always treats “Stephen” like the idiot he is. The point is to “inhabit it the game”; “winking guests deflate everything.” In fact, he thought that this winking came from “ego” and called it “a drag.” Of course, as committed members of the Nation, we have seen this in action numerous times—guests who don’t honor the separation between man and character and try to out-clever him. That tactic just never works.
Dratch then asked each of them to describe a typical day. Miles began by swiftly joking that he got there at 6AM, but then admitted it was really closer to 9:45. He immediately attends a pitch meeting where they pick out the best ideas of the day, which then go to script. At noon, Fallon joins them to give the final yes to the pieces he wants. Final rehearsal takes place at 3:20. The show has six monologue writers and seven sketch writers, and each one writes about 4-5 pages of jokes a day. They end up with about 1000. (WARNING: Looking at my notes, I believe that is the number, though I the scribbles are a bit unclear.)
Julien went next, saying that the process is similar: a writer’s meeting at 9:45 in which everyone pitches ideas followed immediately after by a meeting with Stephen and the production staff. The most unusual thing about the show (also true for The Daily Show) is that all the writers work in pairs. Julien admitted that at first he didn’t like it, but now he says he couldn’t go back to writing alone. Then the scripts are prepared, there’s a “read-down” with Stephen, and they decide on the final pieces; about 12 ½ minutes has to get written each day. (Presumably, that doesn’t count the interview and does count the time out for ads.) Afternoons are dedicated to planning for the upcoming day until the 5:30 rehearsal. The taping begins at 7:30. Immediately after it’s over, they head to the rewrite room.
He then went on to talk more about the pairs situation for the writers. It’s inherited from The Daily Show, brought over by Ben Karlin, who initially produced both programs. Matt asked Julien whether he was “assigned to a writer? Like a college roommate?” Julien laughed and said that everyone gets along and that you just get over your nervousness. You “trust them,” he pointed out, and “if they laugh” at what you’ve done, you know it’s good. He stressed the “esprit de corps,” the fact that the writers were a team. He also clarified that you constantly rotated who you worked with; the pairs are “malleable,” but what you pitch, you will get to write.
Someone from the audience chimed in at this point for an early question, and asked what happens when a new writer comes in. Julien commented that there are two new writers who have just been hired, and that it can be a terrifying prospect to the join the group. He claimed that when he was hired he was “scared shitless to go into that talent,” but that a more experienced person helps bring the newcomer along, explaining how to structure things. The newbies pitch jokes while the established ones write.
Roberts mentioned that you “develop a shorthand” after a period of working for a show and “so you really have to have sympathy for the [ones] in the most vulnerable position.” Julien agreed, saying that he had “no idea of the pace, how much you had to write and how fast” when he joined the Report Staff. He recalled an episode with Sean Penn and poet laureate Robert Pinsky in which he hosted a game show with metaphors, calling it “wall-to-wall brilliant”—but he didn’t think he would actually be able to do it . . . until he actually DID it.
Matt agreed with Julien’s comments about the pace, saying that every morning he hopes “there will be something that day” that will make things a little easier. Julien did note that as a dad he has no choice but to take a break and turn it off every night in order to focus on his child—but that he MUST at least read a little news before he goes to sleep because of the show.
Dratch asked about their personal interest in politics, and how strong it was. Julien said he didn’t really have a strong interest and comedy was his main concern, although he mentioned that one of TCR’s new writers came out of politics and DC. Referring to Stephen, Julien mentioned his background in sketch and improv more than political humor, and Dratch—who’s also an alumna of Second City—recalled a bit Stephen wrote for Second City called “Talking About the Balkans.”
Moving a bit backward, Matt began to talk about his working process with Letterman (as he’d sort of gotten overlooked when the discussion began to center heavily on Julien and TCR). Asked when Letterman would mingle with the writers for a daily look at the material, he dodged a bit. Unlike Fallon and Stephen, Letterman doesn’t get involved early in the day because he concentrates on writing his own monologue and doesn’t really participate much in the other pieces—for example, the “Top 10.” “Dave doesn’t look at [the full script] until late—about an hour-and-a-half before the show.” They can still make modifications and a piece might be reconsidered and reworked for another night.
Barry Julien queried if the production team worked on all the ideas they came up with—even though some certainly wouldn’t end up getting on air. Matt said that they did, and Julien responded: “They must love that.” (Think sarcastic, there!) One skit that Miles remembered took off when someone said, “but, wait!” and it got transformed through the comic mind into “butt weight.” From that point on they kept working on a “butt weight” joke with the props to match—yet somehow it just never came off. Julien dryly noted that “It sounds like you were on meth!” and Dratch wondered where the faux butt prosthesis created for the skit was. “In New Jersey somewhere,” Miles responded.
Roberts mentioned that Letterman wants to see what his possibilities are later rather than early in the day, and Julien stated that “people would be surprised at how much dies.” Dratch agreed, saying that something could be “killing at the table! Think of the franchise!” And then . . . it’s off after rehearsal. Roberts then asked about SNL, “it’s brutal, right?” Dratch said that it was and that only “at 11:00, you’d see what in and what’s out.” Till that last moment, you just didn’t know exactly what the program would be. She especially recalled a Halloween skit about an intervention that had the best costumes—and it just was CUT.
Dratch asked Miles about Fallon’s big upcoming move to The Tonight Show, and what changes might take place. He said they’d done a “recent vetting of all their regular things [to] . . .begin dropping what doesn’t feel like an 11:30 idea.” That sparked a riff on the very idea of an “11:30 idea,” with Dratch bringing up some Letterman skits and wondering what hour they’d be for. Roberts said that something being an 11:30 as opposed to a 12:30 idea was kind of crazy, and Barry Julien joked about “I wouldn’t laugh at that an hour from now.” Miles did say that Fallon would have a longer monologue when he moved to The Tonight Show.
At that point, the audience Q&A began—and I will say that Julien got the majority of specific ones, including the first. The questioner particularly liked the Prescott Pharmaceuticals pieces and asked for some details about it. Julien said that the writers LOVE thinking those up the side effects, calling it “like a vacation from the day” and “the most fun thing in the world.”
Julien called the recurring segments—Prescott, the Threatdown—“refillables,” and said they were worked on over days until they achieve a “critical mass.” For example, a writer might bring in one idea for a Threatdown, and at some point a little later another writer will come up with a second, and they’ll start looking for a third to round it out. He noted that these tend to be “evergreens”—ideas that don’t have a quick expiration date, the way news-breaking items do. Amazingly, Miles asked what Threatdown was—he didn’t know! Julien explained that it involved something dumb that Stephen then elevates to a constitutional level.
The second questioner asked the three who they would like to see be president in 2016. The writers wondered whether the person meant politically (who should actually be in charge of the country) or comedically (who would actually make their jobs easiest by providing plenty of material). Cruz came up but the winner was (start dancing now, though they didn’t): CARLOS DANGER!
The third question concerned the writers’ backgrounds, what they did previously, and how they got started in the business. Miles had done standup, starting with open mike night and working his way up. He studied both acting and writing, and said that with either stand-up or improv you get immediate feedback on your material and see if people are getting your work.
While Julien has a similar background, Roberts actually began in college radio, on a 300-watt station. He wrote and produced short comedy pieces with characters and sound effects. Dratch wondered how he forged the Letterman connection, and Roberts said that he actually began as an intern! After some gasps of amazement, he pointed out that many people with Letterman had begun that way—at least six of the executive producers started either as interns or receptionists and several writers had begun as pages or interns. This is true throughout all the ranks of the show. Miles inquired if the interns and pages are looked at as a “farm team” and said it was definitely not the same at NBC where “we don’t know where they come from.”
Barry Julien asked Rachel about her start, which—as she’d mentioned before—was in Second City. She stated firmly that she thinks any writer should go to the improv scene and take a class to free up your brain. Julien told aspiring writers to perform even if their ultimate goal is to write because only by doing that can you learn what works in front of an audience—and he said he can tell when writers haven’t had that experience.
Dratch added that while she originally would have said that you should go to Chicago, or to LA’s Groundlings, now she thinks that the UCB in New York is invaluable and offers great training and opportunities. Both Miles and Julien agreed, having been involved there and taken classes. “It’s never not useful,” Julien stated. (I should note that the last time I attended a TCR taping, Stephen was still recommending Chicago above the other options, because he felt the city provided more performance opportunities.)
Dratch then asked the panel to discuss their high moments and their lowest.
For Miles, the high involved a re-imagining of the famous Abbot and Costello “Who’s on First” routine with Jerry Seinfeld and other greats. He admitted he was “shitting in his pants” but that it was “unbelievable.” The lows were simply those times he’d bombed on stage—been booed off.
Barry Julien said the low for him was the feeling of “I don’t have any work,” when “you have ambition and don’t know how to do it” and “can’t get in the door . . . and I have a mortgage.” The high, as you might suspect, was hearing that he was hired at Colbert. He also mentioned the show’s visit to Iraq as something special.
Roberts mentioned “heart-wrenching lows.” He came up through talent producing and in his first week got to produce a segment with Paul Reiser. But he’d never actually produced before—which everyone was keeping secret from Reiser. Well, everyone except Roberts, who managed to blurt it out accidentally. There were also times—especially one where an explosion didn’t come off as planned, leaving Letterman kind of standing there—when he was really worried that he was going to “single-handedly bring down Letterman’s name . . . get Dave booed.” (The explosion finally occurred AFTER they’d cut to an ad.) His high point? Still getting to come back to work the next day!
Someone asked how a person could get his work in front of them. Miles asked if he had an agent. When the questioner shook his head no, Julien stressed that they “cannot look at unsolicited (material) because of the danger of plagiarism accusations.” Dratch sympathetically noted the “catch 22: you need an agent to submit but how do you get an agent?” Julien said to take anyone as an agent, and Dratch suggested that in Chicago it would be easier to find one, as well.
Miles helpfully pointed out that solid joke writers are at a premium, and they are always necessary. Dratch said people used to pitch to SNL’s Weekend Update all the time. Julien also mentioned that they’d hired friends of friends at Colbert, which I guess means to utilize all your contacts for an in. (But I must wonder whether that doesn’t contribute to the paucity of women and racial diversity.)
With that valuable advice—and Rachel Dratch’s “good luck to you” to the hopeful writer in the audience, the delightful evening came to an end, I really enjoyed it and laughed quite a lot, and while I knew some of the information, it was fascinating to see the different paths the writers had taken and how the three shows worked. Even if there were many similarities, those slight variations were quite meaningful.