Writers' Bloc Podcast

Bill Persky is a veteran Emmy Award winning comedy writer who started, like so many other comedy writers of his era, as a gag writer for established comedians not all of whom, as it turns out, were terribly funny people... until Bill helped them out of course. He soon moved on to writing for Variety shows for the likes of Sid Caesar, Bob Hope and Bill Cosby, then moved on to sit coms eventually co-creating the breakthrough show "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas. One of Bill's more recent contributions to the comedy world is his book "My Life is a Situation Comedy" (http://amzn.to/1jPSMuj). You should buy it and then read it... preferably in that order. Bill's got hilarious stories and amazing insight not just on the shows he wrote for, but also many of the classic shows of his time as well today's most popular sit coms. He's an amazing guy, an inspiration to all comedy writers, and a saint for putting up with me for nearly an hour. Please enjoy this very special episode. Listen on iTunes.

Wyatt Cenac joins me for a live taping at NYC PodFest 2014. Wyatt won 3 Emmy Awards during his time as a writer and correspondent for The Daily Show, but did you know that Wyatt was also a writer for the hilarious animated series, King of the Hill? And do you know how he got that job? Did you know that Colin Quinn almost got him a job writing for SNL? All this and much more is just a click away. Make sure you stick around 'til the end for a great story about Wyatt's first appearance on The Daily Show. Currently, Wyatt is an immensely popular staple of the New York City (Brooklyn in particular) comedy scene. Every first Thursday of the month he hosts Shouting at the Screen at IndieScreen in Williamsburg. Every Monday night he hosts the comedy show Night Train at Littlefield. And sometime in March he'll be releasing his latest comedy album (exact date and title unknown as of me typing this.) But before you enjoy all those things, enjoy this...

Opus Moreschi is a classic Hollywood triple threat: a writer, performer and mammal. He also happens to be the head writer of The Colbert Report and a close personal friend of mine... as far as he knows. I've been promising a Colbert writer for a long time now and I'm happy to "report" that it is now a reality. Opus and I cover just about everything you'd ever want to know about writing for Stephen and writing for Jon and how they differ and how they're the same and what they have for breakfast... and we do it all in under an hour! It's a Hanukkah miracle!! Opus is a graduate of Emerson College (smart!) who has written and performed comedy at I.O. West and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (funny!). He's also a multiple Emmy Award winner - we talk about that a little as well.

Travon Free is a comedian, actor and Emmy nominated writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from Compton California... and that's where our journey begins. After some astonishing twists and turns and shootings and two-on-one street fights and a high school basketball championship and a bunch of other amazing stuff, the journey ends at The Daily Show. It's a unique and inspiring lesson in hard work, focus, and not being a dick. In addition to his recent success at The Daily Show, Travon has also been featured on Tosh.0, Chelsea Lately, and the hit web series “The Gentlemen's Rant". His debut comedy album "Undefeated" can be found on iTunes and you can catch him on various tour stops with international stand-up comedy giant Russell Peters. But, of course, most importantly, he's on Writers' Bloc. Looks like you made it, Travon!

Mike Drucker is a stand-up comedian and staff writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, not necessarily in that order. Before landing his "dream job" at Late Night, Mike was a contributing writer for The Onion and Saturday Night Live as well as a localization writer for Nintendo... whatever the fuck that is. He's appeared in comedy festivals around the world including the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival where he was featured in the fancy "New Faces" showcase. Now he joins J.R. to share many fantastic comedy writing insights and thoughts and methods and feelings and tricks and even a few treats. It's the bird's eye view of what it's like to be Mike Drucker that you've been looking for all your life! Mike currently lives in Brooklyn with more than 200 video games and a woman who is real.

Despite his stern and intimidating stare, David Stassen is a very pleasant man. And why not? He has a job writing for The Mindy Project - one of the best sit-coms currently airing on the TV box. Before that he used to bus tables at a sandwich shop in Chicago and would sleep in the booths when his mean boss wasn't around. I probably skipped a few things that happened in between but you can fill in the blanks. David sat down with me back in September when I was in Los Angeles for the Emmys, but I don't blame him for what happened. At least not to his face. We talked about our early influences, the excitement of being on set during tapings, and why you can't ever trust the tour guide at Universal Studios. Keep your eyes peeled for David and writing partner Ike Barinholtz's episode titled "Mindy Lahiri is a Racist" which airs sometime in November.

Hallie Haglund (@HallieHaglund) and Dan McCoy (@dankmccoy, @theflophousepod) are responsible adults with good jobs and healthy eating habits. Also, they have Emmy Awards for writing comedy-based material for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Together we give our unsolicited opinions of sitcom premieres I didn't get around to in Part 1 including The Crazy Ones (or one), The Michael J. Fox Show (what does the Fox say?), Bobs Burgers (delicious!), Eastbound and Down (thumbs up), Hello Ladies (willing to go on a second date) and Super Fun Night (average fun night). This is the thrilling conclusion to Part 1, a.k.a. Part 2!

Zhubin Parang and Daniel Radosh are Emmy Award winning writers for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In this ground-touching episode we band together to review several of this seasons new sitcoms including Dads (ugh), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (yea!), Mom (meh), The Goldbergs (sure, why not?), and Back in the Game (a solid single). For good measure, Zhubin and Daniel and I also review a few established shows - New Girl (adorkable), Modern Family (unbeatable), South Park (dependable), and Two Broke Girls (unwatchable). This is a detailed breakdown of what makes sitcoms either great, good, predicable or infuriating... in our humble opinions of course. Get your pencils ready, BlocHeads. An excessive amount of useful information is just a click away. (So click it already!) (Jeesh!)

Despite the distinct lack of matching uniforms, Annie Mebane and Steve Basilone are a writing "team". They met in college, kept in touch, wrote a script together, sold it, started looking for work, and found it, ultimately landing at The Michael J. Fox Show. Now they're on Writers' Bloc to share their experience with (the portion of) THE WORLD (that listens to the podcast.) How did they find each other? How do they work together? What is their combined roll at the MJF Show? Which one of them got a "handie" in the back of a movie theatre when they were in 8th grade? Okay, that last question is a bit of a giveaway. But the answers to the other questions including "How do you make Parkinson's Disease funny?" are all right here. Listen and learn, and then watch The Michael J. Fox Show. You'll be glad you did?

Tom Ruprecht was a writer for The Late Show with David Letterman for 12 years before he jumped ship to pursue a career in looking for work. Also, he wanted to write some books, which he did! His latest is called This Would Drive Him Crazy: A Phony Oral History of J.D. Salinger, and it's exactly what it sounds like. After leaving The Late Show, Tom also wrote an episode of How I Met Your Mother and worked as a writer for The Goodwin Games. In this episode Tom and I discuss the rigors of writing for a daily comedy show, and the slighty-to-very different rigors of writing a book on your own time. We even discuss writer's block! As usual, this episode has it all.

There are a handful of people in this business who can do it all and Larry Wilmore is one of those people. He has not only created successful shows on his own, he has written for every genre known to television comedy, acted on "the TV" and in "the movies", written a book with another one on the way, and... he can sing! (I think. Not totally sure about that last one.) His impressive list of TV writing credits include “In Living Color,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, “The Jamie Foxx Show", and "The Office". And he co-created the animated show “The PJs” with Eddie Murphy and the award winning "The Bernie Mac Show." In this jam-packed episode, Larry discusses all of those experiences as well as giving away a few of his formerly best-kept secrets on successfully pitching to networks. There's gold in this here episode, and I command you to dig it!

Chris Mundy is one of my more talented friends. Just ask my other friends. More importantly, Chris is a classic "nice guy" (except for the "finishing last" part.) He started his writing career at Rolling Stone (link to one of his cover stories) before venturing out to TV. His first job was at the final season of Chicago Hope where he ended up co-writing the series finale. Chris also wrote and executive produced "Criminal Minds" which is the funniest show on television depending highly on your sense of humor. His new show, "Low Winter Sun" on AMC, premieres after "Breaking Bad" at 10 p.m. on August 11th. Chris not only shares his experiences working on these shows but goes into fantastically informative detail about pitching his latest show and eventually getting it on the air. Get your notepads ready. This is Writers' Bloc at it's most useful.

Scott Jacobson is not only a friend to man and beast alike, but also the co-producer of Bob's Burgers which happens to be one of my favorite shows. Before that he took the typical route through the slightly lower echelons of the entertainment industry writing for various shows on Adult Swim which is actually a great place to watch full episodes of Bob's Burgers you may have missed. Scott also wrote for The Daily Show for a few years and has at least one Emmy Award to show for that. More recently, he has built up quite a resume for directing music videos for artists including The Babies, Dinosaur Jr., and Nick Lowe. This episode is chock full of "things you'd like to know but probably didn't already know" which is quickly becoming a Writers' Bloc trademark. Scott Jacobson, Bob's Burgers... eat up!

Don't let the earnest headshot fool you - David Javerbaum (pr. "Javerbaum") is the author of the hilariously funny book, "The Last Testament: A Memoir by God". He also wrote the equally entertaining "What to Expect When You're Expected: A Fetus's Guide to the First Three Trimesters". He also wrote the lyrics for John Waters' "Cry Baby" on Broadway. And, let's see... oh yeah! He was also the Head Writer and Executive Producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Not bad for a kid who grew up in a perfectly comfortable home and eventually went to Harvard. This episode is actually more about writing books than writing for television but it's definitely still about writing comedy, and the best part is it's a laugh a minute... and-a-half. (I timed it). Take it away, listener!

Rob Kutner was my fellow writer and officemate at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for six and a half years. Before that prison sentence he wrote for Dennis Miller Live, and in 2009 he left TDS to board the unsinkable Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien! Unfortunately, that show sunk. Fortunately, Rob retained his writing job at Conan on TBS and has been working on their monologue team ever since. He wrote a couple of things on his own that you should read - his book, "Apocalypse How," (@ApocalypseHow) and his Kindle Single, "The Future According to Me". Both also make great gifts. Okay, good gifts.

Meet Gene Perret, writer for Love American Style, All in the Family, Three's Company, The Carol Burnett Show, Welcome Back Kotter - do I really need to go on? Okay, I will. Gene was also Bob Hope's head writer for 12 years! And he has graciously brought his vast experience and wealth of knowledge to Writers' Bloc. Gene shares some brilliant personal stories about some of the biggest names in show business and we discuss a few choice details from his comedy writing book "The Ten Commandments of Comedy". This was a HUGELY entertaining interview for me... so what are ya waitin' for!?

Megan Ganz is a 28-year-old comedy writer whose resume reads like someone who's been working her ass off since she was 12... which she has. After writing for the satirical newspaper The Michigan Every Three Weekly at The University of Michigan, Megan was asked to join the staff of The Onion. She quickly moved her way up to Editor and that's when TV came a callin'. Megan's first gig was at Important Things with Demetri Martin but when the opportunity to write for her favorite show (at least at the time) NBC's Community, she jumped at the chance. Three years later Megan moved on to the writing staff of one of my current favorite shows, Modern Family and that's where she is today. In short, Megan is awesome, and episode 16 of Writers' Bloc is your proof.

Neal Brennan is a writer, director and stand-up comedian with some high profile credits well worth mentioning, particularly that he was the co-creator and Executive Producer of Chappelle's Show on Comedy Central and the co-writer - along with Dave Chappelle - of the movie Half Baked. Neal's comedy-origin story is an unusual one and a lesson in focus, confidence, and hard work. He also has a tremendous amount of experience with the business side of comedy writing and shares all of this with Writers' Bloc. Most recently Neal directed several sketches for Inside Amy Schumer and he also continues to perform all around the country.

This is the interview fans of Rob Corddry have been waiting for - it's my interview with Rob Corddry! The co-creator and star of the ridiculously hilarious Children's Hospital on Adult Swim is living proof that really-super-crazy talented people can make it in Hollywood. Who knew? Rob is a fortunately busy man who's been in so many movies in the past few years it's a wonder his IMDB page doesn't collapse under the crushing weight of his credits. The topics run the gamet including Rob's recipe for success, which is basically hard work+talent+not being a dick. A rare combination indeed.

Taped in front of a live audience at the University of North Carolina! Lewis Black is a two-time Grammy Award winning stand-up comedian and regular contributor to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart for the past 17 years. (That's not a typo.) He is also an author, a playwright and a mensch in disguise. We discuss all of these things and more including Lewis's closing bit his first ever time on stage. It involved a dog sitting on his lap, but you'll have to listen to the episode to find out the rest. Everything you need to know about Lewis Black can be found at lewisblack.com - except his address. That you have to pay for.