On Monday night, I gave a guest lecture at the School of Visual Arts.  The students said it was “very entertaining” — because when I lecture, I put on a show!

The class is titled “Careers in the Industry”, so I spoke about my various writing jobs.  During the 90-minutes I covered a ton of topics including:

cliches in writing, the dangers of advice, my best jobs, my worst jobs, working at CNN, never say you “want to be a writer”, what happens when you don’t set goals, writing a polite email, writing for Leslie Nielsen, how topical humor is like a kidnapping, figuring out what the monster wants, the evil Genie, creating characters like you’re paining self-portraits, Charles Willeford’s tip about writing a page each day before you urinate, finding symbolism in everyday life, trying to fit 10 jokes into a :30 video, unpacking an assignment when someone says it should be “short” and “funny”, coming up with a show that’s cheaper than “Pants off Dance-Off”, and so much more.

I was thrilled that when I mentioned Rod Serling, everyone knew who he was.

I also took questions.  Students asked about being assigned topics like “anti-bullying” and being made to write non-PC humor.  I can’t properly paraphrase all the questions, sorry.

Another guy asked me what I’ve done in my career that has betrayed me the most.  I gave a long answer in several parts, comparing my solo show (LONE DRIFTER) to much more commercial theater shows like “The Godfather Workout” and “One Man Star Wars Triology.” I said even though I didn’t create a show that appealed to Arts Editors, I learned to be a better writer and performer.

Many of my stories ended horribly.  That is, by the end of the night it was like SCARED STRAIGHT for would-be comedy writers.  Next time I do this, I’ll need to include more inspiring messages.

I also need to come up with a good response for this: when I talked about how the industry panders and condescends, one guy suggested that the industry may be right because Americans consume awful movies, TV shows and music.  I didn’t want to get into a Marxist rant so early in the evening, so I just said plenty of people exit a theater and say “That was awful.  I can’t believe so many people liked it.”

I screened my reel to showcase some of what I’ve done, then joked that I had to make a fast-paced sizzle reel because so many of the scripts were butchered.  (Ha ha….sigh)

And because they were covering “independent” filmmaking, I showed the trailer for ANDREW 12-SIDED DICE CLAY.

Speaking of which, we’re in the FINAL DAYS of fundraising.

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