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Alan Zweibel: Funny Man Extraordinaire
by Curt Blondell
(May 2000) |
Well, are you done laughing yet? Anyone who missed last month's meeting not only missed a terrific speaker, but one of our funniest meetings ever. Funny-man extraordinaire Alan Zweibel shared not only his numerous experiences throughout his long and successful career, but gave Network members a first-hand look at why this guy is one of the most hilarious comedy writers in the business today.
Alan packs one of the most impressive resumes of any speaker we've had. His credits range from his first big break on Saturday Night Live to It's Garry Shandling's Show, and movies like Dragnet (which he co-wrote with Dan Ackroyd), North (which he adapted from his own novel), and The Story of Us, which he co-wrote with Jessie Nelson. In addition he has written for TV Specials like Steve Martin's Best Show Ever (NBC), The Paul Simon Special (NBC), The Beach Boys Special (NBC), and was an executive producer in addition to writing for Please Watch the Jon Lovitz Special (FOX) and I Am Your Child (ABC).
And if that wasn't enough, his plays Between Cars, Comic Dialogue and Bunny Bunny were critically acclaimed in their off-Broadway runs. Plus he's contributed articles to Mad Magazine, The New Yorker and The Atlantic. For all this he has collected an impressive tally of 5 Emmys, 6 Ace, and 2 Writers Guild Awards. At the present Alan is adapting his best-selling book Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner-A Sort of Love Story into a feature film.
With such natural talent it might seem Alan's first and only desire since childhood was to be a comedy writer. But that wasn't the case. "It wasn't my idea to become a comedy writer," joked Alan. "It was a decision made for me by every law school in the US."
Alan didn't go to writing school. Instead he spent his time after college writing jokes for $7 apiece for comics on the Catskill Mountain resort circuit. Writing jokes for these comedians was tough not only because they were opening acts with no persona, but they were from an older generation. "Every Freddy, Lee, Mickey and Morty I wrote jokes for," Alan said.
Soon Alan graduated to writing jokes for big-name comedians like Rodney Dangerfield. Yet by the mid-70s he was getting nowhere fast. So he took jokes other comedians wouldn't buy and used them in his own stand-up routine at local New York clubs like "Catch A Rising Star" and "The Improv." These clubs offered unknown talents the chance to be discovered. One of these aspiring comedians was a guy named Billy Crystal, with whom Alan quickly became friends.
One night after a performance Alan was seated at the bar when this guy sat down next to him. "You're the worst comedian I've ever seen, but you're material is pretty good," the stranger said. The stranger was Lorne Michaels and he was looking for a stable of comedy writers for a new show he was putting together called Saturday Night Live.
"That was the end of my stand-up comedian career and the beginning of my TV writing career," Alan said. However, the job offer to join SNL was complicated by a job offer the same week to write for Paul Lynde on the Hollywood Squares. Back then, that was a cream assignment for any aspiring writer. But Alan decided to go with SNL, a decision he never regretted. "It was the best training ground in the world." What made it so great Alan said, was the quick turnaround from writing jokes on Tuesday and seeing them on TV on Saturday. In fact, on three occasions Alan actually hid under the table and handed jokes to Chevy Chase as he delivered the "Weekend Update" sketch.
Alan said he didn't realize how great SNL was until he left in 1980 after five successful years. "It was like a bunch of fourth-graders putting on a show every week." Instead of pursuing job offers out West, Alan decided to remain in New York and write plays plus his first book.
In 1986 Alan received an offer in LA to re-write a Showtime special for Garry Shandling. "He was the funniest guy I had ever met up to then," Alan said. Though some comedy writers may feel slighted that the comedian gets the attention, Alan said that wasn't the case with he and Garry. Living in LA brought other writing offers in the form of movies starting with Dragnet. That required Alan to learn a whole new form of writing. He said it was a challenge to go from writing a 7-minute sketch for SNL to a two-hour movie.
One reason Alan writes in a wide variety of comic mediums is to avoid being pigeonholed by Hollywood execs. "What I have found is, the more stuff you do the better it will be for you." Alan learned the importance of writing a variety of projects during those lean years between SNL and It's Garry Shandling's Show. When a writer gets stalled writing long projects, writing short articles for magazines can be important just to get a sense of completion. And working in one medium like television can lead to opportunities to do features, and vice-versa.
Alan cautions writers should resist pressure from others to write their material in a particular medium. "You know best what your material is supposed to be... let it tell you what it wants to be." As an example he points to the book Bunny Bunny- Gilda Radner- A Sort of Love Story in which he wrote about his friendship/partnership with Gilda Radner. At first Alan wasn't sure if he even wanted to publish the book, despite pressure from others to immediately turn it into a movie. After the book was published, Alan decided it would work as a play. Now after the success of the play, Alan feels comfortable into finally turning the book into a screenplay.
The Story of Us came about when Alan wrote a book for his wife as a 15th anniversary gift. Besides celebrating marriage, he wanted to show the wear and tear of being married. After getting halfway through the project he asked Jessie Nelson to help co-write to lend a woman's perspective. When Rob Reiner signed on to direct he contributed his own input.
Alan subscribes to the theory that writers are born, but that success comes from the fire of perseverance. "I think innate talent is a huge part of it.... the craft comes in honing it and putting it in your own voice."
Alan said the process of writing can take two forms. He knows some ideas are good right away, but others he lets percolate a year or so. He knows he's ready to write when he can't get it out of his mind. He often keeps busy on two projects, so if he gets stuck on one he can jump to the other.
Alan feels the hardest thing about writing is getting the project to make the leap from his head to the paper, then slogging through the process of rewriting. He said letting everything pour out at once is what Gilda Radner called "the vomit draft"-- get it out quick and pick out the corn later.
"Writing is harder to do than anyone who doesn't do it will ever know," he summed up.
Curt Blondell has been a member of the Scriptwriters Network for several years.
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