Recommended Resource for Aspiring Comedy Writers

And Here’s the Kicker by Mike Sacks is a deeply entertaining and enjoyable book. So deeply entertaining and enjoyable, in fact, that you seldom pause to realize how much you are learning about the delicate art of creating comedy.

You are hearing stories about how many times the makers of BORAT got stopped by the police during production (and how Sacha Baron Cohen never broke character during these encounters) and about how David Sedaris’s family feels about him writing about them and about how The Onion staff put out its pitch-perfect post-9/11 issue.

But then mid-interview you realize the co-creator of “The Colbert Report” is telling you how she and Stepen Colbert, the real person, created Stephen Colbert, the title character on the show, including what motivates him and what makes him funny. (I’ll give you a hint: “While he’s a moron, he’s not an asshole” is where it begins.) Or you are learning how a former writer on “The Golden Girls” took what he learned there and created “Arrested Development.”

This is all gold if you are interested in writing for television. Plus, you get actual concrete lists of advice from people in the know (and you know how much we love insider info here at YII) about getting hired as a sitcom writer, acquiring an agent or manager for your script (a topic we will also be covering here), and getting a job writing for late night television.

This book is a great read for anyone with a sense of humor and an appreciation for how comedy works. But for anyone who wants to be in the businessof comedy, it’s required reading. 

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