The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not – John Vorhaus [FULL INTERVIEW]

In this Film Courage interview, we ask John Vorhaus the secret for writing humor, telling jokes and find out the psychology of why we laugh.

0:00 – Unbelievable Secret Behind 99% Of All Comedy
11:00 – This Is The Secret To Defeating Failure
23:26 – How To Make People Love Your Art
32:16 – The Path To A Good Idea Is Through A Bad Idea
49:52 – Difference Between A Great Comedy Idea And A Bad One
58:42 – There Is No Story Unless A Bad Situation Gets Worse
1:06:31 – Anyone Who Writes Comedy Should Know This Lesson
1:26:14 – How To Make Any Idea Funny
1:37:43 – I Hate When Writers Make These 3 Mistakes
1:46:46 – If A Joke Doesn’t Work You Probably Made This Mistake
1:56:41 – 3 Things Every Artist Must Realize About AI
2:02:10 – Why The Audience Hates Bad Dialogue
2:11:23 – This Powerful Revelation Changed My Creative Life
2:21:45 – How 15 Minutes Of Work Can Change An Artist’s Life

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John Vorhaus is best known for his comedy-writing classic, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. He has taught and trained writers in 37 countries on five continents at last count, and created TV shows of his own in Nicaragua, Romania and elsewhere. His writing credits include dozens of teleplays and screenplays, plus seven novels and some two dozen works of non-fiction. His latest book is the little book of STANDUP. Vorhaus is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He lives in Southern California and secretly controls the world from www.johnvorhaus.com.

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VIEWERS ALSO WATCHED
If A Joke Doesn’t Work You Probably Made This Mistake – https://youtu.be/taJ9J39HtNk
Great Dialogue vs Bad Dialogue | Here’s The Difference – https://youtu.be/qzJxPoK0uuM
How To Avoid Writing Bad Dialogue – https://youtu.be/Kk1DR9AN-3E
27 Dialogue Mistakes – https://youtu.be/Ax87nMWhmz0
3 Keys To Writing Great Dialogue – https://youtu.be/07kbITdySJ0

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Film Courage: John why do you say  that comedy is both truth and pain? John Vorhaus,  Author/Speaker/Artist/Screenwriter: Comedy is   truth and pain because in every human moment if  you are aware of it you can detect an underlying  

Truth and pain of that moment. A joke is something  that looks at and explores the truth in pain and   gives the audience an opportunity to think about  it in a slightly different way. Here’s a classic,   a fellow is falling from a skyscraper  and it gets down about the 33rd-34th  

Floor and some guy leans out the window  and says How’s it going? He says Okay,   so far. The underlying truth in pain is  here’s a guy who’s in peril. That’s the   truth. The pain is there’s nothing he can  do about it and his expression there, Okay,  

So far is an acknowledgment of the truth and  pain but indirectly. If you look at any joke   you can think of you’re going to find that it  is an indirect acknowledgment of truth and pain. Film Courage: By nature  then are funny people cruel?

John: That’s a great question. I like to say  comedy is cruelty. A thing isn’t funny to the   person it’s happening to, it’s funny to the  people watching. It’s not necessary that you   don’t have to be cruel to make comedy but there is  an element of cruelty in jokes because the thing  

Isn’t funny to the person it’s happening to. We  derive our emotional sustenance from experiencing   vicariously the conflict or predicament or peril  of somebody else and being observing it but far   enough away from it that it’s not us that’s  what gives us the emotional bond that makes  

Us engage in the emotional separation that  makes us laugh. Further to that if I may when   people are creating characters in a situation  comedy or comic film for example they often   become caught up in the in the the sense of I’m  hurting these characters I don’t want to hurt my  

Characters this is in a sense conflict avoidance  in the real life walking around the world a lot   of us try to avoid conflict I do I don’t like  conflict as a writer I don’t have to engage in  

It I can just go home and write but when I am  guiding characters through story my emotional   need to protect them from conflict fights against  the need of the story which is to put them under   pressure so they can advance toward a new  understanding of themselves characters in  

Stories like people in the real world will not  undergo authentic change unless they’re forced   to they’ll stay in a status quo all stories in  a sense put pressure and increasingly more and   more pressure on a character until the character  is forced to enter an explosive new truth the  

Consequence of this is in order to help our  characters achieve their growth we have to   burden them with opposition with conflict  so the thing that we’re afraid of giving   them conflict that’s actually the thing they need  can you explain how comedy begins with someone’s

Suffering the classic comic book comic moment we  can think of is somebody slipping on a banana peel   if you’re 5-year-old you’re laughing at that why  are you laughing at that somebody slipped on a   banana peel they might have gotten hurt but if  you look at the person who slips on the banana  

Peel it’s never an innocent person it’s always  some somebody who in some sense deserves it   somebody who is the wrong attitude arrogance  selfishness impatience clumsiness that’s not   exactly On Target but if a person with high status  slips on a banana appeal then the person with high  

Status is brought low and the the fall from  high status to low status for people who have   low status is always very funny and for most  people in audience situations low status is   kind of baked in they’re in the audience  they’re not the performers so if they see  

The high and mighty performers slip and fall or  otherwise suffer they get the first benefit of   watching a funny thing happen to someone who’s  not them the second benefit of seeing somebody   some high and mighty person brought low and then  the third benefit of processing all of this more  

Information more effectively because they have  a new way to think about about it and experience   it that guy was rushing he slipped on a banana  peel fell on his butt and I laughed but I also  

Learned a lesson and the lesson is don’t rush and  also don’t be so high and mighty so there’s a lot   packed into a joke that looks like it’s about  the suffering but it’s really about triggering  

The laugh reflex which is a matter of giving the  audience a puzzle to solve and then letting them   solve it what’s going on here how is slipping on a  banana field appeel impact in the situation what’s  

The new result aha guy with status slipped on  a banana peel I’m laughing so let’s say if I’m   at an office party the office Christmas party  and my good friend comes from the bathroom she   has lipstick on her teeth or forbid she has  a panty hose tucked in the back I’m going to  

Tell her but if it’s marged from accounting who  I can’t stand and who’s who’s who’s messed with   my check I might I might laugh at that I think  I think that’s a great example because a thing   isn’t funny to the person it’s happening to and  that includes close allies like if it’s happening  

To me I feel it if it’s happening to people I  care about I feel it in a different way than   if it’s happening to people I don’t care about or  hate through the example that that you suggested  

I’m going to help my friend because this isn’t  a laughing situation I I have no Val I get no   value out of making fun of my friend although some  people do but I do get value out of making fun of  

Marge from accounting who is deserving what she’s  getting at this moment I’m reminded of something   that my wife and I passed through early in our  relationship being a funny guy I would make jokes   about anything and everything and some of those  jokes were kind of at her expense you know like  

My wife she doesn’t know how she she she she’s so  dumb she couldn’t pass a blood test as an example   of a joke that doesn’t do me or my relationship  or my wife or our relationship any good at all  

Over time I learned that if I’m telling a joke  at the expense of a loved one I’m doing damage   that I don’t want to do and don’t need to do you  can consider a standup comic having the challenge  

How can I be on a stage and talk about my family  in a way that’s funny and in a way that gets the   laughs and advances my career the way I suppose  the way I wanted to and speaks the truth that I  

Want to speak without hurting the people around  me it’s possible but it’s it’s a space that needs   investigating but on the flip side we can we can  tear ourselves apart and and it’s actually funny  

And and in that you find the solution to the  problem how do I make fun of my family without   hurting my family I make fun of myself I don’t say  my family is so stupid they do X Y or Z I say I’m  

So stupid I don’t understand why my family does  X Y or Z and that gets you out of the Trap I can   give you a great example of this and it’s one that  well we can reference because it’s in the public  

Domain or in the public sphere one would say years  ago I was in Russia running the Russian version of   Married With Children like you do and I happened  to be there at the same time that Phil Romano the  

Creator of Everybody Loves Raymond was in Russia  doing the pilot of Everybody Loves Raymond for   Russian television and also doing a documentary  of his own experience now I was a fly on the   wall and I saw how my Russian colleagues wanted to  close off to him they were afraid of him they were  

Afraid that his documentary would make fun of them  that the whole point of the exercise was to mock   the quaint and idiotic ways of the Russian people  but Phil Romano is’s much smarter than that the   whole comic perspective of the piece is there are  things going around here that I do not understand  

And all the comic energy is directed on what  Phil Romano does not understand not directed at   the things he’s observing and would otherwise be  tempted to make direct fun of and as a consequence   the documentary works for American audiences and  Russian audiences because there’s a a generosity  

Of spirit underneath the whole thing it’s the  filmmaker’s intention for everybody to have a   good time the Russians who are participating in  the documentary the audience watching at home   and he realizes his intention by focusing all the  comic energy on himself which is 100% safe Target  

All the time as a coded to that story if you  happen to watch that video watch very closely at   the end there’s a rap party for the documentary  and the pilot and I’m in the background and you  

Can see me for that long great so before we leave  Russia if I may yeah okay sort of ask and answer   my own question we’re interested in the question  of where do jokes come from what are they made  

Of how do they work and we’ve addressed one thing  that’s for sure comedy is truth and pain comedy is   cruelty but here’s something else to look at and  it’s called defeat of expectation I’ll tell you  

A joke and then we’ll deconstruct it a little bit  this joke comes to mind because it’s about Russian   vodka I was in Russia and I was given some Russian  pepper vodka to try oh pepper vodka very hot and I  

Tasted it and they asked me how was it I said well  it starts like Tabasco and finishes like paint   thinner okay okay so now the defeat of expectation  is found in the phrase and and finishes like paint  

Thinner because the way I have set the joke up I’m  describing the Vodka as if I were an expert like a   wine expert it starts you know starts with notes  of cherry and finishes with oak or something like  

That you and the audience are already putting the  pieces of the puzzle together you’re thinking oh   he sounds like a wine connoisseur he’s identified  a note in the Vodka that I would expect to find   in a pepper vodka at this point the audience  doesn’t really know where the joke is going  

They can expect that it’s not going to go to it  starts like Tabasco and finishes like Frank’s   Louisiana hot sauce because there’s no surprise  there there’s nothing interesting there but if I   say starts like Tobasco and finishes like paint  thinner I have created a a picture in the mind  

Of something that’s ah horrible and completely  destroyed the picture in the mind of something   that’s being apprehended like a glass of fine  wine and that destruction of one image and its   instantaneous replacement with another that’s a  comic tool called defeat of expectation what is  

The will to risk somebody asked me do you think  anyone can be funny I said I think anyone can be   funny I’m not sure everyone is willing to risk  being funny because the will to risk implies  

The will to fail if I try this and it doesn’t  work there will be consequences if my fear of   consequence is quite great then my witer risk  is quite low because the the fear of negative   consequences bad outcome will keep me from Taking  Chances as an example you might be terribly funny  

And you might want to do stand-up comedy but you  have to have the will to risk to get from the   floor to the stage even if it’s only 6 in that’s  a big step up and the only way you can take that  

Step is if you can bring your mind around to the  idea that this outcome doesn’t matter it might be   a bad outcome it might hurt me emotionally but  for the sake of my goals it’s a step I have to  

Take and that the whole math of it is if you have  a clear sense of your goals and you can link those   goals to actions then the combination of goal and  action will give you the will to risk because you  

Will see quite clearly in order to achieve this  goal I have to take this action I understand that   there’s a risk of a possible negative outcome  but I also understand that if if I don’t take   this action I can’t achieve that goal and that’s  a known bad outcome so I fight against theoretical  

Or possible bad outcomes with the knowledge that  taking no action is itself an undesirable outcome   for me it won’t advance me toward my goals do  you think some people have a natural just sort   of like the propensity to be up in front of a  crowd it doesn’t if they fail if someone throws  

A tomato at them it’s not the end of the world I  I think some people have that quality naturally   some people acquire it a lot of us are I don’t  want to say that we’re programmed in our youth  

But I’ll just tell you about my own experience as  a youngest child youngest of three I was counted   on to be funny you know I was the little one I  was the cute one and there was a lot of positive  

Reinforcement directed at me for taking comic  risks as a consequence I grew up feeling pretty   comfortable with taking not just comic RIS but  creative risks of all kinds mostly because I had   already acquired some experience in trying some  things that work and trying some things that  

Don’t work in my book the comic toolbox and this  is kind of one of the things that I’m known for   I I established What’s called the rule of nine  which say says for every 10 jokes you try nine  

Won’t work and you think well that’s a terrible  bad average I’m only getting it right one time out   of 10 that’s horrible it’s not because it tells  you two important things one is you’re going to  

Get it wrong much more often than you get it right  getting it wrong is the norm and the other thing   is if you have 10 jokes and you only need one to  work then you don’t have to invest 100% of your  

Ego in any one joke you can basically distribute  all of your ego across 10 jokes and any joke that   fails only cost you 10% of ego and then that  one joke that does work that’s what you need to  

Advance toward your goals and anytime you advance  toward your goals your ego feels much better so we   can say what falls out from this is for someone  who’s operating in Creative spaces we’re always   operating in an ego space we’re always engaged  with whether we know it or not engaged with the  

Question of how does this circumstance make me  feel what I try to do is focus on a different   question how can I use this circumstance to  advance toward my goals I find that if I operate   with that question in mind the fear fear Falls  away the insecurity Falls away the the the the  

Will to risk advances because it’s clear that no  matter what’s going to happen I’m going to gather   information and it’s going to advance me toward my  goals one way or another so the ultimate outcome  

Of this is I’m going to do a better job I’m going  to create better products I’m going to win more a   claim and it turns out from moment to moment as  writers or creators we are serving our ego and  

The minute we stop serving our ego and serve the  work instead try to make the work as good as it   can be then the work becomes better and better and  better we achieve more we attain more and our ego  

Feels that much better all of which boils down to  to serve the ego ignore the ego and save your ego   for the award ceremony but you know they say that  most people fear the biggest fear is is public  

Speaking I’d rather stand up in front of a group  of people on a topic I know nothing about and be   booed off the stage than let’s say walk across  the Golden Gate Bridge on a windy day which I’ve  

Done in a class trip and couldn’t make it so some  people have certain fears that that seem normal   and you know public speaking I guess is considered  a normal fear I I use a a metaphorical structure  

For my fears I imagine that the inside of my brain  is outer space and my fears are present in here   and there in outer space they manifest as black  holes they suck all my energy in they they warp  

Reality they do a lot of bad things and since  they’re black holes they feel dangerous to me   so I avoid them fear fear of rejection let’s say  as an example or in my case fear of not hearing  

Adequately so my experience of this is if there’s  a black hole that exists and I don’t confront it   then it exists and it dominates but if there’s a  black hole that exists and I confront it doing no  

More than saying I acknowledge this black hole I  acknowledge the presence of this fear that kind of   sucks the air out of that balloon the black hole  goes away and I have more freedom of movement in  

My own mind that’s why I use that metaphor and  that’s what I’m attempting to serve not to deny   my fears or even really make them go away just  to acknowledge their presence and manage them   effectively as part of my overall job of being as  successful a creative entrepreneur as I can what  

If a writers afraid they will embarrass themselves  and maybe especially embarrass themselves in front   of a group of their peers strangers it’s like  whatever but yeah strangers it’s like whatever   but oh my mom’s in the audience or Marge from  County or Marge from a county well Marge from  

County I’m going to answer your question but first  I’m going to go roundabout with a little bit of   story I was in Prague in the Czech Republic doing  a comedy writing Workshop and it was a multi-day  

Thing and I was just getting started I was midway  through the morning on the first day and I’m at   a point in my lecture and I just lose it might  have been jet lag might have been I don’t know  

Something that I thought I understood very well  I suddenly couldn’t make head and her tail stuff   it was a story structure that I was trying to  communicate and I just found that I couldn’t and I  

Had a kind of a freakout moment and it wasn’t bad  and I acknowledged it I said to the audience so   you guys Let’s Take 5 minutes I’ve lost the plot  I need to find it again and that was the moment  

And we took a break and I came back and started  teaching something else that night we went the   whole group went out for drinks and dinner and my  wife was there she was traveling with me and she  

Was part of the party and later she reported to me  that she talked to a lot of different students and   they all said the same thing that moment when he  fell apart and acknowledged that he’d Fallen apart  

That’s when he won our lead Allegiance because  we thought if that guy can fail this expert can   stand in front of us and fail so visibly and  own it and transcend it and move on that’s a  

Big relief to us because now we’re not afraid of  failure we’ve seen the boss failing we’ve seen the   mro failing and that leaves us free to manifest  our own failure I have since used that over and  

Over again as a strategy if the room is tough if  people are feeling up tight they’re not ready to   take chances yet I just fail I fail on purpose  I go someplace crazy I I go out on a limb that  

I know I’m not going to arrive someplace good and  just crash on on purpose so that people can see me   modeling failure and feel better about their own  failure now back to your question can you repeat  

It please because I was tell me tell me again the  the questions you asked is a writer afraid they   will embarrass themselves and embarrass themselves  in front of a group of their peers T writers room  

Okay so there I am embarrassing myself in front of  a group of students each of them is worried about   embarrassing themselves in front of their peers  it’s a comedy writing Workshop they’re supposed to   be funny Stakes are high pressure is high they’re  not going to do well I’m going to instruct them to  

Lower pressure by embracing failure I always tell  people in these circumstances if you must fail and   you will fail fail big if you have a magnificent  failure at least you created something that was   magnificent and if your goal is to fail big  then failure doesn’t scare you anymore but in  

Terms of this idea of I’m afraid of the negative  response of the people around me I think a lot   of that is what I call cartoon emotion we have  emotional states that exist without giving too  

Much thought to them and the the emotional state  we’re in right now is people are going to hate me   people who love me will hate me that’s on on on  the on the Bedrock that’s what we’re afraid of if  

I if I write this romantic novel if I write this  screenplay if I do this stand-up comedy routine   and it goes bad which it will because I’m a loser  then everybody who loves me will hate me I’ll be  

That much more of a loser we can see that this is  a lot of kind of self-fulfilling prophecy toward   a negative outcome a vicious circle we can turn it  into a virtuous circle simply by saying I’m going  

To have this experience and I’m going to collect  this outcome I’m not going to have expectations   on whether it’s going to be a good outcome or a  bad outcome try for a good one but not marry my  

Ego to a good outcome and what’s going to help me  in this is the understanding that people who love   me actually love me they’re rooting for a good  outcome and if it happens that I don’t get a  

Good outcome the only one it’ll really bother  is me because I’ll feel like I let them down   they’re prepared to give me charity they’re  not going to condemn me for trying something   that didn’t work out they’re on my side so in  the moment where I am attempting the creative  

Act trying to throw it out the window and see if  it lands I need to remind myself the audience is   not in conflict with me they want the same  thing I want a good outcome a a funny joke a  

Good story a good movie experience whatever we’re  all on the same side we’re not against each other   and that also will help me step over that fear  barrier and into the experience that I want to  

Have so if someone would like to win the empathy  or the sympathy of a crowd should they knock the   microphone off the podium for a second and then  apologize or drop their papers it’s a perfectly   valid strategy I’ve seen stand up Comics trip  getting up on stage it never fails to get a  

Laugh because of what we talked about slipping  on a banana peel in a sense making yourself the   Target in a sense this is standup comedy 101 make  yourself the Target in my book the little book of  

Standup I talk about your first 5 minutes what  are you trying to do with that precious first   5 minutes of comic material that you trying to  generate one thing you’re trying to do is Define   yourself another thing you’re trying to do is to  build audience Allegiance and you can do both of  

Those things by telling jokes about yourself  that matter I might say look at me I haven’t   had a bad hair day in 25 years and it’s my way  of saying I’m bald everybody knows you’re bald I   don’t carry any issues with me about baldness  but I could certainly use the appearance of  

Having those issues to win audience Allegiance we  talked earlier about getting the audience on your   side so creating empathy or sympathy I feel like I  might want to try this sort of you know maybe when  

I go into the grocery store I’ll trip on purpose  or I’ll I’ll I’ll do some not fall of course but   something to kind of like Get me used to being in  the position of of wanting to feel stupid about  

Myself yes what you’re proposing is that you do  something new and unexpected break a rule it’s   a rule we might say that you go into the grocery  store and you behave properly and you don’t trip  

And you’re proposing to break a norm maybe not a  rule but a norm a a an exercise homework that I   give to my classes whenever they run more than  one day at the end of the first day I always  

Tell them between now and tomorrow morning go out  and do something you’ve never done before doesn’t   matter what it is and it doesn’t matter how you  go about deciding what to do the experience of   doing something you’ve never done before carries  so much creative value and so much psychic value  

That it’s worth having just for the sake of having  it and I illustrate this if you can imagine trying   to think of it here’s here’s a great illustration  one of my students was divorced from her husband  

And had been for a bunch of years and they hadn’t  had a really healthy dialogue since they divorced   and she took my homework as a permission to do  the following new thing I’m going to have a civil  

Conversation with my ex and I’ll call it homework  so that it’s safe for us both and she entered into   that and had a really productive experience and I  asked her later how did you feel and she said well  

At first I was really afraid because I didn’t  know what I was getting into and and I didn’t   know if it was going to work and then when I saw  myself in the moment and having a good experience  

I felt really powerful like I’m I’m in charge of  this moment in a way I’ve never been in charge   before and then coming out of the moment she said  I just felt High I’d had so much an exhilarating  

Experience of the new that that in and of itself  has value so this exercise whether it’s brushing   your teeth left-handed or talking to a stranger  on the subway or buying a a stranger drink in a   bar talking to your ex-husband or whatever else  you choose to do there’s so much excitement and  

Discovery and humor in Breaking the Rules and  Breaking the Norms so I predict if you take   yourself to the grocery store and stumble around  like a clown at first you’re going to feel scared   because all eyes will be on you and you’ll be the  subject of examination sure but then you’ll feel  

Empowered because you realize I’ve got control of  the situation like a standup comic owns the stage   and owns the audience you’re owning that moment  all eyes are on you and you’ll feel powerful   and then when it’s over you’ll just have this  sense of relief and exhilaration and enderin  

And adrenaline and all of this stuff I’m getting  high just thinking about it yeah let’s go do it   well that’s the thing that you said you’re really  in control of the situation so if I accidentally   let’s say drop the basket and and the eggs fall  all over the ground then I’m legitimately I’m  

Going to feel stupid about myself but if I not  that I want to do this not waste product but do   something similar where I drop my grocery bag of  something and and it’s not a major thing but I’m  

In control of it I did it on purpose I think it’s  a it’s more of an empowering not only that but if   you do happen to drop the eggs accidentally you  can absolutely make a Surefire joke out of it and  

Absolutely win the allegiance of everybody around  you by using a comic tool called telling a lie to   Comic effect stating the opposite of what’s true  those eggs hit the floor you cross your arms and   you say I meant to do that and everybody’s on your  side and everybody’s laughing right because they  

Know that you’re not suffering the accident you  just suffered you can imagine sorry if I please   please you can imagine I’ve been thinking about  this a lot I’m writing a new book it’s called   The Book of practice the subtitle is how to  do better what you want to do well and one of  

The things that I’m looking at is this idea of  self-monitoring I I try to be in a moment and   also be observing myself in the moment at the  same time and just checking in it real in real  

Time am I doing what I want to be doing now I’m  checking in with my hands and reminding myself   let’s get those hands under control and don’t let  them fly around all over the all over the camera I  

Know you don’t care but I’m self-monitoring it’s a  goal that I have to keep my hands still if I find   myself not achieving that goal if I’m actively  self-monitoring then I can course correct in  

The moment you think about that moment in the in  the in the store where the eggs go down if you’re   self-monitoring you realize you have a choice you  can take this bad outcome and make it worse by  

Generating all kinds of bad energy around it or  you can take this bad outcome and start to make   it less bad by generating positive energy around  it and that’s a choice you have every moment and   that’s an that’s a choice you can access as long  as you’re paying to yourself paying attention to  

Yourself in the moments you’re in well is that  part of being in the comic Space is really   dialing into who you are your in idiosyncrasies  and how other people see you yes yes exactly ly  

There are a couple of things to think about one is  you have strengths that will be your strengths and   knowing what those strengths are and how to use  them and leaning into them further is is better  

For you there are a lot of things that you just  can’t do well comically or creatively you can   choose to do the easy things you can choose to  get better at doing the hard things but there  

Is a a relationship between what is natural to you  and what works well for you and I can give you an   example from a kind of a different perspective as  you might know I’m something of a self-described  

Expert in poker that is to say I’ve written 10  books on the subject so I should know one or two   things about it and one of the things that I know  is poker players at a table have an image and that  

Image might be a fear fearsome image a scary image  Crazy image innocent image stupid image playful   image clueless image intense image checked out  image any of these things for Effectiveness in   poker you need to ask yourself what image can I  project that in harmony with my nature in other  

Words how can I be more me so for myself playing  poker fearsome doesn’t work I can’t scare people   but playful works great I can disarm them why  because I’m naturally not a fearsome person   but I Am Naturally a playful person so that’s an  example of knowing something that’s true about  

Myself first knowing it second owning it like it’s  okay for me to be playful and then third using it   as a tool so if I can boil all of that down to a  algorithm know your strengths own your strengths  

And use them as tools so don’t try to become you  know let’s say in in in World Wrestling they they   all had Dawn these these sort of not avatars  but these these sort of monikers or I don’t  

Even know what you call I think Avatar is a good  character Avatar yeah and who knows if it’s sort   of a larger image of themselves I don’t really  know these wrestlers in person but but we come to  

Know oh that’s kind of an evil one and everyone’s  booing and s and hissing and stuff and the other   ones proud and funny and so kind of like Dawning  that almost sure you’re going to cast the heel  

According to who can play the heel naturally and  you has cast the hero according to who can play   the hero naturally this is something connected  to what I teach when I teach stand-up comedy   you have a comic filter and your comic filter is  just who you are plus a ton of exaggeration my  

Comic filter is the world is my circus everything  that exists on this planet is here for Amusement   my rational mind knows that that’s not true but  exaggerating that comic filter and taking it on   stage like thank you all for being here tonight  you really made my experience what’s your name  

Bob you in particular I was hoping you would  come you can already see that I’m I’m taking   a natural playfulness and just jacking it up and  that’s really if if you want comedy boiled down to   simple terms we’ve talked about some but here’s  another one that works a treat comedy is drama  

Plus exaggeration if you just take a dramatic  moment and exaggerate it out of all reality it   will become comic if you take a normal perspective  I’m a kind of a playful guy and exaggerated I’m   all playful all the time I’m like insanely playful  then it becomes comic it cannot help but where  

Does a great idea begin usually with a bad idea  usually I have to pass through a lot of bad ideas   to get to a great idea we talked earlier about  the rule of nine says 10 for every 10 jokes you  

Try n won’t work same is true for ideas you might  have 10 ideas for a sitcom or a screenplay and if   you look at all 10 of them you can just say well  some of these are better than others which one’s  

The best one at that if you have 10 ideas and you  pick the one you like best you might not have a   great idea but you know you have the best of 10  ideas that’s why it’s so important to generate  

A lot a lot a lot of ideas most of them will fall  by the wayside in my vocabulary there’s something   called a Monday idea a Monday idea is something  that sounds great on Monday but by the end of the  

Week you don’t even know why you were so excited  about it it’s like a hit song that sounds great   at first but then pretty soon you can’t stand it  you realize there’s nothing really there we fall  

In love with things because they’re new and the  great ideas are the ones that stand the test of   time and the weight of development I’ll give you  an example of something that I consider to be a  

Great idea that’s new to me in my experience then  I’ll talk about where this one came from because   they don’t always come from that strategy that  I just gave you I’m walking with a friend we’re  

Walking our dogs and my friend has a kind of  a wild and and Woolly look about him he’s an   actor and he looks a little deranged most of the  time he’s from Kentucky and I turned to him and  

I said I said you know it’ be a great idea for  a movie Rasputin in Kentucky cuz you look like   Rasputin but you’re from Kentucky and you could  totally play that role now I consider that to be  

A great idea because it’s it takes no effort to  imagine the story around it there’s a governor   of the state and he’s been being manipulated by  some mad Rasputin type character it’s basically   the Rasputin story taken from zaris Russia and  stuck in world Kentucky where it’s just going to  

Work a treat so one way we recognize good ideas  or great ideas is we can see the the the bones   of other good ideas on top of them this raises a  point that’s worth raising people who are in the  

Writing game are very self-conscious about copying  or being thought to copy or be derivative and it’s   nearly the problem that we think it is and I offer  as a as a counternarrative the artist’s experience  

I’m lately an artist I’ve been doing art for a few  years now and I’ve started to understand that for   many great pieces of art the conversation starts  with I like what I’m looking at I’m inspired by  

That I want to do something like that and there’s  never any sense of and I’m copying them or I’m   going into areas that are cliched or not allowed  to me just that artist painted a beautiful field   of poppies I want to try painting poppies too  and there’s no self-consciousness around copying  

Or turning soil that’s already been turned I  would say that a great idea is not necessarily   a new idea or an original idea a great idea is  something that like I said can stand the weight  

Of development and stand the test of time what is  a money idea you talked about Monday ideas what   about money ideas what is a money idea a money  idea my personal vocabulary is an idea that the  

Minute you have it you know it’s going to work and  you can say I know it’s going to make money that   that just makes it kind of a joke or metaphor  but let’s say you’re pitching sitcom ideas to  

Me I have a series I’m going to make up a sitcom  called rest Rasputin in Kentucky because why not   and now it’s a comedy and you’re pitching ideas  for Rasputin like episode ideas Rasputin goes to  

A car wash Rasputin takes a pickle ball and then  you say Rasputin poses in the nude that’s a money   idea because the audience is going to really want  to know that they’re not going to see him naked  

They know they’re never going to but they know  it’s going to be an awkward situation for them   they know instinctively that it’s going to be fun  so I as someone who is evaluating ideas I can look  

At that and say from here to that money moment  that funny scene I can see the direct line and   that’s why I say money idea and that’s why I say  let’s put that into development and see if we can  

Make it happen another idea will come along that’s  not a money idea Rasputin cleans out his closet I   don’t know how that’s going to be funny until I  know what he finds in the closet so it’s not yet  

A money idea but it could become one I’m going  to offer you one more observation around this   when we seek good ideas and somebody comes along  and says the path to a good idea is through a bad  

Idea you might not be agreeable to that you might  say well that seems like a lot of hard work and   frustration heartbreak heartache why should I do  that because often you cannot get to the good idea  

Without passing through the bad idea and I didn’t  teach this I learned this from a student of mine   very early in my teaching career adult Learners I  I said you know sometimes you have to pass through  

The bad idea to get to the good one and she said  oh it’s like going on a blind date and I said well   what do you mean she said well you know he could  be horrible but he might have a cute roommate and  

You’re never going to meet the cute roommate  if you don’t go on the bad blind date that’s   true it it ties back into this notion of having  a will to risk recognizing that bad outcomes are   not to be feared bad outcomes are just outcomes  and in this business that we’re in the currency  

Of the realm is outcomes the more times we make  a thing whatever that thing is the more quickly   and prosperously we progress toward our goals  creativity is carrying buckets to the river   what is this in eastern philosophy there is this  notion that creativity is carrying buckets to the  

River that there’s a river of creativity flowing  by and our job is artist is to dip into the flow   of creativity and see what we get and that’s a  valid approach it’s like walking around waiting  

For a joke to occur to you or waiting for an idea  to to occur to you you’ve had these moments you’re   walking down the street and it’s like you get  hit by lightning suddenly a great idea appears to  

You that’s the experience of carrying buckets to  the river and it’s good as far as it goes but it   doesn’t go far enough because I don’t want to be  creative just in the moment where creativity takes  

Me by surprise I want to be creative from 9:00  in the morning till 5: at night if I so choose   so carrying buckets to the river isn’t going to be  enough I need to build some irrigation channels I  

Need to throw up a dam or two I need to use the  raw stuff of creativity more effectively from   moment to moment so when I say carrying buckets  to the river what I’m really saying is develop  

A set of tools that will free you from the magic  of creativity you can benefit from the magic of   creativity is great to get hit by that lightning  but you don’t have to be a slave to it you don’t  

Have to wait for it to strike as long as you have  strategies for bringing creativity to you every   time you want I can’t tell you how many wonderful  ideas I would get sitting in morning traffic rush  

Hour traffic could be a Monday and then the minute  you actually have time to implement them you find   a million things to do to keep yourself busy do  you know why oh do it’s fear fear okay it’s fear  

Resistance I’m not I I don’t know if that’s true  for you but nine times out of 10 when someone has   trouble executing if you look at it hard enough  they’re afraid of the outcome and you can see this   in a lot of situations having trouble starting and  having trouble finishing are both manifestations  

Of fear let’s look at having trouble finishing  I’ve written this novel and it’s time for me to do   what Winston Church Hill said kill the Beast and  fling it to the public but I’m afraid I’m afraid  

Of bad outcome I don’t know I’m afraid because I’m  not self-monitoring so I look at what I’ve written   and I say oh the ending doesn’t work or this is  all trash I need to go and start over again I’m  

Not satisfied I’m not going to release it until  it’s perfect this is perfectionism disguising   fear it’s fear cloaked as it needs to be perfect  Before I Let It Go first of all it’s never going   to be perfect because nothing is and secondly  the only reason you’re afraid to let it go is  

Not because it’s not perfect but because you’re  afraid afraid of a negative outcome can I tell   you about a negative well a a stalled outcome that  I’ve been surfing now for months last year I wrote   a screenplay a feature animation for a German  client I work internationally it’s in English  

But as for a German client and I delivered a draft  of the screenplay and it didn’t work and I agreed   that it didn’t work and I went back and rewrote  it and I delivered it again day before Halloween  

That was four months ago five months ago and I  have not until today actually even today haven’t   heard one word about whether they like it or not  and you might say that’s very rude of them but I  

Just say that’s an outcome there is an outcome  out there that I don’t know about and even if I   do know about it it’s not going to change how  I feel about myself I’m content to wait today  

They emailed me and they said now that everybody’s  healthy again oh I didn’t know people were sick we   want to help have a meeting on it okay sure let’s  do that but now look I’m going into a meeting  

Where I as a writer have a tremendous emotional  investment in what those guys say and I have a   feeling they wouldn’t be calling this meeting if  all they wanted to say was we love every word of  

It put down your tools and you know do a dance  that that would be great but that seems like   an unlikely outcome so I’m already prospecting  the future I’m already investigating what that   meeting will be like in my mind so that when I’m  in that meeting I can operate effectively not as a  

Slave to my emotional reactions but in service of  the work which ultimately is in service of my ego   there’s a lot going on I’m sorry I went around  the corner and down the street like I usually  

Do no that’s fascinating so you waited four or  five months or so haven’t heard anything and now   they’d like to call a meeting so all this time  you’ve been waiting not knowing where you stood  

Yes but I haven’t been holding on to it the way I  would have held on to it in my youth this is the   important thing I actually had a friend writer  friend called me the other day you still haven’t  

Heard I still haven’t heard must be driving  you insane it’s not bothering me at all I’m   not even thinking about it it’s an outcome it’s  going to be a great outcome or a bad outcome or   an outcome I never know about but I’m not in  the business of evaluating outcomes I’m in the  

Business of having new outcomes so if they say we  hate it never darken our door again I’ll say okay   that’s the outcome if I’m hooked on outcome this  is another phrase we can think about people get   hooked on outcome if I’m hooked on outcome it’s  because I’m invested in the outcome leading to  

New outcomes like if they love it maybe they’ll  hire me to write another one or maybe they’ll   tell their friends and they’ll hire me I think  a function of being a senior citizen is that I’m  

No longer hooked on outcomes at this point I got  I’m playing with the house is money and I think   that makes it a lot easier for me to have this  tranquility and work on work on it as if I were  

Working on any other tool that I might wish to  work with but that’s why I’m writing this book of   practice because when I was young and freaked out  I needed a book that said to me explicitly you’re  

Just young don’t freak out and that book didn’t  exist and so or at least I couldn’t find my way to   it so maybe we can consider this to be the theme  of the book of practice you’re just young don’t  

Freak out well I think too you have enough sort of  roller coaster rides and then you start to realize   oh okay yeah we’re just kind of chugging up the  thing here and who knows what’s going to happen  

But I’m going to hold on and and I’ve been down  this I’ve been on this ride before I’ve been on   this ride all along and I know it only has three  states up down and plateau and I actually talk  

About this I think in my book creativity rules I  talk about something called Plateau thinking which   says you’re only in one of three states either  your life is rising or it’s descending or you’re   on a plateau and wherever you are one thing’s for  sure you’ll be someplace different you might go  

From rising to Plateau or Plateau to Rising again  or Plateau to Falling or falling to Plateau or   falling to Rising but you’re always in a change of  state as long as you are engaged in your practice   as long as you are creating outcomes you’re also  creating change for yourself now that’s really  

Powerful if you think about it all my outcomes  even the worst ones create change within me if   that change is positive then it’s growth so now  I can look at bad outcomes and say even if it’s a  

Bad outcome and doesn’t Advance my career it’s  not a bad outcome it’s a good outcome because   it advances my growth that’s a win I can always  take no matter what the other guy says and again   thinking about people who might be watching this  video and wanting to engage effectively in their  

Own creative practice this is the secret there  are no bad outcomes there’re only outcomes that we   assign a value to and we have the choice to assign  those outcomes the value of good outcome bad  

Outcome or just outcomes and where I try to stand  every day of my life is it’s not a good thing it’s   not a bad thing it’s just a thing that’s taking  place and if I can apprehend it on that level  

Then no matter what it is I can manage it more  effectively and of those three states sort of the   roller coaster analogy so ascending descending  or plateauing where do you find your most comfortable having just been through a plateau  or or a valley I’m not sure how to look at it I  

Would say that that I am I’m more comfortable  with a plateau State than I was before let me   lay it out for you through the end of the year I  was engaged in intense labors and then I finished  

Them and suddenly everything dropped off I had  nothing to do and I knew that I needed to take   a break and I knew that I also needed to start  my next project the book of practice not start  

Re-engage with because it’s it’s been around for  a while and I went through a period of about two   weeks where I was saying no to starting the work  and then one day I said yes to starting the work  

And I recognize that’s very common for me when I  know I need to recharge my body tells me because   it just won’t let me work and that’s what gets  me through those spaces more broadly because  

Of how I’m wired when I feel myself in dissent I  say to myself well of the three possible States   descent is my least favorite I don’t want to  be going down I want to go up I want my life  

To rise when I feel myself in descent again I try  to be mindful of what’s going on and act in a way   that will reverse the situation I can give you  a great example in 2016 my writing practice was  

Broken it was busted I couldn’t write anything I  couldn’t sell anything I didn’t feel good about   my writing I felt like it’s over I’m never going  to be creatively successful again clearly this is   a free fall descent but it wasn’t the first time  I’ve been through this before I’d know what it’s  

Like to lose my writing Mojo and I knew from past  experience that the solution was to try something   different that’s how I’ve always gotten out of  the bind in the past but it up to that point  

It was always try a different kind of writing  and this time I said it’s more major than that   I need a more major change I need to rethink  everything and I made the conscious decision to  

Take up art knowing that I didn’t know the first  thing about art had no history no practice of it   no expectation of being good at it but I knew that  if I introduced myself to it it would give me new  

Information that I could use to reinvigorate my  writing so much so that I end ended up writing a   book about the experience of being my first year  in art because the the big hurdle I hit hit was  

I’ve been a writer all my life I know how to  solve problems creatively but I haven’t been   a writer an artist for five minutes I don’t know  how to do anything I’m so uptight what do I do I  

Said I know I’ll go for a white belt in art cuz  the white belt’s the one they give you for just   showing up they whatever else I can do I can  show up and then when I heard myself say those  

Words white belt in another part of my brain  said that’s a money idea because it will give   structure to the work that I’m going to do for  the next year it will give me the freedom to  

Work without needing to harvest for a full year  that is to say I give myself permission to play   for a year knowing that I’m going to take all that  playfulness and turn it into product at the end  

And it gave me a great book called a white belt in  art what is the comic premise the comic premise is   is the gap between real reality and comic reality  it’s a rule change that takes normal reality and  

Turns it into something else you here’s a good  example in the situation comedy Married with   Children which I’m sure you know if you don’t know  it’s about horrible people who somehow manage to   live together the comic premise is these people  who have no business spending five minutes in  

Each other’s company somehow managed to hold it  together real reality is not like that if these   people were real people in the real world they  would run screaming from one another the comic   reality says to the audience if you will accept  the premise that these horrible people can live  

Together we’re going to give you some fun so  the comic premise is the change of reality the   altered reality that the comedian offers in order  to welcome the audience into his or her or their   world on the level of standup as an example you  can find a comic premise in something like just  

When you thought Airlines couldn’t get any worse  the audience understands you’re not going to   tell me what really happens with Airlines you’re  going to tell me an exaggerated version of it a an   alternate reality version of it a Comic version  of it so the comic premise is airlines are even  

Worse than you think on that level it’s easy to  understand that we’re not going to be talking   about air air travel in a straight sense we’re  going to talk about it in an exaggerated or bent  

Sense so the comic premise is is the thing you do  to bend reality what are the components of a comic   premise the main component of a comic premise is  a rule change in this world let’s take another   example from from uh well-known sitcom we can  think about Kramer from Seinfeld his comic premise  

His comic perspective or filter is there’s nothing  I can’t do like I’m Kramer everybody knows he’s   Kramer and because we know he has that attitude  about himself we will allow him to do any bizarre  

Thing he wants to do and the more bizarre the  better it all stems from a single rule change in   the real world this loser doofus does not Prosper  they don’t they just don’t they’re losers they’re  

Doofuses nobody gives them the time of day in  the world of in the comic world of the story of   Seinfeld This loser doofus triumphs every time  so the rule change is losers win now let’s take  

That as an example let’s say we we like the rule  change losers win but we want to make something   new out of it we could say something like the  world’s poorest family wins the lottery in the  

Real world that’s not happening for all intents  and purposes as a friend of mine once said he   did the mathematical modeling for the California  Lottery and he said to five significant figures   your chances of winning are the same whether you  play or not so so we know in real reality it’s not  

Going to happen but we allow the comic premise to  change the situation normal poor family all of a   sudden they’re endowed with great riches doesn’t  matter how we’re going to watch poor people be   rich and it’s going to be fun that’s what a comic  premise does it takes normal reality and turns it  

Upside down what’s the difference between a  great comic premise and a bad comic premise this almost feels like an SAT question sat  actually what I’m reflecting on now is I do   a lot of work coaching people for interviews and  one of the things that I talk about is when you  

Get a hard question you’re going to want to  blab you’re going to want to say stuff that   doesn’t matter so well let’s see and instead  it’s good just to have a moment’s silence or   talk about something completely irrelevant andall  while you’re trying to figure out what you really  

Want want to say which is exactly what I’m  doing now cuz I don’t really know what is   the difference between a good premise and a bad  premise except as we said before a good premise  

A good idea will stand the weight of development  and stand the test of time that is to say if it’s   interesting to me now and it’s interesting next  week and next year or funny now funny next week  

And next year then that’s a good premise if it’s  funny now and upon further further investigation   it stops being funny it’s not such a good premise  I have an example I was working on a joke about   uh virtually meaningless superpowers like if  you could have any superpower what would you  

Choose would you choose something dumb and and I  said I would choose the superpower of the ability   to carry groceries on a bicycle and somebody  said well that’s just balance and I realized   okay that’s not a very good superpower not a good  premise but there is something funny in the poor  

Guy who had the chance to pick his one superpower  and he wasted it on balance because he thought it   was something better than that and that’s a good  premise because that’s something I can work with   I can think about somebody who makes a big mistake  and suffers the consequences rather than thinking  

About the mistake itself you’re asking me a  question and and as I’m answering it I’m kind   of unpacking it a good premise is about something  sustainable a bad premise is not about something   sustainable okay so you talked about earlier  job interviews so if we I don’t know did you  

See Emily the criminal did you see the opening SC  okay so she’s in this job interview and and it it   it really sort of establishes who she is in that  moment and they they kind of show that they have  

This like file they they’ve done their research on  her and you talked about how see I’m not even sure   where I’m going now now I’m kind of stumped We’re  In It Together there are no bad outomes there you  

Go and I’m willing to to be okay with that but it  was a great scene in that you learn who she is in   that moment what you’re speaking of is something  called a character key and this is something else  

That I teach and talk about all the time when  you’re creating characters your first job is   to introduce the them to the audience in a way  that the audience will understand you want to   tell them two important things in a comedy those  two important things are how they will behave in  

All situations and how they will be funny in all  situations and a good character key will do all   of that so when we think about that opening moment  we’re getting everything we need to know in order   to predict the stories that will take place in  this world and also the character perspective  

That will give us value on a comic level where  writers go wrong is thinking they don’t need   that or they should delay it they try to introduce  the characters without introducing them let’s just  

Imagine a scene that starts I walk into the room  and I say hello to you and you say hello back and   I say how is your day and you say not so bad and I  say that’s good and then I go to the refrigerator  

For something to eat I have spent a lot of time  not defining myself but if I walk in and try to   open the refrigerator door on the wrong side and  say who changed the sides of the refrigerator door  

Or something funny I’m telling you I don’t know  what’s going on and I think I know what’s going   on and that’s going to drive me into mistake after  mistake and story after Story or or I I see you I  

Say hey how’s your day and you launch into you  know what’s wrong with the world and you have   a whole Manifesto of everything that’s wrong and  you’re up on your soap box and I was just about  

To check my email and I just wanted to be polite  you you did you did so many great things there   let’s deconstruct it you boiled the character  key down to two lines how is your day let me  

Tell you what’s wrong with the world that’s  so genius because how was your day creates an   expectation and the expectation is we’re going to  hear fine we’re going to hear polite stuff when I   tell you let me tell you what’s wrong with the  world I’m defeating expectation well you as the  

Creator are defeating the audience’s expectation  immediately you’re engaged then the words let me   tell you what’s wrong with the world perfect  character key perfect predictor of what will   happen next this is a guy who’s going to complain  about everything and be wrong and be in conflict  

With the world and be just hilariously misguided  for 150 episodes let’s go why is it important for   a comedy writer to get in the habit of making a  bad situation worse when we look at what happens  

On the level of a joke or a level of a comic  scene we’re we’re trying to figure out how to   build the story how to advance toward a Moment of  Truth toward an explosion of new understanding and  

The strategy that gets you from the beginning of  the story to the end of the story is making bad   situations worse over and over again this will  sound like an oddball example but you can look  

At Star Wars as an example of a story that’s built  on making a bad situation worse Luke is all alone   on the planet hanging out everything’s okay his  parents are killed he’s taken off his home planet  

He’s under threat he’s being attacked he’s life  is in danger finally he finds his way into the   Rebel Alliance and he discovers the force but he  doesn’t want to use the force he doesn’t know if  

He can in the Moment of Truth he tries not to use  the force and then he uses the force all of the   pressure that’s been put on him from the start of  the story to that moment brings him to the Moment  

Of Truth where he says I was wrong not to embrace  the force the force is the answer to everything he   Co through an explosive transformation from  denial to acceptance of the truth and that   explosive transformation from denial to acceptance  of the truth is the goal and destination of most  

Stories and virtually every comic story so how do  we get to that moment of explosive transformation   from denial to acceptance pressure pressure  pressure pressure more pressure bad situation   worse another example that comes to my mind is  The Wedding Singer do you know this movie Adam  

Sandler plays A Wedding Singer who needs to be  a songwriter if his girlfriend doesn’t break off   their engagement he never becomes a songwriter  cuz his situation isn’t bad but when she leaves   him he M it makes his bad situation worse then  when it gets fired it’s worse still then when he  

Falls in love with Julie Julia whatever her name  is it it’s worse and worse and worse until it   finally comes to the moment where he says I can  no longer go on denying my truth that I need to  

Transcend my fear and be the person I’m intended  to be a songwriter a Creator someone in control   of his Destiny if we don’t put him under pressure  if we don’t make his bad situation worse we never  

Get we never give him the reward that the audience  wants so that’s why you make a bad situation worse   and going back to our earlier discussion about  conflict this is how you tell yourself it’s okay   to make your character suffer it’s okay to put  them in conflict because you’re bringing them to  

A new understanding that they very much want and  can’t get there on their own similarly in Emily   the criminal she’s trying to to get a job and  actually go the right way and then circumstances   change and she’s given this opportunity for this  survey and and Things Fall Apart from there so  

Her situation becomes just dire because now she  has like a no way out she’s she’s not even if she   wants to get out she can she’s already sort of  built these walls that she’s trapped in sure and  

And then that’s sense especially in this day of  streaming entertainment we can really see make a   bad situation worse is the DNA of not just comic  storytelling but dramatic storytelling thinking   about I’m thinking about Ozark right now if he can  escape to the Ozark and get away clean that’s good  

For him but it’s not much of a story there’s  no story if we don’t make the bad situation   worse that’s why we make a bad situation worse  because it drives story it’s also funny I mean   right now I’m thinking about John C in a movie  called Clockwork where he’s trying to get from  

One place in England to another place against a  ticking clock and every attempt he makes to travel   or Planes Trains and Automobiles same thing every  attempt he makes to travel makes the bad situation   worse it’s not just that the plane won’t go home  it’s the train won’t and the car won’t and the  

Whole thing breaks down and it just gets funnier  and funnier how can we attack a char Char’s peace   to attack a character’s peace and thus make a bad  situation worse we simply ask ourselves what does   this character want and how can I keep them from  getting it because their peace will be achieved  

If they get what they want and any roadblocks  that we put between themselves and what they   want will attack their peace I’ll give you an  example this is the one I use all the time in  

Classrooms I’m a teacher in a classroom what do I  want I want to teach effectively I want people to   learn what I have to teach them I want to have  a good teaching experience it’s obvious now in  

Comic terms if we want to make that moment of  teaching funny we remember thing isn’t funny the   person is happening to so I’m not going to enjoy  what happens but if the fire alarm goes off or if  

Somebody comes in thinking it’s a different kind  of class or somebody’s on their phone or everybody   falls asleep or I start burping uncontrollably  or hiccuping uncontrollably my bad situation is   getting worse and worse I’m getting further away  from my peace because the thing that I want is  

Being blocked by new and successive roadblocks so  this all ties together when we speak of attacking   a character’s piece we simply think about what  does he want how can I keep him from getting it   and how can those roadblocks make him change so  that he finally can get what he wants let’s let’s  

Let’s follow the example let’s say I’m a teacher  in a classroom but I’m uptight like I’m very stiff   and what I need is to be loose I need to let go  can’t teach effectively until I let go everybody  

With me so far now I’m uptight and I don’t want  to let go and a fire alarm didn’t make me let go   and a guy on his cell phone didn’t make me let go  and the principal walking in and casting an eye  

At me didn’t make me let go but when that brass  band next door started playing I just lost lost   it and I lost it so magnificently and completely  that I had a cathartic experience and I realized  

Well I guess if you saw me do that you should  be okay with what I have to teach you next now   that I’m changed now that I’m not so afraid of not  teaching you now at last I can teach you you know  

Funny you’re you’re triggering a real life memory  in that at my school some high school students   were able to rig the PA system where they played  the Howard Stern Show and they played the Fartman   bit and one of the teachers supposedly just lost  it and he went and dis dismantled he just kind  

Of ripped it from the wall the speakers because  they couldn’t get it to stop and so you had I’m   sorry you it’s still funny after all these years  it’s still yeah many years and it’s very funny not  

Funny to him no it wasn’t but and it got around to  the whole school and so to that just envisioning   that and I guess he was sort of an uptight teacher  I I didn’t know him personally but just to know  

That he couldn’t prevent this like vulgar radio  show from coming through the airwaves just s i i   I have very little patience for people who are  overcommitted to propriety if you’re if if if   you’re committed to your rules if you’re married  to the rules I’m going to have a devilish desire  

To subvert you it’s just in my nature so yeah  probably was would have been the one to pipe   that Howard Stern Show into the classroom comedy  begins where tolerance ends why because when you   reach people to the point where they’re nervous  they start to store tension and the more tension  

They store the more explosively they will release  that tension in the form of a laugh when the laugh   comes basically they’re thinking how bad is this  going to get how far is he going to go how much  

Is this going to cost me this is bad and if the  punchline to the joke takes all of that tension   and relieves it with a defeat of expectation then  not only do do I get the defeat of expectation  

I get the release of tension we can examine this  space by looking at what is taboo and we can note   that in any group group Nation culture Community  neighborhood social group club sports team there   are things that are allowed and things that are  not allowed and the line will always be different  

From group to group jokes that are allowed in  same sex groups are different from jokes that   are allowed in mixed gender groups jokes that are  allowed to adults are different from ones that are   allowed to Children if you tell a joke that’s  right there on the edge of what’s allowed for  

Your group that’s when people will get nervous  that’s when they’ll start to get up tight and   that’s when you can milk that tension and store it  and then pop it like a balloon I do this exercise  

In a lot of cultures where I teach mostly because  I’m interested I like to ask the question what’s   taboo here what’s Taboo in modern Germany is it  still taboo to talk about World War II is it taboo  

To talk about religion is it taboo to talk about  politics is it talk taboo to talk about gender   I don’t know but once you tell me what’s taboo I  can tell you exactly where to find the joke which  

Is right where people start to get nervous right  now there’s a corollary expression comedy begins   where tolerance ends the corollary expression  is the trouble with too far is you never know   you’re going till you’ve gone this takes us back  to will to risk I have to if I’m going to explore  

The area of taboo I have to be willing to risk  going too far cuz I’m never going to land on the   right spot every time there’s a great example  of this that I talk about in the comic toolbox  

Robin Williams is doing stand-up comedy and he  tells a joke that the audience does not approve   of I don’t remember what it was but you could  just hear an audible gasp everybody like oh  

Robin you went too far and in the next moment he  said something that boiled down to I went too far   didn’t I he didn’t use those words exactly but it  was the understanding he acknowledged that he had  

Gone too far and everybody in the audience said  oh well he knows he went too far it’s okay he   bought back their loyalty so it’s possible to go  too far if you go too far you can always buy it  

Back just by saying oops I went too far where  you lose is where you go too far and you don’t   acknowledge it because then you create a wall  between yourself and the audience I I describe  

It as a rift in the fabric of space something just  happened and you’re not acknowledging it and the   audience knows you’re not acknowledging it and  they’re no longer your fan they’re suffering for   you cuz they see you suffering the minute you say  I made a mistake but it’s okay you’re no longer  

Suffering so they’re no longer suffering and they  can go back to enjoying you as you can see it’s a   complex puzzle but what’s exciting about it is  to apprehend it as a puzzle so that you’re not   just creating jokes in a vacuum you’re not just  trying to write something funny and hope they  

Laugh but you have an understanding of what works  for one audience is different from what works for   another audience and knowing how to manipulate  that space let’s imagine that have a gig this is   from the the the little book of standup let’s  imagine that I have a gig and I’m addressing  

People who make HUmvee oh no fans of Humvees you  know those big gas guzzling cars I’m no fan of   Humvees and I might say to myself this is not my  space but if I just think about it I can say to  

Myself what’s on their mind what do they care  about they got these big hulking hulking cars   probably hard to park I have trouble parking in  my car I can talk about that so now I can connect  

With the audience audience with something that  is of concern to them how do I park this Beast   without avoiding any of the potential conflict  areas that I might not want to get into on the   other hand I might take the approach you people  know you’re stupid right let’s just imagine this  

I’m telling a lie to Comic effect I’m definitely  going to land a laugh on that cuz people don’t   know me yet they don’t know that I mean it they  probably expect that I don’t mean it so they’re  

Willing to kind of take the first blow you people  know you’re stupid to drive these gas-guzzling   cars don’t you if I then turn around and reveal  my misunderstanding of what a Humvee driver is I  

Can win their loyalty I can poke fun at them I  can make us all part of a group experience and   then I can take them to the edge you know let’s  just imagine that you’re driving your Humvee only  

It’s not a Humvee it’s a limousine and it’s prom  night what’s going on in this limousine On Prom   Night o says the audience limousine On Prom  Night in my Humvee I’m intrigued tell me more  

And I might take you to a dangerous spot there  I can go to some dangerous places on prom night   but I’ve set you up to take that Journey with me  by building a bond of trust and a bond of common  

Understanding between you and me so when we say  that comedy begins where tolerance ends we can   also say you get to Define where tolerance ends  you can push them farther than they think they can   go simply by taking them there with you well it  seems like some groups there might be more taboos  

And some less I mean you talked about going to  concerts and sort of this counterculture sort of   experience I would imagine there’s probably  less taboos there absolutely the way I like   well well I mean of course they’re going to go  for the the drug humor won’t be taboo there’s  

A lot of behaviors that won’t be tab it’s like  late night television the rules on late night   television are different from the rules of daytime  tele television because the audience is different   here’s the way to think about it an audience is  a bell curve goes like this and at one end of the  

Bell curve are people who won’t get the joke  because they don’t know enough or they don’t   accept enough these are people who are intolerant  at the other end of the bell curve there are   people who won’t get the joke because they know it  already they’ve heard it before or it just doesn’t  

Bother them they over accept they’re too tolerant  our Target is always the big fat middle these are   people who have enough tolerance to understand  what we’re getting at and enough intolerance to   feel nervous so they’ll laugh the big fat middle  will shift if it’s a late night show the big fat  

Middle is over here more sophisticated if it’s  a children’s television show The Big Fat middle   is over here much safer if it’s Teletubbies it’s  way over there somewhere our job is as strategic   creators is to ask ourselves what’s the big fat  middle for this audience how can I play to it and  

Then how can I push it because if I both play  to it and push it it’ll be more satisfying ing   experience for the audience if I just play to  it they’ll say yeah okay that was fine that was  

Funny but it didn’t teach me anything if I push  it and get them to think about something in a way   that they’re unused to thinking about no matter  what their level of Tolerance is something will   push their buttons If I strategically push their  buttons then I reward them with comedy and with  

Insight and that’s where creativity starts to  play for higher Stakes I was reflecting on this earlier there was a time in my career in in  my early career when I reached a crossroad in   my writing and the question was am I going to  continue to write funny or I’m going to write  

Something different and I remember very clearly  thinking to myself knowing in my heart that I   wanted to play for higher Stakes I wanted to talk  about and think about the kind of things that   we’re talking about and thinking about now but I  look back and I say what how different would my  

Life be if I had made that different choice if  I had said first let’s completely Crush comedy   and then turn our attention to serious that is  an option that I didn’t realize I had at the  

Time I felt like I had to make a move and make  it now I might not have been wrong but there’s   always a sense of the road not taken and what I’m  reflecting on now is in that moment I felt that I  

Didn’t have any win bigger than making them laugh  I didn’t realize that I could make them laugh and   make them change at the same time I could bring  them to a new place so since learned you can do  

Both when you talked about push them the the bell  curve you’re it’s going to be constantly moving   when you say push the audience is that mean kind  of like taking them right up into the line of what  

May be inappropriate kind of like flirting with  it yes okay okay yeah and and how are you going to   find out how to flirt with that line effectively  trial and error which means you’re going to bomb  

So badly but every stand-up comic comic will tell  you if you haven’t bombed you’re not in your craft   you you you must die on stage over and over again  in order to understand what your business is about  

On stage cuz otherwise here’s my set the intention  for my set is to not fail if my intention is to   not fail I’m going to play it safe right I’m  never going to take a chance because I’m afraid  

Of failing which means that I never grab the  Brass Ring of making them change how they think   if my intention is to make them change how they  think amuse them to new enlighten amuse them to  

Enlightenment let’s say if that’s my goal I know  for sure it’s not going to work every time I’m   going to go too far not far enough there will be  failure and it will be spectacular but I can’t get  

The big win I want unless I risk the big failure  so I have to find some way to say it’s part of the   process people bomb all the time let’s go for  it I mean Andy Kaufman style on the Letterman  

Show type exactly everything Andy Kaufman ever did  was pushing the envelope in Extreme Ways and I can   certainly understand his motivation to do so this  is going to be such a great joke on the audience  

And I think where people have trouble with Andy  Kaufman myself in a way is that for all of his   body of work he never let the audience being on  the joke with him it was always at their expense  

And we talked earlier about having an image that  fits your nature I would never take that approach   because I don’t want to hurt those people I don’t  want to fool them at their own expense I want them  

To enjoy my reality with me not in opposition  to me but a thousand Comics Andrew Dice Clay Sam   Kinison the list of conflict confrontational  Comics is long and this tells us and this is   another super important Point comedy has a lot  of different powers but broadly speaking it has  

Two Powers the power to lift up and the power to  knock down and both of those powers are valid I   choose to lift up that’s where I live comically  but people who use comedy to attack are playing   a vital role in society they’re telling people  what’s wrong if your passionate to get people  

To think differently about that you’re going to  have to make them feel it and you might take some   chances that don’t pay off if they don’t want to  feel it if they’re resisting you have to overcome   their resistance so you’re using comedy to break  down in order to create something better this is  

This is what comedy does it reinforces social  norms and at the same time it destroys social   norms and it’s so weird that it does both  so I always tell people when you’re doing   standup comedy if you want to destroy destroy I’m  never going to tell you not to do that I’m not  

A destroyer I’m a builder uper and I always will  be I might try destroying to see how it feels but   that’s not where I live or or if somebody’s really  boxing with you you might take a couple but but  

If if we’re playing nice sure but if if well and  people put themselves in that situation you have   rap battles or roast battles where two Comics  stand toe to- toe insulting each other I would  

Fail so badly I I I wouldn’t I think I’d probably  have the the flexibility in the moment to come up   with the jokes but I’m not sure that I would have  the wherewithal to say them I think the taboos  

That exist in me would be too strong to take  me there effectively at least on the first try   sure but then when I hear myself say that I say  well make a note try that because how else you’re  

Going to grow let’s call it a black hole there’s  a black hole that says hey John Vorhaus you’re   afraid of being insult comic maybe you better try  it just so you can experience not being afraid of  

It well what if someone’s taking some real cutting  blows at you and and maybe they’re not trying to   be funny so you think all right I’m going to hit  him back with some humor but it’s going to have a  

Little bit of a sting to it I wouldn’t even do  that I’ll tell you why because first of all no   matter what they direct at me it’s probably not  going to make me feel bad because I’m self what  

What I’m self monitoring oh okay actualized I’m  I’m self-monitoring and I’m not I’m I’m not taking   in that information thinking at all about how does  it make me feel I’m not thinking about how other   people think about me I’m not worried about any  of that I’m just present in the moment that’s my  

Normal operating Behavior at this point so it’s  it’s going to be hard for me to be legitimately   angry in the moment and even if I am legitimately  angry and I want to strike back I’m probably going   to want to strike back in a way that builds  a bridge because all things considered I’d  

Rather have that friend that person as a friend  than an enemy as a as an ally than an enemy and   engaging him in conflict or her in Conflict won’t  necessarily get me to the goal that I want there’s  

A lot going on you you can be very sophisticated  about this stuff and it all starts with the   understanding that operating effectively with  other people in any realm starts with operating   effectively within the way that I put it is  you can read people’s minds you can know 90%  

Of everything everybody is thinking all the time  the trick is to read your own mind because most of   everything everybody thinks is the same stuff so  if you’re articulate in your own self dialogue if   you know yourself in concrete terms then you know  everybody else in the same way I think about this  

When I’m in the classroom what do I what what’s  on these people’s minds what are they afraid of   well if I were them I’d be afraid of being called  on I’d be afraid of being asked to tell a joke and  

Have it be not funny how do I know that how do I  know you feeling that way cuz I’d feel that way   and 90% of everything everybody thinks is the  same stuff all right with this awareness now I  

Can give you a gift I can relieve you of that fear  in a thousand different ways and all of them are   jokes I I I would say to you everybody here who’s  afraid to tell a joke raise your hand oh nobody  

Will raise their hand because they’re all afraid  to tell a joke okay everybody who’s not afraid to   tell a joke raise their hand and whoever raises  their hand I pick on some pick somebody else and   you can manipulate the situation effectively  to serve your goal go and other people’s goals  

Simply by having at the same time self-awareness  and other awareness again in the book of practice   I talk about something called a win-win situation  when you look at a situation and you say this is  

What this person wants and I can give it to them  and that’s what that person wants and I can give   it to her and if I give them both what they want  then I’m going to be seen as somebody who empowers  

Other people and that’s what I want so it’s a  win for him it’s a win for her it’s a win for me   that’s wins all around and I can have that anytime  I want simply by allowing myself to examine the  

Situation honestly and objectively that’s great so  you talk about jokes that build Bridges and then   jokes that burn them yes mhm interesting and and  you can absolutely do that and you see H you see  

Comics do it all the time can you think about  a comic you’ve seen who blew up on stage lost   it completely and started yelling at the audience  being angry at the audience for not meeting the  

Comics expectation I can that is a comic who is  trying to ease a psychic pain the pain the the   current flaming hurt of failure I’m bombing and I  know it and I’m so desperate not to feel bad that  

I’m going to attack those people there the attack  doesn’t really achieve that goal you kind of feel   better cuz you scratched the urge to rage but you  didn’t win any fans you came off kind of looking  

Ridiculous it might have been better off if you  just said well that didn’t work I’m going to give   my time back to the room and walk off stage I’ve  known people that have gone to comedy clubs and  

Been the subject of attacks yes and and left in  tears and they weren’t the comic they were the   they were you know it they were in the audience  well and and that’s a different kind of strategy   and that strategy is let’s bond together by  attacking a common enemy we’ll all make fun  

Of that guy we’ll brutalize that guy and we’ll  all laugh cuz it’s not us and then I the comic   and you the audience we’re together against that  common enemy Don Rickles is a classic example of  

That and again it’s somebody’s idea of a good time  and and I know people who love being attacked they   want to Heckle and get shot down mercilessly it  satisfies them little bit of reflected Glory a  

Little bit of participation a little bit of I  don’t know it it hurts so good kind of thing   endorphin stimulation like getting a tattoo or  eating hot sauce you know if I can make myself the  

Object of the comics attack and he really gives  it to me good it hurts but it kind of feels good   hey I was the object of everybody’s attention  that feels good yeah there’s a great clip with  

Kevin Smith at ComiCon I don’t remember what year  it was but somebody kind of challenged him one of   the fans in the audience and he’s good he takes  it and he he he he’s good and then then he flips  

It and he just gives it to the guy and the whole  place cheers and excellent that and that talented   practitioner is three steps ahead of his mouth in  his mind I do this all the time I’m not a I’m not  

A Kevin Smith but I know what it means to launch  a joke without really knowing what the punchline   is going to be but knowing that I’ll find it  by the time I need it yeah he’s really skilled  

Yes what is the comic filter comic filter is a  character’s way of viewing reality different from   what real really is a strong Comic character has  an identifiable and consistent comic filter strong   in the sense that it’s completely uncompromising  I think about everything this way examples abound  

Let’s let’s here’s here’s one I I teach from  he’s a cop she’s a crook together they’re law   and disorder his comic filter is Law and Order  he’s a cop he wants to do the right thing in all  

Situations he’s going to do the right thing her  comic filter is Break The Rules I’m going to do   the wrong thing I’m I’m a free spirit I’m an  Outlaw I’m a rebel I’m an anarchist the world  

Is good when the rules are broken so now you have  one character whose comic filter is obey the rules   and you have another character whose comic filter  is Break The Rules you put those two characters   together and give them strong comic filters  they’re going to fight forever over who gets  

To be right and this is the heart and soul of a  sitcom this is how you build two-hander sitcoms   what they call comic opposites in sitcom you take  a comic filter exaggerate it to the end and then  

Pit it against a similar an opposite comic filter  and have them go to war then if you’re looking for   stories you can just look at any situation and  ask how will this character filter this reality  

Through his or her comic filter the example that I  use now it’s a little outdated because it involves   stolen pirated DVDs which don’t exist anymore  but let’s just imagine that she brings home a   box of pirated DVDs but it’s DVDs that he really  wants to see like it’s the hot new movies what  

A nice moral dilemma for him because he knows  he’s breaking the rules if he watches the DVDs   but he’s drawn he wants to he has inner conflict  I want to follow the rules but I want to watch the  

DVD that’s the story and resolving that conflict  is the end of that story I don’t know how it’ll   end I have a feeling that he’s going to end up  watching those DVDs but somehow disavow them  

I wasn’t breaking the rules according to my own  terms so that I can still feel good about my comic   filter going forward right maybe she got them at  the swap meet and then he needs to watch them so  

He can make sure that the entire thing was pirated  and then he’s going to go back and and and report   to wherever wow I I I feel like you and I could  work effectively because you you have this knack  

For taking an idea and yes anding it to something  you’re you’re what if tool is working quite well   thank you and especially because oh yeah I I can  see that what he’s doing on a psychological level   is creating a rationalization now it might be  my job in our creative partnership to shine a  

Light on what’s Happening and then your job  to make it funny or the other way around or   maybe we change roles but that’s the way this  collaboration is working because I’m saying   it’s funny cuz he’s got these DVDs and he has  conflict and then you’re saying well based on  

That conflict he might try this strategy and then  I’m saying that strategy reflects this state of   mind this psychology rationalization and then I’m  going to say let’s make the bad situation worse   let’s make that strategy not work how can we how  can we block him from his piece of watching the  

Video and not feeling bad class ah well maybe  his supervisor calls him and so now he feels a   little bit torn because now sure her supervisor  or somebody says you can’t do that that that way  

Is not allowed right or maybe she says that’s a  cheap rationalization if I ever saw one you can   do it if you want to I won’t feel bad I want you  to watch the movie but he’ll say no no I can’t  

Give her the satisfaction I can’t let her win  this is something we find over and over again   when comic filters go to war with each other the  the the main motivation that every character has  

Is I can’t let them win I have to win that’s what  makes strong Comic characters going back to Kramer   if Kramer doesn’t win he’s not happy and because  he has this strong comic filter it kind of gives  

Him superpowers and he can use the superpowers  to win in situations where you and I couldn’t   win it we talk about comic filters but it’s also  useful to talk about superpowers comic superpowers   Powers because if a character has a strong comic  filter that character will do things that you and  

I can’t do that character has permission a great  example of this is Crossing against a red light   normal people will cross against a red light they  won’t they won’t do it they’ll wait for the light   to turn green two classes of people will cross  against the red light with consistency one whose  

Comic filter is I don’t know the rules and another  whose comic filter is the rules don’t apply to   me both of those characters will cross against  the light they will achieve a goal that normal   people can’t achieve because they filter reality  through their comic filter sure yeah I’ve seen  

A lot of that that’s a great because there are  certain people that are like these car Dodgers   and they just they feel it’s their just right  to be it doesn’t matter if it’s the cars are   stopped but they feel like this is my universe  as well and I’m going to saunter through and  

You’ll stop for me it’s the cliche it’s a of the  New Yorker I’m walking here who that that’s from   Dustin Hoffman and Midnight Cowboy I believe  he’s crossing the street in New York saying I’m   walking here I’m walking here how does a writer  build a comic filter I start by looking within  

And asking myself what comic filters do I have  we’ve already determined that I’m playful I’m   inquisitive I have curiosity I avoid conflict I  like to exercise let’s take that last one now I   know something that’s true about myself I like  to exercise now all I have to do is exaggerate  

It what is the most extreme example of someone who  likes to exercise someone who can’t stop running   no matter what believes that all sports are great  all sporting activities are valid and nothing else   in the world is worth doing now we have a strong  comic filter made Strong by exaggeration so how  

Do you make a comic how do you build a comic comic  filter take normal reality it and exaggerate until   it becomes comic reality it’s the same thing in  creating the comic premise the comic filter is   the comic premise of the character it’s the way  the character differs from real reality right now  

I’m thinking about the character in about no  up shitz creek the Eugene Levy character who   just thinks he’s going to go to this small town  and everything’s going to be completely fine   and cool and his comic reality is I can cope but  real reality against that and his comic reality  

Creates the comic premise City guy in the country  because he’s driven to prove himself in that new   environment I haven’t seen the show I want to  see it so it sounds like he still has his City   sensibilities about him other characters in the in  the character map have their City sensibilities as  

You would imagine but let’s just take a different  example let’s look at Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang   Theory his comic filter is I’m better than  everyone his superpower because he has that   comic filter is he can do things normal people  can’t do he can use his arrogance to achieve his  

Outcomes the reality that he lives in is Sheldon  Cooper world it’s not our reality we wouldn’t put   up with him but because his comic filter is so  strong it creates the comic premise that this   guy can fruitfully exist in this world hey when  last 5 minutes in the real world he’d be unhappy  

But in this world he can find happiness cuz he has  is superpower all of which requires that we look   at it from underneath with psychological tools  and from above it with awareness and from the   audien’s perspective and all these other different  angles people think that the the idea is developed  

And then it’s done a better way to think about it  is when you’re pursuing a creative outcome you’re   like a detective who is simultaneously creating  Clues and following them the more clues you   create the more effectively you can follow and the  more effectively you follow the more discoveries  

You make the more discoveries you make the more  clues you surface and the more clues you surface   the more you succeed in moving toward your goal  should someone know their own comic filter oh   yeah absolutely the first as the starting point  starting as a starting point what do I think is  

Funny and the way to think about it is this when  your friends say you’re funny what do they mean   this is I’m I’m now speaking to people who would  be in my comic toolbox Master Class they’re there  

Because they want to be more funny than they  are so they have some they’re interested in   comedy somewhere along the way somebody told them  they were funny about something otherwise they   wouldn’t be here or they thought they were funny  otherwise they wouldn’t be here so what brought  

Them here what sensibility do they have walking  into the room that needs to be discovered and   nurtured and expanded and exaggerated so that  it becomes a comic filter that’s a platform   upon which their work can stand I’ve had people  say I’m clumsy people know that I’m clumsy as an  

Example where are you funny I’m funny when I’m  clumsy okay in the real world you’re going to   try not to be clumsy cuz you could get hurt in  the comic world you can be as clumsy as you want  

Your comic premise is I can be clumsy and not get  hurt and now you’re off and running you can take   that anywhere you want you can build a platform  for standup comedy routine or you can endow that  

Attitude on a character in a sitcom or a comic  movie or play or comic novel it’s a building block   it’s not the end of the story but it’s a piece  of the puzzle hence Kramer you know hrer but he  

Always lands on his feet always lands on his feet  and and it’s built into the character so when we   think about comic filter we’re also thinking about  something right next door called controlling idea   the comic filter is this is how the character  will be funny because he’s always clumsy but  

The controlling idea is I’m not clumsy I’m I’m  elegant I’m what’s the word I’m looking for I’m I’m drawn a blank not not ambidex Siri give  me some synonyms for clumsy for Deft anyway you  

Get the idea his his controlling idea is I’m going  to prove to the world how cool and smooth I am his   comic filter is I’m clumsy and those two things  fight against each other in an interesting way and   that’s what makes the character interesting  when his comic filter is one thing and his  

Controlling idea fights against it you have  automatic inner conflict Jack Tripper thre   company yep what a great thank you I was trying  to think of an example Jack Tripper whose comic   filter is women love me right and who’s no who’s  who’s and his well I get this I guess I have this  

Wrong his comic filter is I’m no good with women  but his controlling idea is I’m great with women   does comedy have the same plot structure as drama  most of the time the the Arc of a comic story is  

This the hero goes through an arc of change from  denial to acceptance of the theme the thing he   has to fix and he is rewarded with Community I’m  thinking about the movie Liar Liar Jim Carrey is  

A pathological liar he needs to learn to tell  the truth so he under goes an arc of change   from denial to acceptance he goes from thinking  lying is good to telling the truth is good and   he’s rewarded with a good relationship with his  son so he’s rewarded with Community if you think  

About every movie you’ve ever seen with the word  wedding in the title The Arc is always the same   Heroes go from denial to acceptance of the thing  they need to change in order to win true love then   they’re rewarded with true love they’re rewarded  with entrance into community in its most profound  

Expression which is couplehood in the eyes of the  tribe that’s kind of how we value community at the   utmost the difference between between comedy and  tragedy specifically in comedy the hero learns   the lesson of the theme and is rewarded with  community in tragedy the hero never learns the  

Lesson of the theme and is punished with Exile  or death right now I’m thinking about God how   many times have I said right now I’m thinking  about when I watch this video back I will knock   myself in the head for having said right now I’m  thinking about so many times examples are great  

Though thank you let’s consider The Great Gatsby  Gatsby never learns that his path to glory is not   the one that he thinks it is and he’s devastated  in the end or king Lear king classic tragedy of  

King lar look lar you only have to do one thing  accept your daughter’s love if you do that all   will be well no I’m a dumbass I’m stubborn I  cannot accept her Love Therefore I must die in  

The wilderness blind in insane and alone that’s  what happens when you don’t learn the lesson so   what’s the difference between comedy and drama  well between the difference between comedy and   tragedy is clearly in comedy the hero learns  the lesson in tragedy the hero never learns the  

Lesson drama can kind of end up both ways you can  reach a space where the characters have achieved   understanding but still get a bad outcome  that’s problematic for audiences I’ll give   you a great example the movie Thelma and Louise  these characters need to undergo transformation  

One needs to have a authentic bond with another  human being that’s Thelma and one needs to set   herself free from her abusive relationship that’s  Louise I think I have it right if it’s not that   it’s exactly the other way around they go on a  journey together they achieve their outcome but  

The way they achieve the outcome in in achieving  the outcome they cross a line that Society will   not allow they kill they murder and so they have  to pay the ultimate price and at the end of the  

Movie in the original screenplay I’ve read it it  it looks like this they fly off the cliff sorry   spoiler alert they fly off the cliff and crash and  die the end when they tested that ending in front  

Of audiences the audiences hated it CU they  love Thelma and Louise they don’t want to see   Thelma and Louise die they want a happy ending  the story will not allow a happy ending so the   filmmaker very cleverly creates the expectation of  a happy ending or at least the suspension of the  

Bad ending when now see thelman Louise taking  off and freeze frame and we know yeah they’re   probably going to die but in this moment we can  imagine that they live in eternity and they got   their happy ending exact same ending as Butch  Cassidy and Sundance Kid where butcher Butch  

And Sundance by the way if you haven’t seen that  class go see that Butch and Sundance they have   their backs to the wall they must die and they  run out with guns blazing and they’re shot dead  

But it’s Freeze Frame so we never see them die  they live on in eternity that’s how how you bring   a character to a tragic but not unhappy ending  what are some of your pet peeves when it comes  

To plot I was watching a movie last night called  narvik it’s a no no no I got a better example I   recently read for the first time in my life  Treasure Island Robert Le Stevenson’s classic   tale of pirates and piracy I didn’t realize how  many of our pirate tropes come from that novel  

But the plot was very unsatisfying to me my pet  peeve was I was ahead of the narrator I knew what   was going to happen even though the narrator was  trying to fool me I could see several steps ahead  

So that’s a pet peeve for me when the narrative  is not sufficiently sophisticated that I don’t   know what’s happening when that I that I know  too easily what’s happening that there’s not an   interesting puzzle for me to solve interestingly I  decided I’m going to cut Robert Lewis Stevenson a  

Little slack because when he wrote those plot  twists they were brand new nobody had ever   contemplated a move like that in a novel before  so and and the 10-year-old boys who encounter it   they’ve never experienced it it’s spellbinding to  them it’s legitimate move we go back to the big  

Fat middle maybe I’m not the Right audience for  that book a pet peeve of mine in storytelling is   storytelling that’s clumsy unsophisticated makes  it too easy for me to problem solve I also am very   frustrated with moments where it seems like an  action is being taken either because the writer  

Is being lazy or the character is being stupid  I find those are places where I check out of a   story if I feel like I’m reading something I say  to the writer man you could have done better than  

That that’s just that’s a that’s only an okay  choice I expected better than you than that   of you or more profoundly if the writer gives  the character a choice that doesn’t make sense   according to my understanding of the character  I’m not having that I I will not tolerate

Um I I won’t root for a hero who doesn’t know  enough to act in his own self-interest there’s   a great example but I’m not sure if I can share  it because it has to do with Avatar 2 the way  

Of water there’s a moment in Avatar 2 the hero  has is has taken his family to safety they’re   safe as long as they don’t make any mistakes the  bad guys will never find them they’ve achieved   their mission trouble is if if they’ve achieved  their mission that’s where the movie ends it’s  

Not very interesting this is very early in the  movie relatively early character makes a mistake   character reaches out to allies in the outer  world and unintentionally tips off the bad guys   where he is he gives him he gives himself away  is is what happens and I say to myself I leave  

This movie right here cuz you just did something  so manifestly not in your self-interest either   you did it because you didn’t care or you did  it because you didn’t know and either way I no   longer like you I’ve checked out emotionally  I ran this by a friend of mine and he said you  

Are watching the wrong movie Avatar 2 the way of  water isn’t about strategic choices it’s about   pretty pictures and if you you’ll give yourself  a better movie goinging experience if you take   if you it where it lives so to speak and so I  realized once again I’m bringing my expectations  

To the story I’m losing enjoyment because I’m  letting my expectations interfere with the   moment if I just let go of my expectations and  let the movie be exactly what it is I’m going   to have a better time the real takeaway from  this is don’t have pet peeves don’t have them  

At all don’t have expectations and then you  won’t be disappointed meet the material where   it is recognize it’s not a good movie or a bad  movie it’s just the movie that it is there’s a   great one that people argue about all the time  it was the the U Disaster Artist James Franco’s  

Take on that guy I don’t even remember his name  but that guy made a movie that people couldn’t   stand the room the room that people couldn’t  stand but other people found surprising value   in it the ones who couldn’t stand it couldn’t  stand it because it didn’t match the Norms they  

Expected the ones who had value in it were the  ones who met it where it was well this is this   guy’s expression he’s got something to say he’s  gone to some effort to say it let’s Embrace what   he has to say rather than rejecting it because it  doesn’t fit our expectations nevertheless writers  

Keep your character smart because audiences will  leave they’re not as generous of spirit as you   would like them to believe be and they’ll  leave if they feel like the character is   doing things that they can’t get behind what  is a joke a joke in its simplest form is the  

Setup and defeat of an expectation you give the  audience the impression that you’re about to say   something and then you say something that they  didn’t think you were going to say and when they   experience the new information and gain a new  understanding that’s when they laugh I’ll put  

It in another way a joke is a puzzle you give to  the audience to solve and when you give them the   right information in the right way and they  solve the puzzle the solution of the puzzle  

Presents itself to them in a tight little package  that makes them laugh see if I can give you an   example there are many I’m not sure what what  is a good one we could go to a a a light bulb  

Choke how many producers does it take to change  a light bulb well does it have to be a light bulb funny if you know that producers are the  kind of people who will make arbitrary very bad  

Choices so the truth and pain of the moment is I’m  a writer I got to deal with producers they don’t   always know what they’re talking about that’s  the truth in pain the joke is presenting to the  

Audience how many producers does it take to change  a light bulb well does it have to change what does   that tell me about producers that I didn’t know  if I’ve done my job right and if the audience has  

Enough information to solve the puzzle of the joke  then they’ll laugh if I’m not sure that they have   enough information to solve the puzzle of the  joke I’ll give them extra information to make  

Sure I might say to them I went to pitch to this  one producer and he’s one of these guys you know   he just never knows what he wants so I told him a  joke I said how many producers did take change a  

Light bulb he says wait a minute does it have to  be a light bulb that will give the audience more   information packed in such a way that they will  arrive at an explosive solution to the puzzle in  

The form of a laugh that’s a joke interestingly  if you ask AI chat GPT to tell you a joke uh-huh   its definition of jokes is very narrow all the  jokes have the same structure why did the X do  

Why because a b or c and I’ve done some exploring  here and I got to tell you some of the jokes are   okay but they’re not new jokes here’s an example  why did the chicken cross the playground to get to  

The other slide not a bad joke for AI it’s kind of  a dad joke it’s also a well-known joke AI didn’t   invent it but AI will invent a joke that goes  like this why did the chicken cross the playground  

Because it wanted its feathers to get wet or  something completely nonsensical and then that’s   hugely amusing to me because I’m like what was the  thought process that brought this madness to life   I did a stand-up comedy thing reading AI jokes  and what was funny about it was not the AI jokes  

But the bewilderment of myself and the audience  over how did AI how could AI imagine that this   was funny well it’s an unsolved problem but give  it six months and that problem is going to be much  

Better solved yeah so that’s very true I think AI  understands what is a joke the way my six-year-old   great nephew understands what is a joke it’s  not the same and and also you said the joke  

Sort of a puzzle but then if you take it too far  then that puzzle doesn’t get Sol exactly if you   give the audience too much information there’s no  puzzle for them to solve and a lot of jokes don’t  

Work don’t land as they say for this specific  reason the example that I just gave you why did   the chicken cross the road to get to the other  slide if you’ve already heard it it’s not funny   you already have too much information there’s  no puzzle to solve but a lot of times people  

Who construct jokes construct them with too much  information and the joke doesn’t work because the   puzzle isn’t hard enough and I tell them this joke  work you just need to take out some information   subtract some information so it’s not so obvious  where you’re headed I’ll give you an example of  

A joke involving Dwight Eisenhower Richard  Nixon and a construction worker in the year 1955 when Dwight Eisenhower is President  construction worker is hit on the head and   goes into a coma and he wakes up some number of  years years later in 1968 when Richard Dixon is  

President as you might know but he looks out  the window he doesn’t know he’s been asleep   he looks out the window and he sees a flag flying  at half mast and somebody says he says why is the  

Flag flying at half mas and he says he’s told  oh President Eisenhower just died and the guy   says oh no that means Nixon is President see it’s  funny because he fell asleep when Nixon was vice   president president and woke up when Nixon was  president and didn’t know that that had happened  

And none of this is funny because you don’t have  enough cultural references from the 1960s and how   people felt about Richard Nixon to solve the  puzzle of the joke the way I want you to So In   This Moment here I am profoundly experiencing  failure modeling failure by giving you a joke  

I expect you don’t know enough to understand I  thought it was going to be that he woke up and he   saw a flashlight at the Watergate hotel and and  some but I’m taking it from the from the Forest  

Gump scene in in the movie but yes I don’t know  I wasn’t alive then but but I I didn’t some of it   did not land no but I I thought you were going to  there was something about a FL I was thought that  

We were going to Watergate some trust me if I had  wanted to make it funny I had have made it funny   so but I wanted to make it not funny I wanted to  show what a joke looks like when you don’t have  

Enough information to solve the puzzle of the joke  okay right and I and I don’t yeah so here let me   try another one okay sure I this is one I use by  example because sometimes the telling of the joke  

Will actually give the audience information that  it needs to solve the puzzle of the joke let me   tell you about my friend Dave and his big ego  okay yeah that sounds good yeah old Dave Dave  

And his big ego now you don’t know Dave so if I  tell you I said to Dave the other day hey Dave   you know what I call ego the little Dave inside  me and Dave turns to me and he says what do you  

Mean little now you know something about Dave that  you didn’t know before and that’s an example of a   joke that gives the audience the information they  need to solve the puzzle of the joke right there   in the punchline when they’re solving the joke  and those are the jokes that tend to work best  

And you talked about your friend with the long  hair that you walk dogs with and I didn’t know   him and and you said he he’s from Kentucky  yes I I have a friend who looks like a mad  

Scientist and he’s from Kentucky and so I think  that for a guy like him a story involving a mad   scientist in Kentucky would be a good story but  you don’t need to know anything about him except  

How he looks in order to see how that class of  jokes will work now let’s just imagine that his   his look is wild he got big hair it’s completely  out of control but he thinks he’s the brill cream  

Man he thinks he’s so sophisticated and smooth  doesn’t recognize his hair is out of control so   when he goes into a social situation and he says  hey what do you think of my hair and somebody says  

Your hair scares me to death he’d be surprised by  that it would confound his reality now if he went   into a social situation in 1972 his hair would  be heroic but then the problem might be that  

He’s not a hippie but everybody thinks he’s hippie  because he’s got a massive U head of hair and it   might only be that he’s poored and can’t afford  a haircut it might be that he sees himself as  

Not a hippie but he has to conform to everybody  around him so he’s wearing his hair long even   if he doesn’t feel like a long hair now again we  found an interesting character a long hair in the   60s and we’ve asked ourselves what’s interesting  about this guy what’s confounding about this guy  

What’ll give him trouble we’ve discovered an  interesting inner conflict he’s a long hair   who thinks he’s a short hair that’s something we  can work with that’s a platform we can stand on   so the joke is never about what’s happening on  the surface it’s always about what’s happening  

Inside the character and what if some of those  people that think he’s a cool hippie they saw   him come out of a meeting room for the young  capitalist Society they would turn against him   and then he would probably realize that he was  in the wrong Camp all along he probably fell in  

Love with someone who said to him I want to love  you but I can’t love your values and I can’t love   your values until your values change now this is  a character who had no need to change his values  

Until love got in a way and now has a passionate  need to change and also a passionate need not to   change and that’s what drives the whole story  because here’s a character who’s got to figure  

Out some way to be true to himself and meet the  expectations of the person he loves that’s a big   challenge a great example can be found in the  movie Tootsie where Dustin Hoffman is a man  

Playing a woman and at the end reveals himself to  be reveals himself to be a man playing a woman and   in that moment in his Moment of Truth he says to  the character I’m not the person that you thought  

I was but I have become the person you need me  to be and that’s the moment of truth and that’s   when he wins if I’m a young writer now today I’m  leaning heavily on tools and templates you know  

What else I’m doing circling back to AI I’m using  AI to generate outlines I’m using AI to generate   beat sheets I’m using AI to check whether my story  structure is sound and I’m not threatened by this  

I’m not afraid that AI is going to put me out of  work or maybe I am but at least I recognize that   AI is definably three things a tool a partner  a competitor it’s not always all those things  

But we can count on it being one or another of  those things pretty much all the time and it’s   not totally accurate yet from it’s still in its  infancy it’s not it’s going interesting places  

It sure is it has it has solved a big problem  in my art because all of my work is digital I   don’t draw by hand and so the question is always  in my mind where does the base image come from  

And I’m very I’m I’m careful about what I take I’m  careful about how I create my images I don’t want   to borrow pieces that look like borrowed pieces  but I can say to the AI give me a a collection of  

Stick figures in blue and green and it’ll create  an image that I’ve never seen before and never   imagined I might not want that image but I might  see it as the start of something interesting and   then it’s where my piece begins it it’s not stolen  from anybody because it was generated According to  

Some words that I made up so the Genesis of the  idea is the words I made up the the words I put   into the search prompt what comes out of that  if it’s true AI is something that we’ll never  

Have existed in any form before not just a scraped  image the problem with AI right now is that it’s   borrowing too liberally from what’s out there and  passing it off as original content that’s not what   it is and that’s copyright violation that’s a  lot of problems but true AI will respond to a  

Sophisticated set of Search terms tell me a story  about an astronaut stranded on the moon whose wife   is running the mission from mission control on  Houston and AI will give me story beats that are   very conventional according to its understanding  of what it means to be stranded and what it means  

To be separated from spouse but it’s going to give  me a pretty solid platform for a story that I just   thought up in the moment that’s an example of  using it as a partner and a tool on the other  

Hand and if my producer can get the script  without bothering to engage me because AI is   doing that good a job then it’s a competitor this  is me in my tranquility and my objectivity saying   hey everybody is not a good thing not bad thing  it’s just a thing that’s happening and if you  

Want to have a good relationship with AI whatever  it becomes or anything you can think of for that   matter don’t apprehend it as a threat don’t  apprehend it as an opportunity just apprehend   it as exactly what it is experience it without  laying your own judgments on top of it interesting  

Nan technology was thought of in the same way it  was something to be feared and something to be   embraced the Y2K bug we thought it was going to  end everything people took precautions they got  

Ahead of it some of it worked some of it didn’t  I think AI will be as much of a GameChanger as   the internet was the the thing that I read that  scares me the most is we are currently capable of   building with AI we’re capable building Network  platforms Global Network platforms like Google  

Yahoo any Global platform you can think of that  are so complex and sophisticated that we can’t   control them only AI can control them yeah it’s  not a good thing it’s not a bad thing it’s just   something that’s coming let’s find out sure  or the bad actor that created it well and Bad  

Actors have used the internet and and my career  has prospered because of the internet so right   so the good and the bad the ying and the Yang  it has no it has no intrinsic value in and of  

Itself it’s only how we use it and we can say  that that’s true for writing comedy as well as   I mentioned earlier comedy can lift up or it can  break break down it’s up to you to decide how you  

Want to use it be lift her uper or knock her down  or even choice is fine it’s a choice you get to   make all of creative Enterprise is making choices  anything you can think of writing a joke telling  

A story painting a picture writing a song dancing  a dance it’s all Choice everything boils down to   I choose to make it blue instead of green or red  instead of yellow or use the word what instead   of why and when you understand that creativity  is just making choices and you understand that  

Those choices can be changed later and that your  job as a Creator is just to make as many choices   as you can as thoughtfully and effectively as  you can then you’re free then you’re not afraid  

Of bad outcomes because you know my job is just  to make choices not even good choices not even   right choices just choices so that’s where  I live I live in Choice what is on the- nose   Dialogue on the nose dialogue is dialogue that’s  too direct and straightforward it doesn’t give  

The audience anything interesting to think about  often we can find on the no’s dialogue where the   character is saying exactly what he means with  no space in between the text what he’s saying  

And the subtext what he means if I’m in love with  you and I say I’m in love with you that dialogue   is directly on the nose I’m telling you exactly  what I mean and for the audience watching unless   it’s a very special moment that’s probably not a  very interesting moment because nothing nothing  

Is being challenged everything’s a little bit too  easy if I say to you would you like to have a cup   of coffee with me and everybody understands I’m  really saying I love you then I’ve taken dialogue  

That’s on the nose and moved it off the nose I’ve  given an inference or a suggestion of what I mean   without stating what I mean directly as a point of  Interest I can tell you two different ways to say  

This phrase in other languages oh please yes in  Spanish it’s deasio too obvious they don’t have a   metaphor for it but in Russian it is the beautiful  schlish vlob schlish vlob that means too much forehead which is their way of saying on the  nose and often the difference between okay  

Writing and great writing can be found in the  distance between what is being said and what   is being felt so dialogue that’s on the nose  is generally not satisfying because it doesn’t   give the audience anything to work with or think  about the subtext of would you like to have a cup  

Of coffee then we could subvert the audience’s  Expectations by I meet you for coffee and it   turns out you’re presenting me with some kind  of multi-level marketing thing that you want  

Me to be a part of and I thought you were going to  propose there you go so I got all excited told all   my girlfriends I think he’s the one because I I  read misread his subtext right clearly he’s asking  

Me for coffee that means he’s he wants to marry  me right how do you get that sister because I’m   not sure you’re interpreting reality correctly you  might be filtering more through hope than reality   which makes it interesting for the character I  want this guy I want this guy to propose to me  

But he won’t do it and I want him to propose to  me so badly that I’ll invent circumstances where   he will suddenly I am thinking about a movie  called The Proposal Chaser which is the story  

Of a young woman who wants her boyfriend to commit  to propose and thinks up all of these outlandish   situations where she kind of tries to Corner him  into proposing and he doesn’t do it and he won’t  

Do it and finally she’s at the point of saying  I can never make this relationship work I was   wrong to think that I could I have to let go of my  expectation that he’s going to give me what I want  

And just accept him as I am as he is and that’s  the moment where everything changes and opens the   door to the Happy Ending what if a writer gets a  note that all of their characters sound the same  

If all of my characters are sounding the same to  the reader it must be that I haven’t delved into   them enough to make them sound different I can  assume that it’s a problem that they all sound  

The same if it if it’s not a problem that’s great  if they say all of your characters sound the same   and we love it like great problem solved let’s  pay me and I’ll go on to my next project but if  

They’re saying the problem with the script is that  the characters all sound the same same then I have   a problem my first problem in the moment is ouch  my feelings you just told me something bad about  

My work and I feel bad now that’s me processing  information through ego I’m asking how does this   information make me feel that’s not going to  get the problem solved that’s just going to   make me feel bad they hate me they think I can’t  write multi-dimensional characters or different  

Characters this sucks I suck it’s the end of  the world so in the moment when they’re giving   me these notes I’m making a different Choice  I’m not filtering through go I’m filtering   through the work I’m asking what information are  they giving me and how can I use the information  

They’re giving me to improve the work now we  can pass through the notion that I don’t think   they’re right I don’t think the characters sound  the same I think they all sound different but if   it’s a situation where they’re giving me notes  and I have to work from those notes then I’m going  

To say to myself if they’re right how are they  right what is their problem well it looks like   these two characters I don’t think they sound the  same cuz their comic tones are quite different oh  

But I do see that they agree with each other on  what’s a great TV show they both love this one   show and there’s no story purpose for it it’s  just a fact they’re too similar in that sense  

They love the same things okay I can start to  solve the problem by rethinking the characters   and saying they don’t love the same thing they  hate they love different things so they each   hate what the other loves I made a different  choice now I’m in a space where I can start to  

Give the character different comic filters more  exaggerated comic filters and separate them move   them off in different directions there’s a good  example of characters who are very close to one   another who you would think would sound the  same and you kind of wonder how they ended up  

Not sounding the same it’s Joey and Phoebe from  friends because Joey’s comic filter is Teflon   brain nothing sticks to his brain he’s pretty dumb  pretty but dumb no just pretty dumb Phoebe’s comic   filter is naive innocence she’s not dumb she’s not  unsmart she’s not unsophisticated she’s just naive  

And in fact she’s naive as a defense mechanism  which is an interesting thing about the character   just like Joey is dumb as a defense mechanism to  protect him against the allegation that he’s dumb   weirdly enough so we have two characters who are  very similar in tone they would both respond to  

Things generally in a sense of I don’t understand  what I’m looking at but they would respond to it   for two very different reasons Joey because he  doesn’t have the cultural information to solve   the problem that he’s looking at and Phoebe  because she won’t allow herself to think about  

Things in a sophisticated self-aware way she she  will adhere to herself self-image for the sake   of self- protection that’s another interesting  thing about Comic characters they will always   serve their self-image above their self-interest  it’s a really interesting thing characters will  

Do things that are bad for them if they think  it’ll make them feel good how important is it for   characters in a comedy to tell jokes that seems  like a loaded question but the answer is is really   it’s not important characters generally should not  be telling jokes unless it’s in their character to  

Tell jokes and a lot of beginning writers kind of  make this mistake they’re writing a sitcom they   have a joke they love and they kind of force it  into a character’s mouth do really belong in the  

Character’s mouth but they know it’s a Surefire  joke and they think it’s the job of the page to   be funny and they think that the presence of the  joke will be funny but that’s not the character   being funny that’s the writer telling a joke if  it’s built into the character’s nature to tell  

Jokes then you can tell jokes all day we were  just talking about friends and we can think   about Chandler and friends in the first episode  he says I use comedy as a defense mechanism I   protect myself by telling jokes he’s not hiding  it he tells us right there in the first episode  

That that’s who he is so when that character makes  a joke it’s never for the sake of the joke it’s   never for the sake of making the audience laugh  it’s for the sake of making the AUD character feel  

Good about himself so when I as the writer put a  joke into the script for the sake of making the   audience laugh and basically ignoring what the  characters are and what their needs are if it’s  

Not appropriate for them to tell jokes and I throw  jokes in there the audience is going to say why is   that happening I don’t understand what’s going on  but if I want to tell jokes I will build telling  

Jokes into the nature of the character I wrote  a spec episode we know that Quantum Leap is back   my career goes back so far that I wrote a spec  episode of Quantum Leap oh back in the day and I  

Built it around the story of the character leaping  into a standup comic why cuz I knew I had some   quality in telling jokes and I knew I’d have to  write some standup comedy material sooner or later  

In that script and so it was a way of playing to  my strength I created a character and I created a   situation that would let me tell jokes organically  cuz telling jokes was something I was good at  

I hear myself saying that cuz telling jokes is  something I was good at and I realized that sounds   so not funny I was like I don’t know where you got  so analytical John Voraus but I can’t imagine back  

In the day that you were much different than you  are now so were you really that funny do you think   we actually think we’re funny like it isn’t it  more reaction from other people because sometimes   you talked about naive with Phoebe and you know  sometimes when you see someone that’s like that  

In real life they don’t realize that they’re  so funny that’s what’s funny about it that’s   true AI doesn’t know how funny it is doesn’t  doesn’t realize well that’s backward actually   it’s not funny but sure people are like that and  people will say oh you’re so funny now let’s just  

Let’s just imagine that you said those words to me  when I was 25 years old oh you’re so funny I would   have had a couple of problems with it one is I’d  have trouble fitting it into my Paradigm because  

I don’t think of myself as funny I mean I do  think of myself as funny but not just funny so I   might feel like I’m I’m achieving a low Target but  that’s not my big problem my big problem is I have  

To fit your approval into my mindset you just told  me I’m funny and now you’re demanding that I feel   how I feel about what you just told me because I’m  creative and I’m insecure and I’m 25 I have a lot  

Of trouble owning your validation I have a lot  of trouble feeling good about the approval you   just gave me I carry in my mind a construct that  says I’m not worthy and because I’m not worthy I   have trouble accepting praise and also because I’m  not worthy I have trouble operating effectively in  

Creative spaces for myself as a practitioner I had  a very clear moment of Revelation where I learned   the difference between fearing I’m not worthy  and knowing I’m not worthy and in that moment   my life changed I’ll tell you about it it’s short  story I was struggling with my Hollywood career  

But I was teaching effectively and because I  was teaching effectively I got invited to to   go to Australia with some very Heavy Hitters from  Hollywood who would provide the Glamour and then   I would provide the content and at the first break  three young women came up to me young adult women  

And I remember them clearly because they had great  Australian empowering names for girls their names   were respectively Saturday Sheridan and rebel I  like wow you guys are doing your kids some favors   here giving them staunch names like that but this  is what they said to me I I remember clear as day  

I was standing on the left side of the auditorium  on the steps after the presentation they said   these words they said of all the presenters here  today we like you best and I heard myself say the   words I’m not worthy and I understood that to  mean what they’re telling me is they appreciate  

My gifts and what I’m realizing In This Moment  is those are gifts they were given to me all this   time I’ve been walking around the world saying  what if they find out I’m a fraud what if they  

Find out I’m not worthy this is fearing I’m not  worthy in that moment I understood of course I’m   not worthy I’m playing with a house’s money I’ve  been playing with a house’s money since this game  

Began from the moment I was born I was standing on  a a mountain of gifts The Gift of Life the gift of   this brain which is a good brain and the body  you know can’t shoot a basketball can’t hit a  

Hockey puck but I can tell a joke and I can think  things through that’s a gift that’s I developed it   I worked with it I made it more but in that moment  I understood I spent all my time wearing on I’m  

Not worthy they’re going to find out I’m a fraud  and I’m never going to feel good about myself the   minute I accept that I’m not worthy that I’m  standing on a platform of endowed gifts I got  

Nothing to lose I’m already winning I’m winning  in a way that transcends what you might say to   me that’s positive or negative and that’s really  when my my best life began and I’m sorry you were  

How old at this point I will have been just shy  of 40 ah not that young interestingly how did I   get it was 93 or ’94 and I was born in 55 so yeah  just just Shia 40 how did I get that deep into the  

Game before catching on I think I spent a lot of  time distracting myself with outcomes that allowed   me to advance but didn’t allow me to explore I  spent 5 years as a singer songwriter singing and   playing guitar like Bob Dylan until I realized  there were two things I couldn’t do particular  

Well sing and play guitar I came to Hollywood  and spent 5 years doing situation comedy with   some degree of success but not connecting with  the the environment the ecosystem that I wanted   to be in not at home in that environment and not  not willing to admit it once I discovered that I  

Could teach meaningfully and inspirationally  then I I a lot of doors started to open CU I   was no longer rejecting that part of me that was  my best part I I had some problems with it as  

You might expect because there’s this old cliche  those who can’t do teach and I was afraid at the   age of 35 30 35 I was afraid if I turn my back on  writing and just become a teacher then I’m going  

To be one of those those who can’t do teach guys  and though I’d already been teaching for 15 years   in one form or another teaching adults I taught  songwriting when I was learning songwriting so I   figured who better qualified to teach it than  someone learning how to do it same thing when  

I came to Hollywood I taught a class on breaking  into Hollywood cuz I’m doing it let’s give it a   try I was a teacher all along but I didn’t accept  myself as a teacher I thought it was only valid as  

A practitioner and then I had a student liberate  me from that in in about the same time student   said well how about those who can do do both and  I said that’s my path cuz I know me I’m not happy  

When I’m not writing but I’m also not happy when  I’m not teaching so if I can spend half my time   writing that’ll help my teaching and if I can  spend half my time teaching that’ll definitely  

Help my writing and I can move back and forth  between these two worlds that’s my place if I   can accept that that’s my place by letting go of  earlier expectations then I can start to operate  

Effectively I was afraid that I would stop writing  so I made sure I didn’t stop writing and two dozen   books and countless teleplays and screenplays  later I can say without fear of contradiction   I never stopped writing I paused from time to  time but the fire never went out and I never  

Really needed to worry that it went would go  out I just hadn’t found the most effective   version of myself the most effective version  of myself is certainly he who can do teaches   he who can teach does wow fascinating so it was a  student that posed that that’s wonderful and this  

Is why we teach because when we teach we learn I  mean over and over again I so much of what I’ve   shared with you today comes out of experiences  that I’ve had in other classrooms elsewhere and  

I’ve cited them as such I told you about the time  that I modeled failure by accident and got such   a big reward part of what makes me effective is  stockpiling discoveries my my Keen attention to   my own process gives me better Effectiveness in  subsequent situations as as that example if you  

Accept people’s praise then you only have to  feel good you don’t have to feel bad if you   can’t accept their praise because you don’t think  you’re worthy of of your pray their praise you’re   just going to spend some time feeling bad and who  needs that okay I learned that in that moment so  

Later in other places where people have wanted  to Guru eyes me and they have they’ve wanted   to treat me as a guru and I can live with that  because I understand there’s two kinds of gurus  

There’s the high Guru who is above the people and  there’s the low Guru who basically drinks and so   I’m kind of a low Guru I’m with the people we’re  all there together I’m practitioner just like  

You so if somebody wants to say I value you for  what you know now I’m in a place of real healthy   Tranquility where I can say I appreciate the value  that you’re giving me because I’m not dependent on  

It see the thing for me in Hollywood was and even  really up to this moment of Revelation I only felt   good about myself when outer reality told me I was  doing well when I was validating validating myself   through the Val validation of others the hard  lesson that Hollywood taught me was Hollywood  

Will extend validation to you and then take it  away arbitrarily suddenly and for no particular   reason other than they’re no longer interested in  you so a lot of what I struggled with in that time   was I’m not getting the validation that I need  from Outer reality and I don’t know how to get  

It from within once I learned how to get it from  within all of those problems stopped how did I get   it from within just by recognizing that I stand on  a platform of gifts and my only job is to exploit  

My gifts if I do that everything’s going to fall  into place questions of am I am I good or bad am   I achieving or not achieving am I high am I low  none of that matters my only job is to be in my  

Practice to make creative choices and and and  Achieve creative outcomes because that’s what   I’m intended to do with my gifts now let’s dwell  on that for a second because this is somebody who   understands that his gifts include creating and  teaching but he also understands that they don’t  

Include neg negotiating they don’t include combat  they don’t include excellence in sports they don’t   include getting things from high shelves so it’s  not just a matter of saying wow I’m so high and   mighty I have all these gifts it’s rather a  matter of saying this is who I am and all of  

The qualities that I have I can be in acceptance  of not because I can accept good qualities and   bad qualities alike but because I can see past  the value judgment of good and bad I can accept   everything about myself like everything else as  I’ve said before it’s not a good thing it’s not  

A bad thing it’s just a thing that is and if I  have limitations I use tools if I can’t reach   a high shelf I use a stool if I can’t draw a  sunset I use AI why wouldn’t I what are some  

Of the worst day jobs you’ve had oh man let me  start by telling you one of one of my best day   jobs just because of such a good life hack when  I first came to Hollywood I took a job as a temp  

Typist so I know how to type they they brought  me into a on a some office somewhere and this   is in the early days of computers and they said  do you know how to use Word Perfect now up until  

That moment in my life I had never heard the words  word perfect but these are the words that came out   of my mouth it’s been a while give me the manual  and I’ll refresh my memory and I realized that  

That that strategy is one I use a lot I if I don’t  know how to do something I will fake that I know   how to do it shamelessly happily because I usually  can pull it off I have confidence I’m not faking  

Brain surgery I’m faking you know we’re perfect  it’s not the end of the world I did teach archery   and sailing and I didn’t know how to do either of  those things so that was problematic but nobody  

Got hurt in the end the the first worst job I had  was as an advertising copywriter my first job out   of college I got a job that was a big challenge  for me because there was no creativity in it and I  

Wanted there to be I was a copywriter I’m supposed  to do what the client wants and if the client   wants the headline to be spring sale that’s what  the headline needs to be you know not spring into  

Sale or whatever else I think is funny I had a  couple of jobs I got fired out of that job because   they knew I wasn’t right for it and I didn’t know  I wasn’t right for it so they did me a favor by  

Firing me my next job was also in advertising and  that was bad in a different way cuz they loved me   and they offered me the moon they said you can be  a creative director here in no time at all you can  

Be a star and and I realized I was 25 and I said  if I if I go down this road I’m going to wake up   when I’m 40 feeling like I made the world safe  for advertising and that is not the destiny I  

Want so I quit that job and I quit it to become  a creative entrepreneur so really from the age   of 25 I haven’t had much of what you would call  day jobs I’ve had a succession of hustles staff  

Assignments you know script assignments whatnot  I spent a cup of coffee on staff at Charles in   Charge and that was a bad job for me because I  was too insecure I hadn’t yet figured out how to  

Manage my insecurity I suffered a lot on that job  I suffered cuz I wasn’t getting validation and I   wasn’t getting approval and they didn’t bring me  back and and they were right not to do so so I  

Find that the jobs that that I have considered to  be bad jobs are ones where it hasn’t been a good   fit between what I can do and what is required  of me but I scooped ice cream in high school I  

Sold stereo in college that wasn’t a bad job I’ve  taught a lot but I love to teach so that’s not   really a bad job I thought I had a bad job when I  started doing doing educational Consulting cuz I  

Thought I was moving away from my path I thought  okay clearly I got to go after this cuz it’s sick   billable hours the the the clientele that I have  is an educational consultant these are people who   are trying to get into top Business Schools and  they’re paying top dollar for my service happens  

That I didn’t realize I had a lot to offer them  also didn’t realize I was going to learn so much   about how to be a standup comic by teaching them  how to be a good interviewer and then I was going  

To turn around and help them interview better by  what I learned from from standup comedy I am I’m   a polymath I go off in all different directions I  have never had a day job that stunted me for long  

Because either I figured out or they figured out  that I was in the wrong place I often fantasized   about what I called the vacation of 9 to5 kneejerk  mentation I wanted a job that I didn’t have to  

Think about I could just put in my time and do  my thing it it was not to be because there’s   something in my nature that says I’m really  only comfortable in groups that I’m leading  

And now that I know that about myself I stay out  of situations that that are not right for me also   I figured out early on if you’re an employee you  can be fired or laid off your destiny is not your  

Own and it was clear to me that I wanted that so  I think I come at your question from a different   point of view than most people in this audience  you have your day jobs and you know that there’s  

A relationship kind of an adversarial relationship  between what you’re doing for money and what you   want to do for love and we can describe this  as the difference between hard work and hustle   hard work is what you do at the job it’s hard  it’s work you do it hustle is what you invest  

In your own self and your own own goals and my  sense of it is that if you can apply the same   professionalism and showing up on time and doing  your job that is required of most day jobs to your  

Creative aspiration if you can be as diligent in  your side hustle if you as diligent in your art   as you are diligent in your paycheck then you can  Thrive creatively but let’s not make a mistake at  

The end of the day you might have to take a step  off a cliff you might have to be like the fool in   the Tarot deck who stands on the precipitous on a  cliff with one foot off into space he’s holding a  

Flower in one hand that represents Beauty he’s  looking off into the sky where there’s a a sun   and and an infinity symbol and his understanding  is if I take this step forward into the void I’m  

Not going to fall I’m going to fly and that’s  what he does so if I can speak from my heart to   your heart there in the audience I would say this  you stand on the edge of a cliff and you want to  

Step off step off you’ll never fall you’ll fly  what are your thoughts on balancing life between   having a day job and being an artist I addressed  this question early on when I was teaching the  

Class how to break into Hollywood it occurred to  me that I needed to divide my time into thirds one   third of my time needed to go to put money in my  pocket body keeping a body working one third of  

My time had to go to my mind that was my creative  aspiration my work the work that I wanted to do   and one third of my time needed to go to my spirit  and that would be Recreation friends relationships  

Love Sports Athletics Ultimate Frisbee that’s  where my passion lies and so I was just very   practical about it I said I’m going to I’m going  to look for work but I’m not going to let it take  

Up too much of my time and then I’m going to be  diligent in my practice I’m going to make time   for my work and then I’m going to be generous in  my Recreation because I know that my Recreation  

Is a valid required part of this when you get down  under the hood of this question you see that there   is a hidden conspiracy at work it’s the conspiracy  between Inner Fear and outer reality let me tell  

You what I mean if my work and creativity are not  balanced in the sense that my work is dominating   and my creativity is suffocating I’m likely  carrying this attitude with me home from work  

Every day I just worked all day i’ I have engaged  my brain I earned some money I have been working   I am excused from not working now I’m tired from  working so I’m just going to veg out on the couch  

This is what’s happening on the text level but on  the subtext level it’s a little bit more devious   because there’s part of me that never wants to  do the creativity The Fear Part fear is always   present in the creative process and when you are  early or young in your process fear dominates and  

Fear is sneaky fear tells you you worked hard all  day you can afford to goof off because fear is   actually instructing you not to engage with the  work cuz fear doesn’t want to be afraid so fear   will say fear will make excuses you’ve worked  plenty you don’t have to work anymore your  

Mother wants to see you go see your mother your  friends want you oh that movie sounds so great   but all you’re really doing is making excuses  for not engaging with your practice people face   practical circumstances they might need to give 40  hours a week to their job in which case they need  

To say to themselves my creativity exists in the  corners of my time I know that that now my job is   to expand the corners find Corners use the corners  recognize that fear might keep me from going there  

And just try to go there anyhow and then I’ll use  tricks I remember using this one a lot when I was   trying to get my writing going and struggling like  you do I said to myself I’m going to wait to write  

Until 15 minutes before I know I have to leave  to go somewhere and that way when I sit down to   write I know it’s only going to be for 15 minutes  so it doesn’t scare me cuz how much damage can I  

Do to myself how much negativity can I generate  negative self-image can I generate in only 15   minutes of bad writing and that 15 minutes turned  into 20 turned into 25 turned into 30 that’s how   I put more time and effort into my practice as  I worked for more sophisticated ways to cut down  

On the time I wasn’t spending in practice I will  tell you that the secret to this share the secret   if you’re selling your time and only your time  you can’t really get ahead because you’re selling   something that doesn’t have added value you’re  selling something that everybody has and you’re  

Competing against other people who have the same  thing to sell like you can go and stand in a shoe   store for eight hours a day oh I had I sold shoes  for a while that was a bad job it’s a college job  

Summer camp counselor that was another bad job now  that I remember I figured out that if I could sell   added value I could sell my time at a much higher  rate I’m not working for minimum wage competing  

Against other people who are working for minimum  wage I’m doing something they can’t do so I can   charge more for it and boy was I strategic about  this I I’ll give you the the inciting incident   and then some manifestation I had quit my job  as an advertising copywriter and I was being a  

Singer songwriter and I was hustling for gigs  any kind of gig it didn’t have to be a singer   songwriter just whatever I needed to put money  in my pocket saw an ad in the newspaper remember   newspapers kids saw an ad in the newspaper  wanted Santa Claus on stilts this was a Friday

Afternoon say to myself Santa Claus on I called  the guy up I said I heard you’re looking for Santa   Claus on stilts he said do you walk on stilts I  said when do you need me to start he said Monday  

I said I’ll be there I never said I walked on  stilts I said to myself I got the weekend to   learn that’s plenty of time how hard can it be  but it paid $30 an hour in 1982 chunk of change  

When I came out to Hollywood in ‘ 85 I brought  with me the experience of booking myself into   fairs and festivals not just singing and playing  guitar but painting faces strolling villus act all   kinds of I did the strolling Punk folk troubadour  where I dressed half in Punk and half in folk and  

Made up songs on the spot whatever when I came to  California looking to be a writer and knowing that   I couldn’t give away my time cheaply I started  calling Rolodex calling every shopping mall in   Southern California and building relationships  with marketing directors and selling myself into  

Shopping malls as a strolling Entertainer a mime  or ventriloquist a juggler special for holidays   you know Cupid for Valentine’s Day oh oh Bob the  leopard no that’s a Al no that’s it I well now   I’m Bob the leprechaun don’t you know here on St  Patrick’s Day to entertain you I could earn $100  

An hour doing that and my wife’s working as a  mom and she can earn $100 an hour on the same   gig so we’re pulling $600 out of 3 hours worth  of work in 1985 we didn’t need full-time jobs we  

Found a way to level up the value ad what we were  doing So for anybody who’s looking for a way out   of the Trap of a 9-to-5 job the place to start is  to ask what can I do better than anybody else and  

How can I make that pay all of which is by way of  saying it’s considerably harder now than it was   when I was younger because the the competition  not just the the number of competitors but the   price competition if I want to sell a novel I’m  comp competing against everybody who’s willing  

To give their novel away just because they’re  desperate for somebody to read it how can I as a   as a purveyor of literary fiction make a living in  a world where people can read through a thousand   lifetimes for free books on the internet and  never run out of material just on the Gutenberg

Project so it’s really really hard now in some  senses it’s easy streaming media makes things   more accessible to writers of scripts and do it  yourself makes it accessible to to everybody in   ways that that that weren’t I imagine if  I were me but young now I’d be all over  

Instagram and TikTok and and probably just  saying probably nobody’s ever going to watch   this but what the heck it’s something I can  do now let’s do it and see what happens I’m   fond of the following expression throw it out the  window and see if it lands chances are it will.