Manager/Producer Rachel Miller Explains How You Can Build A Comedy Writing Career
Since my previous interviews with comedy manager Reg Tigerman and booking agent Eric Yoder were so well received, I’m happy to be back with another exclusive interview for you today.
This time, I caught up with Rachel Miller, a graduate of the Tisch School of Arts who now lives in Los Angeles and is the owner of management/production company Tom Sawyer Entertainment as well as a blogger on her site ShowMeTheScreenplay.com
In this interview, Rachel talks about how to build a comedy writing career, what she looks for in potential clients, the most common mistake she sees writers make, and much more. Here’s my interview with her…
The Story Of A Girl Who Wooed A Guy By Sending Him Dead Animals Through The Mail
Today’s story from SoCrazySoTrue.com…
Some people are lucky in love. Others get carsick and vomit on their date’s crotch on the way to the prom (oops).
But regardless of any setbacks I had in high school, I was open to finding love in college. And freshman year, I was sure I found it.
I met Doug when he was going through a break up with his girlfriend (because really, what healthier way is there to start a relationship?) and was instantly attracted to his Adam Sandler-esque sense of humor and early onset baldness.
The more time we spent together, the more I learned about Doug:
Doug was from Wyoming. Doug liked to sleep naked. Doug found a dead pigeon in his bed the night before.
*proverbial record screech*
What?!? Yes. A dead pigeon. In his bed.
Turns out the guys on Doug’s floor were quite the group of pranksters and this kind of prank was right up his alley.
“Isn’t that hilarious?” he shouted. “I LOVE those guys!”
Now, I’m not sure if it was the mention of “love” or the indigestion I had from that afternoon’s rather grey-looking meatloaf, but in the split second when he said that, my brain took a meeting with Kevin Spacey’s character from the movie Seven along with the Nihilists from The Big Lebowski. And the game plan they came up with was this: “Leslie, if he loves those guys that much for putting a dead pigeon in his bed…how much more will he love you if you mail him dead animals through the campus post office?!?”
What it's like to be in a Vegas strip club when the fire alarm goes off...
The first story went up on my new site So Crazy So True - check it out.
And if you’d like to contribute a story to the site, you can submit your story idea here.
Introducing SoCrazySoTrue.com
The Crazy True Fun Is Coming Soon!
SoCrazySoTrue.com is going to launch with our first crazy true story on Tuesday, July 5th and while I won’t reveal too many details yet, we’ve got stories about fire alarms in Vegas strip clubs, girls wooing guys by sending them dead animals through the mail, and adventures in hotel sex parties headed your way in our debut week.
How’s that for a teaser?
While you anxiously await this site’s launch, I hope you’ll take a moment to read what So Crazy So True is going to be all about, to “Like” our new Facebook page, to join our mailing list through the form on the side of this page, and/or to submit your own crazy true story for inclusion on our site.
Thanks, and I’ll see you Tuesday!
Hey talented writers: Wanna be involved in a new super cool awesome top secret project?
Hey guys, I’m working on a new super cool awesome top secret project that I think is gonna present some new super cool awesome top secret opportunities for you – if you’re a good writer and you’ve had at least one crazy interesting experience in your life.
I’m guessing most of you fit that description, so here’s the deal.
How A Funny Kids Book Became A Bestseller Before It Was Even Released
Something remarkable happened today. A children’s book hit the No. 1 spot on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. And it did so a month before the book is even slated for release.
You may have heard of the book—it’s a best-seller after all. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach, began its life as a joke Facebook post in June. It was a particularly trying instance of bedtime with his 2-year-old daughter, and Mansbach let off some steam in the form of a humorous status update to his friends: “Look out for my forthcoming children’s book, ‘Go the — to Sleep.’ “
The response from his friends was so fierce that Mansbach decided to make his joke book a real one. Go the Fuck to Sleep, which he bills as a “children’s book for adults,” will hit stores on June 14, published by the Brooklyn press Akashic. If it’s not even due for a month, though, how did a little 32-page book already snag a film option deal with Fox 2000 and, today, reach the pinnacle of online publishing commerce world?
How Famous Writers Promoted Their Work
This is a pretty interesting NY Times article about the stunts that famous writers have tried over the years to promote their work. Here’s an excerpt:
Walt Whitman notoriously wrote his own anonymous reviews, which would not be out of place today on Amazon. “An American bard at last!” he raved in 1855. “Large, proud, affectionate, eating, drinking and breeding, his costume manly and free, his face sunburnt and bearded.” But nobody could quite match the creativity of the Europeans. Perhaps the most astonishing P.R. stunt — one that must inspire awe among authors today — was plotted in Paris in 1927 by Georges Simenon, the Belgian-born author of the Inspector Maigret novels. For 100,000 francs, the wildly prolific Simenon agreed to write an entire novel while suspended in a glass cage outside the Moulin Rouge nightclub for 72 hours. Members of the public would be invited to choose the novel’s characters, subject matter and title, while Simenon hammered out the pages on a typewriter. A newspaper advertisement promised the result would be “a record novel: record speed, record endurance and, dare we add, record talent!” It was a marketing coup. As Pierre Assouline notes in “Simenon: A Biography,” journalists in Paris “talked of nothing else.”
The Story Of NASA's Moon Landing As Told By A Professional Storyteller
This is a pretty interesting video and some advice that’s probably applicable to comedians as well about how to tell a story.
Just a reminder that the words you choose matter.
