"Where Do You Get The @#$%s To Claim That You Discovered Jon Stewart?"
Well, if you'll calm down, I'll tell you. Or rather, I'll let Jon tell you. In his own words, from his Los Angeles Times interview:
Jon: "I was working as the day bartender at a Mexican restaurant on MacDougal Street--which, by the way, if you're ever looking to live the dream, the day bartender makes nothing. But there was a club right down the street called the Comedy Cellar. And there was a guy there named Bill Grundfest. He did the best thing for me ever, which was: "I'll tell you what I'll do; I'm not gonna pay you, but I'm gonna let you go on every night as the last guy." And so I went on for two years at the Comedy Cellar at 2:30 or 3 a.m. as the last guy. It was me and the waitstaff and a table of drunken Dutch sailors. And in that place, I learned how to be myself. It was the thing that made me want to be good. You begin to develop an internal barometer that doesn't include the audience. And that was a really big thing to learn: not to fall in love with the audience."
Now if I did all that (and a lot of stuff they left out) for him, maybe I could do the same for you. If you're a writer, that is.
After selling my part of the Comedy Cellar to move to Los Angeles to become a TV writer-producer, I got very lucky, and ended up winning a Golden Globe and 3 Emmy nominations, for "Mad About You" (along with big cash prizes and emotional scarring). I also write award shows (Oscars, Grammys Emmys, including this year's upcoming Emmys), and continue to write-produce series TV.
In the spare time I don't have, I teach a workshop that I wish existed when I was starting out. It's for TV and Film writers who want to create scripts of a highly Pro level and then use those scripts to create overpaid, Pro careers as TV and Film writers.
"WRITE LIKE A PRO... taught by an actual pro!" is a learn-by-doing, No Theory Allowed workshop. It's not like all the other books and seminars you may have taken and read - many of which are useless and yes, even harmful. Why? Where do I get off calling YouKnowWho a know-nothing blowhard who recites his book in a canned lecture that simply-will-not-end and is full of theories which I have never once heard another pro writer refer to in 17 years in this town. And who has just a couple of produced credits which are ancient. [NOT THAT I HAVE ANY ISSUES ABOUT THIS...]... these guys (they're mostly guys) have figured out how to market books and seminars to you, who are very eager to find out "The Secret."
If you want to learn how to write like a pro and becomne a pro, seems like you'd want to learn that from a pro. Check out the workshop at www.prowriters.com.
Maybe I'll see you at the next one.
Warm regards,
Bill Grundfest
Bel Air, CA 90077
