Mike Sacks

This is a must read for anyone who fancies themselves a comedy writer, or is just intrigued by the notion and process of creating comedy. Mike Sacks interviews such luminaries as Buck Henry, Stephen Merchant, Harold Ramis, Merrill Markoe, Marshall Brickman, George Meyer, David Sedaris, Robert Smigel, Dick Cavett, Dave Barry, Jack Handy, and Larry Gelbart.

If some of those names don't ring a bell, trust me, you likely know their work. These are men and women who have written Carson, Letterman, show more The Simpsons, SNL, Conan, The Office, the New Yorker, M*A*S*H, Jack Paar, Woody Allen, Second City, and such films as The Graduate, Ghostbusters, and others.

I read this on concurrent plane rides, and longed for a highlighter so I could mark up passages. Harold Ramis shares the story of how "Groundhog Day" was originally conceived, Merrill Markoe reels off a long list of the things she hates most in comedy (it's a must for any writer), David Sedaris explains the difference between exaggeration and 'making shit up', and Dick Cavett reveals what it was like to write for Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. The Simpsons writers and SNL writers give peeks into their approaches and the way their respective writers' bullpens work. Buck Henry tells us where his classic line in "The Graduate" about plastics came from, and Marshall Brickman talks about collaborating on "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan".

You'll find out what Carson, Letterman, Conan, Belushi, Murray, and others are like to work with, and sadly, how miserable so many comedy writers and comedians seem to be in their everyday lives.

Really, if you love comedy, or comedy writing, this book is indispensable. Honestly, you could read a dozen "How to Write Comedy" books and not glean nearly as much as you could just soaking in the experiences of these pioneers and warriors. show less

"Worst Places to Die: On a toilet in a Barnes and Noble, reading this book." - Thoughts on Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason by Mike Sacks

There's something about reading award-winning books and novels on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list that makes me want to read really loony books in-between. Well, not really - maybe I'm just looking for an excuse to pick up and read Mike Sacks' Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason.

A collection of short stories, lists, and illustrations show more spanning both ends of the oddball spectrum, Your Wildest Dreams is the treasure book of ludicrous (and sometimes bawdy) humor your mother tried to keep away from you. From the love-notes-exchange-turned-sour in "Saw You on the Q Train," the groom's wedding day tweets in "George Sarkin is Using Twitter!" to the clueless psychologist aboard the sloop Winslow in "From the Sea Journal of the Esteemed Dr. Ridley L. Honeycomb," Sacks must have one hell of an imagination to have thought up these stories - they're so darn absurd, he must either be crazy or a genius, or both.

He reinvents popular jokes by adding somber endings in "FW: Loved the Following Jokes and Thought You'd Love Them as Well!!!"; in "Arse Poetica," he pitches script ideas to a hardcore porn producer... in the middle of an orgy. One of my favorites is without a doubt "The Rejection of Anne Frank" - where an editor turns down her biography ("a memoir from a 15-year-old is a bit much") and offers some pretty comical criticism:

"Fantasy always works, especially with your tween demographic. Come up with something totally original - for instance, is there any ambiguous historical evidence for the presence, in Nazi Germany, of hot teenage vampires?"

But nothing - nothing - beats the letters of Rhon Penny (silent h), a writer trying to get published by thinking up all sorts of gimmicks and pitching them to various authors such as Don DeLillo, Salman Rushdie, Thomas Pynchon and the family of John Updike.

If you're not prudish about a bit of crass humor and appreciate intelligent comedy bordering on the ridiculous, then Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason is a definite must-read. Indulge yourself - but don't tell your mother.

PS. See page 206.

Originally posted here. show less

I loved And Here's the Kicker, Sacks' first collection of interviews with humor writers; while Poking a Dead Frog has a fair share of fascinating interviews, it doesn't quite reach that level of brilliance. For one thing, there were a lot more industry-type people giving advice such as "watch as many sitcoms as you can," which directly contradicts the advice given in the first book (and even by some of the people in this book). Also, the pool seemed much shallower this time; I love The show more Onion, but hearing from four of its writers seemed like overkill. That said, this book offers more pragmatic advice for young people trying to break in the business than its predecessor. show less

As with a lot of the McSweeney's author books, this one has a bunch of hits, a bunch of misses, although some of the hits were the falling-out-of-the-chair-laughing type. In the former group: "Reasons You're Still Single," which can actually make me laugh just thinking of it; and "My Parents, Enid and Sal, Used to Be Famous Porn Stars." In the latter group: "Geoff Sarkin is Using Twitter!" (which might have been funny three years ago or so but now is just kind of tired) and "Saw You on the Q show more Train."

If you like McSweeney's humor pieces, it's worth picking this one up. Call it three and a half stars. show less