Product Description

DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT …

Every great joke has a punch line, and every great humor writer has an arsenal of experiences, anecdotes, and obsessions that were the inspiration for that humor. In fact, those who make a career out of entertaining strangers with words are a notoriously intelligent and quirky lot. And boy, do they have some stories.

In this entertaining and inspirational book, you'll hear from 21 top humor writers as they discuss the comedy-writing process, their influences, their likes and dislikes, and their experiences in the industry. You’ll also learn some less useful but equally amusing things, such as:

• How screenwriter Buck Henry came up with the famous “plastics” line for The Graduate.
• How many times the cops were called on co-writers Sacha Baron Cohen and Dan Mazer during the shooting of Borat.
• What David Sedaris thinks of his critics.
• What creator Paul Feig thinks would have happened to the Freaks & Geeks crew if the show had had another season.
• What Jack Handey considers his favorite “Deep Thoughts.”
• How Todd Hanson and the staff of The Onion managed to face the aftermath of 9/11 with the perfect dose of humor.
• How Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais created the original version of The Office.
• What it’s really like in the writers’ room at SNL.

Funny and informative, And Here's the Kicker is a must-have resource - whether you’re an aspiring humor writer, a fan of the genre, or someone who just likes to laugh.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4191 in Books
• Published on: 2009-07-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781582975054
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Veteran journalist Sacks conducted dozens of interviews with the top humor writers of the last century, and the result is a whiz-bang collection of Q&As that will school readers just as often as it provokes laughter. The assortment boasts elder statesmen including Dick Cavett, 93-year-old Irving Brecher (who wrote shtick for the Marx Brothers and Milton Berle) and Mad magazine's Al Jaffee, who reminisces about reading American comic strips during his 1930s boyhood in Lithuania. High notes include David Sedaris, with the bestselling humorist confessing to cringing when he reads earlier writing, including breakthrough Me Talk Pretty One Day: "I used to exaggerate a lot more than I needed to. So when I needed readers to believe me, they didn't." Other contemporary writers offer up equally revelatory tidbits, especially Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall) and Allison Silverman (The Daily Show), but would-be humorists will appreciate most the nuts-and-bolts knowhow regarding the industry. Though it's decidedly testosterone-heavy, Sack has compiled a lively compendium sure to captivate anyone who loves a good comedy.

From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Jeff Nussbaum When Al Gore was vice president and saw on his schedule that he would have to speak at an event that required humor, he would announce, with mock solemnity, that it was time to assemble the humor cabinet. This proclamation might well have been delivered by shofar, given that in practice it served as a call for most of the Jews on the staff. Perhaps the circumstances of my birth did qualify me to write jokes, although I think the vice president was more taken with the fact that my dad's family had actually run a hotel in the Catskills -- the real, live Borscht Belt. Either way, I ended up writing jokes for the vice president and others. I've found myself in the awkward situation of telling a former senator that the word "feces" is funnier than any of the synonyms he's considering. Or that a roomful of male septuagenarians will get the punch line "If it lasts longer than four hours, consult a physician." But when asked why, I always wished I had a better answer than "Because it's funny." Someone, I thought, should assemble a compendium of insights and techniques from actual humor writers. That's exactly what Mike Sacks did in putting together "And Here's The Kicker." Even if you weren't looking for a comedy desk reference, it's worth picking up the book just to find out which "Deep Thought" Jack Handey is most proud of writing. But "And Here's the Kicker" qualifies as a book only because the interviews have been put on paper and bound between two covers. What the reader experiences is a series of interviews conducted by a sort of hybrid between James Lipton and Dick Cavett: The questions are so hyper-informed that they're fawning, but they're just loose enough to be funny. Sacks, a humor writer himself, begins each chapter with a short biography of the interview subject, followed by an edited transcript of their conversation. The last question in these interviews is often about advice the humorist might have for aspiring writers. Aspiring writers, I'm guessing, will find this advice pretty depressing, given that it runs the gamut from "There are already too many comedy writers" (Marshall Brickman, co-writer, "Annie Hall") to "When you're 'in the zone,' a joke will just land on you like a butterfly" (George Meyer, writer and executive producer, "The Simpsons") to "Take a few beatings in the hallways of your high school or go through some sort of childhood trauma" (Judd Apatow, writer, director, producer of 95 percent of the movies made in the past five years). Slightly more helpful, but probably still depressing for the aspiring writer, are the how-tos that can be found throughout: how to get an agent, how to get a humor piece published, how to get a job writing jokes for late-night television, how to get your piece published in the New Yorker, etc. Sacks, who is on the editorial staff of Vanity Fair, scored some great interviews, finding writers who could comment on -- and in many cases created -- virtually every comedic touchstone we reference today, including the Marx Brothers, "The Colbert Report," Woody Allen's movies, Mad magazine, "The Simpsons," "Saturday Night Live" and late-night talk shows. The real fun in this book comes less when the writers talk about their craft and more when they talk about their careers, experiences, disappointments and favorite jokes. That's when you feel like you've been ushered into an exclusive fraternity (and it really is a fraternity -- only two women are interviewed) and exposed to the admiration and competition inherent in any club. Irving Brecher, supreme gag-writer for the Marx Brothers, grumbles that today's young writers are overpaid and lazy. Merrill Markoe, who has written for David Letterman, "Newhart" and "Sex in the City," provides an extended and acerbic list of what isn't funny: "I hate anyone who is wise beyond their years. I don't mind precocious children if they come as a side order with W.C. Fields." We're also let in on some great comedic revelations, such as the news that the feces in the bag Sacha Baron Cohen presented to the dinner party guests in "Borat" were real and that the person on the set who provided them was acknowledged in the credits. Brickman tells us that in the original premise of Woody Allen's "Sleeper," the only remaining piece of the president wasn't his nose. You can guess the rest. When these writers share with us what didn't succeed, we realize that humor isn't easy, that comedy is a craft and that even the greats had to work hard at it. Perhaps the best description of humor comes from Dave Barry, who as a newspaper columnist is almost an outsider compared with the rest of these interview subjects: "A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge." By that measure, we're living in funny times indeed. bookworld@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.

Review
(Starred Review) Veteran journalist Sacks conducted dozens of interviews with the top humor writers of the last century, and the result is a whiz-bang collection of Q&As that will school readers just as often as it provokes laughter. The assortment boasts elder statesmen including Dick Cavett, 93-year-old Irving Brecher (who wrote shtick for the Marx Brothers and Milton Berle) and Mad magazine's Al Jaffee, who reminisces about reading American comic strips during his 1930s boyhood in Lithuania. High notes include David Sedaris, with the bestselling humorist confessing to cringing when he reads earlier writing, including breakthrough Me Talk Pretty One Day: "I used to exaggerate a lot more than I needed to. So when I needed readers to believe me, they didn't." Other contemporary writers offer up equally revelatory tidbits, especially Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall) and Allison Silverman (The Daily Show), but would-be humorists will appreciate most the nuts-and-bolts knowhow regarding the industry. Though it's decidedly testosterone-heavy, Sack has compiled a lively compendium sure to captivate anyone who loves a good comedy. --Publisher's Weekly

Analyzing why something is funny is a little bit like trying to fathom why people fall in love. You might be able to do it, but by the time you do, you feel just a little foolish about falling for that person, or that joke. There's a new book, "And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers On Their Craft."

Mike Sacks, a veteran magazine writer, who's now on staff at Vanity Fair, poses questions to old comedy hands, including Larry Gelbart, who co-wrote "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," as well as wrote the television show "M.A.S.H.," to new hands like Steven Merchant, who invented "The Office" with Ricky Gervais, Tom Hanson of The Onion, and classical comedy writers, including Dave Barry, David Sedaris, Allison Silverman, and Harold Ramis.

Mike Sacks joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us. . . . --NPR Weekend Edition

And Here's the Kicker builds to a funny, sad, tremendously insightful group portrait of the comic mind. It's an almost sociological dissection of the strange creature that is the comedy writer. In his glorious extended ramble through the minds of comedy greats, Sacks finds a number of common denominators, like depression, self-doubt, raging insecurity, a predilection toward obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a borderline pathological need to entertain.

It's enormously comforting to realize that some of the most gifted writers in the world (other Kicker subjects include David Sedaris, Harold Ramis, Buck Henry, Mitch Hurwitz, Robert Smigel, Dave Barry, Bob Odenkirk, George Meyer, and The Onion's great Todd Hanson) wrestle with the same demons we do. They are a wondrous breed of misfit. They're not normal; they're better than normal. They're lucky to have a gifted chronicler like Sacks documenting their curious ways and odd customs for posterity. . . . --The Onion

Comedy writers--like George Meyer (The Simpsons) and Dan Mazer (Borat)--tend to be depressed, brilliant, erratic and sometimes even funny. Mike Sacks' collection of remarkably frank interviews with 21 of them readers like a secret history of popular culture. --Time Magazine

Laughter may be universal, but the world of comedy writing is shrouded in mystery. In AND HERE'S THE KICKER (Writer's Digest Books), Mike Sacks, a humor writer and Vanity Fair staffer, helps lift the veil with in-depth interviews of 21 top comedy writers from various fields. How in-depth exactly? To give you an idea, 94-year-old Irving Brecher, who wrote for the Marx Brothers, accused the diligent Sacks of "killing" him. (It would prove to be one of Brecher's very last interviews. He died in 2008.) Collecting rare musings--and practical advice--from the likes of Harold Ramis (Animal House, Groundhog Day), David Sedaris (Me Talk Pretty One Day), Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show), and Allison Silverman (The Colbert Report), Sacks puts together the book he wishes he had read as a budding humor writer. The comedy world is a treacherous landscape. All of his subjects agree: Funny can't be taught, but it can be self taught. And it helps to know where the banana peels are hidden. --Vanity Fair

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Customer Reviews

Extremely engrossing
I guess its a little weird for me to be writing a review of this, because I'm in it. But its a great book. Its one of those books that is hard to put down. I just keep reading and re-reading my interview over and over and over. I am just that interesting. No, no. That's a joke. Its the other interviews that I really get caught up in. Summing up: If you want to read a lot of contemporary funny writers talking about writing comedy, I can't imagine a better book than this one.

FINALLY!
I'm not sure how Mike Sacks corralled all these writers into talking
about their craft, but I'm so glad he did. To hear them tell their
tales from the trenches is invaluable for someone like me who is both
interested in writing, and also just a huge fan of comedy. The
anecdotes are both humorous and informative, and Sacks dry wit and
gentle prodding is the perfect accompaniment to each interview
subject. He doesn't overshadow them, or try to insert himself into
their perspective, but draws them out and does what any GOOD
interviewer should do: listen. The questions he asks are the
questions I would ask if I got the chance to talk to these writers,
which excited me a great deal. I almost felt a part of the
conversations sometimes, I got that into it (okay, maybe I'm a little
weird, but it was a great read). I would recommend this to aspiring
comedy writers, but also just to anyone who is interested in the
lives and processes of some these great writing talents. A thoroughly
enjoyable read!

Engaging Take on Humorists
Plain and simple, this is just a really, really enjoyable read. It's smart and it's well-executed and it's compulsively readable. The thing is, there's something so refreshing to a book that's about real comedians. Real writers. Real people. That's it. And you have this great author there with you the entire time, guiding you through these peoples' heads. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of everyone interviewed here (see: David Sedaris), but even then I was charmed by his thoughts and the interplay between he and Sacks.

As an aside, generally speaking I stick to straight-up fiction, and as an aspiring writer (by which I mean I've published absolutely nothing) the last thing I want to read on the weekends/at night after a terrible day at a soul-sucking job is something I feel like was written to instruct me on how to write. Please, don't instruct me. I may suck at it, but please, don't patronize me with your thoughts "On Writing." That means you, Stephen King.

In "And Here's the Kicker," though, Sacks completely steers clear of that pratfall and has composed what is at its heart a wonderfully understated paean to the humor and comedians we all love. By book's end you've encountered the leading comedic minds of recent memory (God Bless Harold Ramis) and will simply feel warm and fuzzy about humor writing as craftwork. None of the usual drivel about how underneath the jokes funny people are actually sad, sad, emotionally-stunted people. Oh the irony! We're all sad people, Judd Apatow.

No, here Sacks provides you with far more than just cliches and platitudes and musings on the difficulties faced by the likes of Chris Farley, John Belushi, and Richard Pryor. Here we learn who the real comedians are. How they operate. Who they are beyond just words on a page. I was pleasantly surprised by this.