Writing for Jimmy Fallon Panel

Yestery I had the pleasure of going to the Paley Center For Media to attend a panel with most of the writers from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. They talked about how they came up with certain sketches and the process of putting together a good monologue joke. They also talked about the TV parodies like 7th Floor West, The real house wives.. It was very informative and rewarding for a comedy writer trying to do the same type of work.

Here's the part that I had to mention. There were these NYU girls sitting behind me and they wouldn't stop talking about Andy Sanberg and Jimmy Fallon. One of them was checking her twiiter or Facebook account and screamed, "How come Jimmy is answering everybody but me!" They went on about how they cried when they went inside 30 Rock and took a tour of NBC studio. It was annoying but I realize I may had been doing the same thing.

I took a writing for late night class and actually had a writing packet ready with monologues jokes, desk pieces, etc. When I got there, it felt really weird trying to approach the head writers and submit the packet, not to mention there was security. So I did the smart thing, left and went to my rehearsal for today's sketch show. I added the head writer on my Facebook months ago, and posted that I was attending the panel. Looking back, I may had imposed a little too much and may be looked upon as a stalker. Or he's thinking, "Who is this weirdo telling me happy birthday?"

Well can't say I didn't try. I'm gonna add him as a friend again, and this time I'll just try to submit through the old fashion way. The agent. Just got to get them to read my stuff. Damn catch-22. Tips for writers trying to break in. Don't abuse the social networking sites.

The Minds Behind "How I Met Your Mother"

The new Script Mag had a great article about the Sitcom, "How I met your mother." The two creators worked on Letterman for 4 1/2 years, and also worked on American Dad. They felt some comedy was not clever and mean-spirited. When they started their own show, HIMYM, they wrote what they knew, drawing from their own relationship experieces.

There are 10 writers on the show, with 3 female writers, most with comedy background working on shows like Friends, Will&Grace, Frasier, and SNL. They break their writing staff into smaller groups, and found that this way moves everything faster. They rotate writers around so everybody gets to work with each other.

Improv/Kung Fu

Del Close talked about the group mind, and improv has this idea of "Yes/And" or agreement. In Wing Chun Kung Fu, we work together with our kung fu family to sense and react to energy being exchanged in various exercises.

Improv teach us to not think of anything or prepare anything for a scene, while wing chun trains our muscle memories, eventually causing us to move without thinking.

In comedy we have the rule of threes. In Wing Chun, we have the trilogy of forms. Each form is also broken into three parts.

Yes/and. When your scene partner gives you information, you agree with the info "and" you add information. In Wing Chun, your partner or enemy will feed information in a textile way, and you will sense it and answer back.

In Wing Chun we always focus on the center line. Improv we focus on the game of scene.

Posture is a key factor to a good structure in Kung Fu, and a good character in improv.

I'm beginning to discover a universal connection between all the things I do. These two things are playing a huge part in my life right now. I'm sure I can also add art into the mix, but I'll save that for later.

A-Rod Centaur

Somebody told me A-Rod had paintings done of him as a centaur. Nuff said!