Kate writes: Do you have any idea how late-night talk shows (Letterman, The Daily Show, etc.) find their writers? Seems like a spec for this type of show might be tough…
Definitely don't try to spec a late-night show. Specs are only for regular scripted shows, and if you're into comedy, that means you should write a 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Entourage, Weeds, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Flight of the Conchords (so I hear, though I feel it'd be weird without the songs) or Big Bang Theory. Maybe My Name is Earl still. No Office though.
But as for how late-nighters got their starts:
David Letterman and Jay Leno both wrote for sitcoms, did relentless stand-up comedy around LA and had small acting roles before getting their late-night gigs.
Conan O'Brien was elected president of the revered parody magazine The Harvard Lampoon. Once he moved to LA he performed with famed improv group The Groundlings, and then got a job writing for SNL before he got a show of his own.
Sarah Silverman did stand-up comedy, wrote and performed on SNL and booked a few acting roles in film and TV.
Jimmy Kimmel was a radio personality before working as a host, writer and creator of various TV shows.
Jon Stewart did stand-up in New York for two years before writing and hosting a number of TV shows. He was actually a finalist to replace David Letterman when he left NBC, but Conan was hired instead.
Stephen Colbert did improv in Chicago at Second City before writing and performing on The Dana Carvey Show, SNL, and Strangers with Candy, among others.
Certainly not all late-night writers ever intend to be on-camera performers...but many are. Generally it seems that doing stand-up, sketch and improv (which there were a lot of great comments about in my post The Sketchy Approach) will put you in the right circles and teach you the right skills, since writing for late-night is all about writing jokes and sketches. Still, having a traditional spec like 30 Rock is a great idea. Maybe even try to get involved with a radio morning show. And these days, putting some funny stuff on the internet (I wanna f*ck Matt Damon, anyone?) couldn't hurt, either.
At some point you're probably going to need an agent (or very strong connection) to be considered for a staff writer position on a late-night show, just like any other show. And you can get one to notice you by doing all the above things.
Oh. You also have to be funny.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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5 comments:
Actually, I don't know whether I have really old information but I read an article about how you can submit to the late night shows.
Here are some of the highlights from a now unknown source:
“For The Daily Show, you're submitting basically a packet that demonstrates your ability to do what we do on the show. If your agent calls in asking what the writer's submission is, they'll tell you that it's five complete headlines that you see on the show, from beginning to end. Those three or four different chunks, with the whole story. So five of those, and then one or two of the kind of back and forth sketches that would be on-camera with Stephen Colbert and the green screen or something like that. That's what a packet is.”
AND
"I also know that we have taken, I think, at least three or four writers since I've been there who did not have agents but who simply had the best packet that floated through the transom."
AND
"The first time I wrote my packet I didn't know what they wanted. So I wrote, I think it was 14 pages long. And then it disappeared for a year and then I got a call back saying, "We liked your packet, but you did the wrong things, this is not what we do. We do these 10 little paragraphs." So I wrote those and it was literally like a page. It looks like very little but they apparently are able to hire writers out of that."
When you write your packet, write 'These are jokes I thought up on January 16th'
As I said, might be old info but I hope it helps!
why no office specs?
THE OFFICE has just kinda outlived its shelf life for being a spec. People are sick of reading them, and there are so many floating around that yours would have to be REALLY fantastic and unique.
I can't speak for everyone/everywhere, but this is what I'm hearing. If you have one already, don't worry about it - it can always be a 2nd or 3rd sample. But you probably want a newer comedy.
I wrote an Entourage spec in which Turtle overdoses in the first scene, Johnny Drama goes all over town avenging his death, and the whole thing ends at The Oscars. Good idea?
-Trott Felipe
I read an article somewhere about the creators of How I Met Your Mother. They got started out in late nite.
1) They got an agent.
2) They prepared a packet of jokes and bits for Conan.
3) An opening came up in the Letterman staff.
4) They came up with completely new jokes the night before Letterman needed something.
They're jokes were good, and best of all, fresh. That's how they got the job.
So I'd say you should probably start a packet and keep updating it with jokes.
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