Fart Sounds: The Reason(s) Why Jokes Are Funny

237 Pages·2016·1.49 MB·English

by  Zuri Irvin

Fart Sounds:

The reason(s) why
Jokes are funny

From the writers, producers, directors and performers of:
Bob’s Burgers, Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, The
Comedy Store, The Comedy Cellar, The Daily Show,
Full Frontal, GIRLS, Hollywood Improv, Inside Amy
Schumer, IFC, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Knitting
Factory, The Late Show, The Laugh Factory, Last Comic
Standing, Last Week Tonight, Maron, midnight,
@
MADtv, MTV, The New York Times, Second City,
UCB, VICELAND, and more.

Curated by Zuri Irvin
Copyright © 35th Place
All rights reserved. 2016.
ISBN: 6453777
ISBN-13: 978-0692765814
Contents
LATE NIGHT TV
IMPROV
ANIMATED SHOWS
WRITERS
STAND-UP COMEDIANS
DEDICATION

I’d like to thank my mom, Jackie, and dad, Robert, for literally making all of this
happen. And to my brother, Chad, and sister, Mali, thanks for laughing.

To Coltrane, welcome to the world!

And thank you for buying this book
INTRO

You're probably reading this and thinking: ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ or
‘What’s Amazon’s return policy?’
And I can't really blame you. This was a huge risk on your part. Plus,
you’re probably already funny. But since you’ve already paid for this, and are
reading it now, let’s at least get comfortable with the idea that we’re in this
together. We both love comedy and we probably both value laughter in a weird
way. This collection is designed to explore reasons why comedians become
comedians and what makes jokes funny.
I’ve been lucky enough to engage with some of the most talented, unique and
helpful people in the business; who all helped put this together without asking for
anything in return. I think that illustrates the selflessness of comedy. And also
why it’s so hard to make money in this industry.
Anyways, blah, blah, blah. Please enjoy and just know that you're already
really cool for reading this.
LATE NIGHT TV

J.R. HAVLAN

JRHavlan

J.R. moved to New York in 1988 to begin his standup career and thanks to hard work, dedication and hustle,
he soon found work as a waiter. Some years after that he performed standup on The Late Show with David
Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien as well as making numerous other television appearances that
didn’t matter nearly as much. In 1996, J.R. became a writer on The Daily Show. In 1999, it became The
Daily Show with Jon Stewart and that’s when the Emmys started pouring in thanks in small part to J.R.
himself (Eight so far!).

Why did you first want to start performing comedy? What was the first joke or bit you tried on stage?

I was a wise-cracker in grammar school but mainly out of boredom. There
were no conscious career choices happening for me back then, but I was
definitely drawn to comedy. The $1 theater in my town was playing Woody
Allen’s “Take the Money and Run” when I was 13 and I went to see it 28 times.
To this day, I carry a slice of bologna in my wallet in the event things go south
and I have to share it with my family. *

Between that movie and the books “Without Feathers” and “Getting Even”
I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do more than make people laugh. I
didn’t start performing standup until I moved to New York City in 1988. I don’t
recall my first joke, but it was probably something about how dirty the subway
was or what a hassle it was when you had to make a phone call but you didn’t
have a dime on you. What a hassle!! Right, kids?

(*May or may not be true)
Where did you grow up?

I grew up in a suburb of San Francisco, California, called Danville, which
is now a fairly ritzy town, but back in the ‘70s was filled with bell-bottomed kids
standing around a keg in a field listening to ZZ Top blasting out of a low-end car
stereo.

What’s interesting or uninteresting about Danville?

Interesting question. Though I didn’t realize this at the time, what was
interesting and uninteresting about Danville in the ‘70s is basically an almost
completely overlapping Venn Diagram. We were bored, which sucked, so we’d
ride our bikes to a construction site, get high, and shoot bottles with a BB gun,
which was amazing. The only ‘clubs’ were the roller skating rink and the bowling
alley, so we’d have our parents drop us off at one or the other, skate or bowl for
an hour, and then sneak out and party for the rest of the night… in a field… with
a keg… listening to ZZ Top… or maybe Aerosmith.

I also liked Aerosmith. Basically, if you’ve ever seen the movies “Dazed
and Confused” or “Over The Edge” that’s pretty much all you need to know to
understand the place in which I grew up.

What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?

They got divorced when I was ten. Thanks a lot for bringing it up! But my
mom was a librarian at a high school, though not the one I went to; and my
dadwas always self-employed   —   mainly with a landscaping business that he
owned and a bar that he owned that had a one-table lo-ball poker room in the
back, was attached to a pool hall, and was across the street from a putt-putt golf
park. That bar was one of my favorite places on earth. It was called “Johnny’s”
but that wasn’t my dad’s name.

Can you talk about how you started writing for Politically Incorrect and how that parlayed into a job
with The Daily Show?

I stuck my foot in the door at P.I. by asking a friend who was a writer’s
assistant there if he could get me the fax number for submitting monologue jokes.
He did that and I started faxing in jokes… on a fax machine. Let me explain. You
see, a “fax machine” was sort of a… oh, forget it.
The important thing is, Bill started using a decent amount of my jokes and
before I knew it, I was asked to join the writing staff for a three-week “trial.” It
didn’t work out. I thought it was going great, and most of the rest of the writing
staff thought so too, but it would seem we were all wrong. Turned out for the
best, because I got the job on The Daily Show not long after I left P.I. That was
basically unrelated, though. If you want a real break down of how I ended up at
TDS, listen to my Writers’ Bloc Podcast episode with Lizz Winstead who co-
created TDS and was responsible for hiring me.

In a nutshell, I knew Lizz from standup and she asked me to submit for this
new “shitty little show” she was putting together, so I did, and 18 years later I
decided I’d had enough.

What are some of the things you enjoyed most about the creation process at The Daily Show?

That it was almost constantly evolving. The Daily Showwas, and I’m sure
still is, like a shark   —   if it didn’t keep moving it would die. Also, it had a
second row of teeth. Not a lot of people know that. It’s a big industry secret.

The Daily Show was an amazing place. Even before Jon took over we
knew we had something fun and special going on, but once Jon did arrive, it
quickly became a phenomenon and somehow maintained that status for an
obscene amount of time. Most of that credit goes to Jon, of course, but one of his
greatest talents was attracting, choosing and nurturing other great talent, both on-
air and behind the scenes.

Unless you worked at The Daily Show, you could never fully understand
how smoothly and effectively the staff was able to put together such great shows
night after night. I was constantly amazed by it and thrilled to be a part of it. Plus,
we got a free catered lunch every day. Top that!

How do you think Larry Wilmore and Trevor Noah are doing in their new roles? What types of
pressures do they face?

Well, Larry’s in a far different position than Trevor of course because he
simply replaced an enormously successful existing show whereas Trevor had to
take over an even more enormously successful existing show. Both jobs are hard,
but one is considerably more of a public challenge. I know Larry, but I’ve only
met Trevor a couple of times. Both men are extremely smart and talented and