Make 'Em Laugh
 This
month marks a proud professional milestone for a
good friend of mine, author Scott Petri: the
release of his first
book, "Make 'Em Laugh: Writing the Comedy
Film." Currently ranked #1,353,455 on Amazon.com,
this book is destined for greatness, as is Mr.
Petri himself. Born to an emaciated Sudanese woman
in the late 1960s, Scott had a hard upbringing. He
suffered constant belittling from the local
children, who made fun of him on a daily basis. "It
was hard being known as the White Pygmy of the
Congo," said Petri in a recent interview, "but this
early hardship fueled my future creative energies,
and made me who I am today." After emigrating to
the United States, he was adopted by an American
family in New Hampshire, where his new father
taught him the family business of bovine artificial
insemination. He found he had a remarkable natural
talent for this new vocation, but he still endured
the same callous teasing at the hands of his
American classmates. Nevertheless, this short,
angry man had the last laugh.
"Make 'Em Laugh" dissects the art and craft of
comedy writing, and teaches you how to write better
comedy. As the previous passage illustrates, I have
a lot to learn from Petri and co-writer Stuart
Voytilla. But I am proud to say that I contributed
some editing notes for an early draft of the
Introduction, which I believe, according to the
Writers' Guild scale, entitles me to approximately
0.00387% of the (net) royalties. So I've got that
going for me.
If you have even the slightest interest in
screenwriting (or writing in general), enjoy comedy
films, or are simply looking for some colorful
coasters for your coffee table,
run—don't walk—to your local
bookstore (or Amazon.com)
to buy several copies of this book. And if you
want, I can have them personally autographed for
you. After all, I know the author.
Way to go,
Petri!
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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Daily Chuckle:
"A Christmas present is like a hand
job." (Scott Petri, "A
Long-Haired Christmas
Carol")
What is "The Daily Strick"?
I have long called
myself a writer, but too often I don't do
what a writer must do daily: write. So
you, dear reader, are the beneficiary of
my resolution to make a positive change in
at least one area of my life. Every single
day of this new year, I will write
something, anything, and post it here. It
is my intention to use this daily exercise
to jump-start my too-long-dormant creative
energies, and perhaps generate some
worthwhile material this year. Hopefully
you will find at least an occasional
amusement or insight in my daily
musings.
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3/2:
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3/1:
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