BEING A PROLIFIC WRITER

Yes  I'm prolific. Of course prolific doesn't mean great or even good it could mean shit house. 

"And here is Mick Steel the most prolific shithouse comedy writer of the 21st century.

Sounds Ok.

 One of my favourite lines in SEINFELD is when Kramer describes Frank Costanza ( George's Father) as "Prolific'. "He's prolific" yep a prolific idiot and maybe that's what I am.

Anyway comedy writing is what I do   and I continue to do it because there's nothing else I can do. So I started off writing sketches, the the comedy monologues then TV scripts then the film scripts and it just steamrolls. Being unpaid and basically uncredited well that's my curse.

Woody Allen, Neil Simon, John Hughes all wrote about one  script a year from the age of 35. I am on a par with them. Not making a comparison in ability, but I have a variety of ideas.

 400  comedy sketches of 15 seconds to 7 minutes which puts me in the Benny Hill bracket of prolific.

SITCOM I've created 3 pilots and written episodes

STAND UP  3-4 hours of stand up material. Performed about 90 minutes of that.

I take an element of pride in this, it's like saying I played football, cricket tennis and golf all of which  I did at the lowest level.

Of course I have no other talents, I can't fix a leaking tap.

SHANAHAN AND STEEL ARE BACK?

First of all, my internet is down so I'm doing stuff at an internet cafe. Mainly internet stuff of course and some cafe stuff too.
The Shanahan and Steel radio show is back on SWITCH 1197. After some early teething problems. No floss, to go with the no fridge the no toilet no running water we got off to a shaky start.
 

SWITCH used to have it's studio in the city, but it\s new location at Indooroopilly is more scary.
The first show passable the second show stunk to low heaven, yes the stench never left us, if we were in low heaven, it was more like high hell, but I do diverse. Anyway we're back, not as good as ever.

The trouble with radio humour it's all hang shit humour and very little else. fill  So the humour leaves me cold.

I have an idea for a radio show that dares to be different.  I say that to make it could interesting or at least give that impression.
This is the concept.

SHANAHAN AND STEEL AT HOME
In this we come on and just say normal things and out of the blue I may say  Hey Mike , go over the dd rack and put on song for me mate", and  then a song comes on.
he says "I'm putting on Katy Perry's I kissed a girl.
And I go great mate.

INSPIRATIONAL STUFF.

THE INFLUENCES IN DETAIL Comedians and Comedy

Woody Allen. 

In the history of modern comedy Woody Allen stands apart. He is to comedy what Elvis and The Beatles are to music. Seriously. Because Woody changed things.
Woody went from being a TV sketch writer to becoming a stand up comedian.
He was a writer first and thus was performing his own material amongst a group of comedians telling jokes or performing jokes written by other people.
Sure Lenny Bruce came first but he didn't have the influence, Notoriety yes , but he wasn't mainstream and didn't live long enough to become the influence which Woody has become.
Woody is a great influence to me, mainly because he is hilarious and his scripts and stories are so well crafted.
But before dismissing him, it's worth noting that Woody Allen is who he is because he is one of the absolute masters of modern comedy.

GET SMART
My most biased claim of comedy writing is this. Those who are influenced by GET SMART have a greater capacity for comedy writing than those who are not.  Still the greatest show to watch in regards to the craft of comedy writing. Why? Because Max kills people.

MAD MAGAZINE
From the age of  11 to 19 I bought very edition of MAD and still have them. ( Except I missed the JAWS 1975 edition)  That was it's golden era and I am still influenced by Siegel, Hart, Jacobs, Aragones, Berg and Don Martin. Another form of comedy genius was MAD magazine.

 

Favourite comedy people. 

Graham Kennedy, Woody Allen, Barry Humphries, Garry Shandling, Louis CK  Don Adams. Peter Cook . Bob Hope who extremely important.  The Monty Python Team. Steve Martin  The Zucker Movies and although I used to see Mel Brooks films on the the Thurday night which they were released he's now a bit stale for me.