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.

IMMEDIATE FUTURE

 

 

With the advent of  IT'S BRISBANE TONIGHT WOW there is the possibility of becoming a success. As an undiscovered talent who writes in almost every genre I have not been a success. In fact I have been as the academics would describe, a failure.  But let's quantify this,  the one thing I have not failed at is at been a failure, no sir, in fact the one thing I have been very successful at is failing,  I may not be a success at succeeding but at failing I am a success. And I can sleep with that.well sometimes I can't sleep with it because sometimes I fail to sleep. Because for a long time people called me a failure as if it was a negative thing, but now , I have reached the maturity and the positivity  to realize that my greatest success in life is my ability to fail.

 Having bouts depression all my adult has helped me deal with failure.

ROBIN WILLIAMS LIVE! and my thoughts

 ROBIN WILLIAMS LIVE

My sister Robyn was generous enough to buy me two tickets to see Robin Williams for my birthday.

It wasn't on my agenda because there's no way I could afford to see him but it was much appreciated. I took film maker mate Scot McPhie with me and after the show shook the hand and had a few seconds with Robin. We also had very good seats.

I view Robin as a stand up comedian, an improv comedian, a sitcom comedian, film actor and a great guest on talk shows. 

Here's the thing. Prior to my sister buying the tickets I really had no interest in seeing him LIVE but I'm glad I went for many reasons.

1 He was great and it was a great show.

2 I met him for Christ's sake.

3 And this is the doozy. When I watch the great stand ups I have this thing in which I dissect everything they say, how they say it and how they form the routines to make the one hour of 3 hour show. With everyone I've seen there comes a point usually after about 45 minutes where I go "So what's he's doing or that's how he does it'. At about this point of the show I said to Scot "I've got no idea what he's doing, everything is just fucking random" but about 15 minutes later something happened. Robin forgot his lines or where he was. He walked over to the side of the stage and there was a woman with a computer. He said to her "Where am I?" or words to that effect and she told him where he what piece he was doing.

He looked at the audience and shrugged. The audience didn't mind nor care.

That made sense to me. He just does bits that are in an order, but an order that is planned and scripted in a way as not to look planned and scripted or in any order. From that point on I just really enjoyed the show.

As a stand up I don't see him in the league of Louis C.K or Garry Shandling he's more of a showman comedian doing crazy songs and voices in the mix.

For many years my favourite film was THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. Considered a mess at the time it's now regarded as a genuine classic. I consider Robin to be a great actor in the company of Jack Nicholson and Brando even. He's hardly done a real comedy film except THE BIRDCAGE  which is one the very best comedy films of all time. However his PATCH ADAMS type feel good , sentimental films make me sick.

*footnote. Since his death I cannot watch The World According To Garp.

Some comedy writing thoughts.

 

As a kid I wanted to be a comedy writer. Basically as a kid  born in 1960 I was brought up on sketch comedy and TV situation comedies. TV situation comedies include all the comedies we watched between 4pm and 6pm every afternoon.

 I sometimes think I'm a phony calling myself a comedy writer , but I've performed my own material live, I've now written a film which is nearly ready for release, so it's time to accept that I am a comedy writer and always have been.

The most important thing is I want to write good comedy and I do write good comedy. But what does that mean? I don't write tit and bum and arse crack comedy and have a proliferation of insult jokes. But then we all do to some degree, but if you do that stuff you do it with a twist.

To use what we know as examples.

                          Good                                           Bad
Film                    American Pie                                American Pie 2

Sitcom                Modern Family                             Married with Children

Sketch                Alas Smith and Jones                    Hale and Pace

Stand Up             Dry                                              Wet


There's great comedy and awful comedy. No one goes around saying I write awful comedy  but plenty do it and some get paid great money for it.


It's unlikely that that Talbot Rothwell who wrote 19 Carry On movies could write a Will Ferrell  style movie. But to be more precise Woody Allen ( Jewish), Neil Simon (Jewish) and Mel Brooks (Jewish)  all started their careers on Sid Caesars  CAESAR'S HOUR  and all have very individual styles of writing. If all three were interviewed or approached about their writing they would be all quick to point out the subtleties and differences in their style.The reality is all three attract very different audiences.

My preference is for Woody Allen but Mel Brooks and Neil Simon movies have a far more wider appeal.  Mel Brooks appeals to the younger because he mainly does spoofs and Neil Simon writes romantic comedies.( with some very unappealing protagonists at times). This means his lesser efforts really flop and he doesn't have the strong core following of Woody or Mel.  Of course his successes usually are big.

But all have one thing in common and that is they are mainstream.  A Woody Allen film has a low budget by American standards of 20 million dollars. So to me he is still mainstream.
The problem with all of these great writers is that after 10-15 films there eventually becomes a sameness in their style.

I'm lucky that I've been in a position to watch and to most of all chosen to learn many styles so I have my own style but if I want to write something in a Monty Python, Zucker or Jewish I can put myself in the mind set and the planning to do it.

Anyway, I like to see myself as starting in the middle ground with an idea and then taking it to extremes if I choose. But I have chosen what my middle ground is and that's an interesting place.

There's many arguments about high brow low brow etc but this is my best example. It's from Woody Allen's LOVE AND DEATH.  So many other writers  would have just gone for a more obvious punchline.

Girl:           I'm half saint, half whore.

Woody:     Let's hope I get the half that eats.



More later......

A LIST OF COMPLETED FILM SCRIPTS

COMPLETED SCRIPTS

One thing I really learnt in the making of IT'S BRISBANE TONIGHT WOW! is that there is no such thing as a completed script. Meaning that for for a variety of reasons there could and should always be changes during the making of a project.

All of my scripts have a 20 page build up before they get into the crux of the story. In those 20 pages I introduce you to the protagonist and usually a funny/quirky  incident that gets you onside with the main character have some lead up character building scenes. Whether this is correct or not is irrelevant, it's just something I do.

It's not uncommon. The first half hour  of PSYCHO was about Janet Leigh escaping from her dull life having just stolen from the bank she worked in. That was the story line.

In writing THE LAST NIGHT OF THE FILTH the first scene I wrote was set in the middle of the script. It was a piece of dialogue  seven pages long which established a group of characters. In the current final draft that scene has been chopped to two lines. But it was necessary for me as a starting point. For a long time I thought it was great but once the script was completed I saw that it bogged the story down. The toughest thing about writing is not to be too precious with your stuff.



LOVE ON THE ROCKS   Written in 1983. This script I threw out many years ago. Later readings of this were painful and yet upon completion I thought I'd written something very good. It was contrived and boring. However I retrieved 15 funny pages which was to become TWO CUT SNAKES.


THE VAMPYRE - WITH BLOOD AND ROSES
MY STREET KID
LAST NIGHT OF THE FILTH
AFTER DEATH
WHEN BUSHPIGS COLLIDE
KILL VICTOR GOLD
TWO CUT SNAKES
MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK                   ( to be retitled)
BRISBANE MADANIC
IT'S BRISBANE TONIGHT WOW!
GET SMART
WEEKEND OF MADNESS                   ( to be retitled)
OPEN MIKE                                       (DRAMA)
THE LEGEND OF IRON MAIDEN

GET SMART
In 2004 there was an ad on IMDB for writers too write a screenplay for a film version of 60's  TV classic  GET SMART.

Being the single most important influence of my life I got to work on a possible story and wrote the script in two weeks. I sent it off to Hollywood and strangely I had the script returned saying they were not reading unsolicited scripts.

My cousin Ray Ford wanted in the script so it's co-written.  I developed the story and Ray acted as a story editor with an input of ideas.

I based my writing on the script along the 5th season episodes which were written by Arne Sultan , Chris Hayward, Allan Burns and Leonard Stern. This was important to me. However Ray's input was effective because he wrote from the Mel Brooks angle and the writers of the earlier series, like Mike Marmer, Stan Burns, Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso.    

And if you think this writing thing is as a wank, you are probably right, but there's a big difference in those two styles and when you do something like this it's important to know. I guess it's like when you listen to some guy who knows whis music and you go "Yer, whatever'. But he knows his stuff.

As far as GET SMART goes, well I know my my stuff,

My GET SMART script is probably what I am most proud of. I did it justice.

INCOMPLETE SCRIPTS

NED KELLY AND THE BUSHRANGERS ELITE
CASTAWAYS
AUSTRALIA IN THE DARK- SEX OVER AUSTRALIA
THE SYNDICATE
TERMINALLY YOURS
KAKADU KATE
PONDEROSA                          Message: Don't F%$K with the Cartwrights
A DESOLATE PATH                 (PSYCHO THRILLER)