Show Notes
Mike Drucker (The Tonight Show; Full Frontal with Samantha Bee) discusses his new memoir, Good Game, No Rematch, writing his life through the lens of video games, how prose is different from stand up comedy, how his family responded to stories about them, discovering his emotional vulnerabilities, and more.
Check out a live DEAD PILOTS SOCIETY this Sunday in LA, or stream on demand from anywhere! TICKETS HERE The cast includes but is not limited to Peri Gilpin (Frasier), Isabella Gomez (One Day at a Time), Brandon Scott Jones (Ghosts), Jordan Rodrigues (Ladybird), Mary Beth Barone (Black Mirror; Overcompensating), Clancy Brown (Highlander; The Shawshank Redemption), Brendan Scannell (Loot), Caitlin Reilly (Dead Boy Detectives), Courtney Parchman (Sex Lives of College Girls; "Average Fashion Blogger"), and lots more.
THE WRITERS PANEL IS A COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION. Follow and support the show by subscribing to Ben Blacker's newsletter, Re:Writing, where you'll also get weekly advice from the thousands of writers he's interviewed over the years, as well as access to exclusive live Q&As, meet-ups, and more: benblacker.substack.com
Come see Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Busy Philipps, Joshua Malina, Janet Varney, and more in The Thrilling Adventure Hour live in a city near you! https://thrillingadventure.live for details.
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More from The Writers Panel
Joe Port & Joe Wiseman (creators, Eternally Yours; Ghosts) discuss the death and rebirth of their new show (thanks to Dead Pilots Society!), the "easy" eleven year path to getting it on the air, their comedy influences, and more.
Russell T. Davies (Tip Toe; Doctor Who; Queer As Folk) discusses building a story out of anger, his relationship with actors, his response to stupid notes, discovering writing, his unique process, empty staircases, and more.
Anthony King (Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat; Rooster; The Afterparty) discusses worldbuilding in the real world, what's too funny for reality, lessons learned from Jury Duty that are applicable to traditional script writing, how the game was nearly blown up, and more.
Teacher and script consultant Pilar Alessandra is ending her inspiring and instructive podcast, On the Page, after 19 years and 1000 episodes. Ben Blacker administers Pilar's exit interview, discussing why she started the podcast, invaluable advice gleaned from the writers she's interviewed, the "drunk and naked" early episodes, how to write great dialogue, tips on pitching from her children, podcast as inadvertant autobiography, workflow, her favorite episodes, and more. You can listen to On the Page wherever you get your podcasts, and visit onthepage.tv to find out about Pilar's classes and script consulting. She knows her stuff!
Cassie Pappas (showrunner, Lucky; Silo; Griselda) discusses shooting in Vegas, movies that inspired the tone of Lucky, the emotional guts of the show, getting weird with the writers, showrunning as a "creative team sport," whether or not you need to live in LA to work in TV, and more.