It goes without saying that when we write, we pull from our own experiences.
My favorite source of inspiration is my internships at NBC. I interned for Late Night with Conan O'Brien in college, and when his show ended I finished my semester with Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Working for Conan taught me a ton about working in television and the art of comedy. Obviously, sketch comedy and comedy in novels are two completely different things. The former is in-your-face and the latter is a LOT more subtle. But I realized the other day that in every MS I write, someone works in television in some way.
So today I thought I'd share some pictures from my time at NBC:
PROP ROOM:
Me and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. It's funny, when I was controlling him he was pretty nice!
At first...
STUDIO:
OFFICE FUN:
Probably the nicest human being on staff (and in general life), Brian Stack. This was after rehearsal where he was playing "Frankenstein Dressed as Sarah Palin"...I remember asking for this pic and he said in completely serious tones: "Don't you want another after taping when I'm wearing the dress, too?" (side note, I wasn't trying to match the Palin glasses, I just happened to be wearing my own glasses in this shot).
Oh and with Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary being in the news so much, I thought I'd share one of my most prized pictures:
Conan's wrap party on Feb 20th, 2009 was held in SNL's Studio 8H (Conan's 6A was too small to contain all the awesomeness)...so a bunch of us got pics as if we were "hosting." Hosting SNL is a huge dream of mine! I'd probably break every .5 seconds but I'd still love to do it!
What's your favorite inspiration to pull from??
xoxo Beth
21 comments:
Who the heck can top this?! hahaha I'm so jealous right now! My sister and I got free tickets to his NYC show when he came back to this side, and though we were in the nosebleed section, it was so great!
I would have to say my everyday you-can't-make-this-stuff-up mishaps are great inspirations for me. Some things that have happened in my life are just too weird for words.
aaww yay I'm so glad you liked it! I'm so grateful I got to do it! and yes, same here--the stuff you can't plan if you tried is awesome inspiration! :)
Great post, Beth! I'm with Debra, who can top you?
I actually pull a lot of inspiration from my travels. I've been lucky enough to visit India, China (lots of other Asian countries), Europe, the Middle East, and always try to work in some of the memories, things I've seen into my writing. I also just watched "Magic Beyond Words", the unauthorized J.K. Rowling Lifetime bio-pic, yesterday and that gave me some inspiration too.
Jealous of your "famousness," but also privileged to write alongside you;)
What a great post...FOR ME TO POOP ON!
aaaw the boarders are the best! I'm honored to write alongside you guys! that's some awesome inspiration to pull from--I would love to travel more in the future. Having seen so many other cultures must be great to include in your work!
hahaha! the best thing about controlling him was being able to put him back on the shelf when he got particularly mean!
Dammit! Steve took the good line. I do love me some Fallon, though. Conan's tall.
You've got such cool pics and stories to show the grandkids someday! How many ppl have hugged a cactus and lived to tell about it? ;) I find I'm inspired by music in my car. Like I'll hear a particularly cool line and the music's all beaty and epic and I'm like I want to write something that feels like that! I also feel inspired when I think back on growing up going to my public library, which was when I first realized I someday wanted to be an author.
Where's that "like" button?
Great post, and love the pics :-) I seem to be inspired mostly by my dreams... Now where those dreams come from, who knows! Like Leandra, recently I have also been inspired by some music.
Great post, and love the pics :-) I seem to be inspired mostly by my dreams... Now where those dreams come from, who knows! Like Leandra, recently I have also been inspired by some music.
Fallon's so nice, his staff was just a nightmare to work for!
love libraries!! I think it's all the quiet, I love how I can actually think there! I should try writing in one someday haha
my dreams would make for some frightening novels haha
Did you see he has a new show on Adult Swim? Just premiered last week. Weird that you posted this at the same time practically.
This looks like fun and it is nice to see what you got to do on your internship. As for my inspiration, I spent a year once in Virginia City, Nevada and the desert got in my blood and I always feel at home when I am out there.
I interned at our local ABC affiliate in college, which was not even close to being as amazing as this. I can't imagine being on the SNL stage. How COOL would that be?!!! A once-in-a-lifetime experience. I'm curious about Fallon's staff... I'll bet you have some DIRT! I do remember being amazed by his talent back when he was first on SNL, singing those songs on Update. I thought, "That guy has something special." Even when he was always cracking up in sketches, he had that "it" factor.
nope I didn't know! that's pretty great, he seems to have more creative freedom now that he's with TBS.
that's def a great source of inspiration!
It was amazing! He is so awesome, I'm pretty sure he broke in every single sketch but it was such a staple of SNL that it made me wait for him to break.. especially that Debbie Downer sketch ha!
Wow, how great is that! What an amazing experience for you, Beth, and certainly must have provided plenty of inspiration. Thanks for sharing the terrific photos!
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