Thursday, February 19, 2015

My Favorite Inspiration


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:

Me and the man himself! I knew there was a possibility we'd be getting our pic with him that day, so I dressed up and tried to straighten my hair, but that morning the power went out when I was using the blow dryer, hence the wonky bangs and half curls. Oh well! Still an amazing moment!


PROP ROOM:

I studied Journalism in college so I know better than to tell you this is a picture of me and the real Brian Williams, because it would be a lie. (too soon??)

One of Conan's most popular bits involved pulling this lever and showing a short, terribly acted, clip of Walker, Texas Ranger. 


Me and Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. It's funny, when I was controlling him he was pretty nice!
At first...


Me hugging Chef Cactus Playing We Didn't Start The Fire on a Flute (minus the flute).

STUDIO:

My "desk picture"! All interns got one of these...the camera man would make the backdrop all lit up and twinkly and take a few pics with his professional camera.


Bruce Springsteen's drummer was the show's bandleader, and I had to get a shot at his drums on the last day.

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).

I loved working on the grid! Prob my fav office job.

So that was just a few highlights of my time with Conan!

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:

Anonymous said...

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.

Unknown said...

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! :)

Jonathan Schramm said...

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;)

Stephen Kozeniewski said...

What a great post...FOR ME TO POOP ON!

Unknown said...

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!

Unknown said...

hahaha! the best thing about controlling him was being able to put him back on the shelf when he got particularly mean!

Kimberly G. Giarratano said...

Dammit! Steve took the good line. I do love me some Fallon, though. Conan's tall.

Leandra Wallace said...

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.

Jonathan Schramm said...

Where's that "like" button?

Carrie Beckort said...

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.

Carrie Beckort said...

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.

Unknown said...

Fallon's so nice, his staff was just a nightmare to work for!

Unknown said...

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

Unknown said...

my dreams would make for some frightening novels haha

Stephen Kozeniewski said...

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.

sage said...

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.

Stephanie Faris said...

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.

Unknown said...

nope I didn't know! that's pretty great, he seems to have more creative freedom now that he's with TBS.

Unknown said...

that's def a great source of inspiration!

Unknown said...

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!

Connie Arnold said...

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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