If you care to believe it, this blog tries to make a difference in the world by dedicating itself to the Democracy, Discussion, Freedom, and Furtherment of Comedy.

The author (mainly? sometimes??) talks about Singapore, but is into all things comedy and comical. And once even seriously entertained the notion of going into stand-up comedy full-time.

recommended from alt.comedy.standup FAQ... - "a magazine about standup..."; article reference http://www.sheckymagazine.com/french.htm - on "how to transition from stand-up, into fulltime hollywood comedy writing" (i suppose)...

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oh hey! just took a look at the site again, and saw something useful - the writer's credits...

<quote>
DAN FRENCH has an M.A. in Rhetoric, and a Ph.D. in Media Studies, but don't let that fool you. And he still hasn't mailed us an 8 X 10.

Vist Dan's site, FunnyPlanet.com!
</quote>

take note of all of the other links at the site as well - links to his all (?) his old articles...

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How Do I Get Your Job?

To bring up to speed those who didn't read my previous article(s) for SHECKYmagazine, I am a comic who in the past few years has transitioned out of standup and into fulltime comedy writing in Hollywood. After a year stint on The Best Damn Sports Show Period, I've now been at The Late, Late Show with Craig Kilborn for approaching six months. Since our show is once again on a dark week, I thought I'd take a little time and catch SHECKYmagazine readers up on the glorious world inside network television comedy writing.

...

But none of what I've said so far is why I'm taking time to write this article. The truth is that I'm writing because I've had a lot of comics approach me not so much to help them get a writing job, but to help them at least understand how to get a writing job. They ask for advice in different ways-- what kind of sample do I need, how do I get my stuff seen, etc.-- but it's all the same question: how do I get hired when I'm not inside the system, I don' t have an agent, I don't have direct experience, and I don't know much about the game?

Since I'm now an "expert" on getting work in Hollywood, I'm going to try to tell you what you need to do in order to get hired on a talk show. There are four elements, I think.

(1) Understand the layout of the land in comedy writing.

(2) Understand your own abilities at comedy writing.

(3) Gather together proof of those abilities.

(4) Get that proof to someone who can hire you.

I'll now cover these with far less depth than they deserve. ...

* *

yada yada... (check out his original article here)

And his conclusion of the matter:

And that's it. I know this is long, and ramble-ish, but I wanted to have something comics can read that tells them how to do this stuff. That way I can say "Go to SHECKYmagazine" instead of trying to say all of this in conversation while I'm trying to concentrate on my drinking.

In the end, I don't mind trying to help, I really don't. It's part of the process out here, and it's part of who I am as a good Midwesterner/Southerner with a Catholicized conscience. Depending on your strength-to-weakness ratio, and depending on how soft-hearted I am at the time, and depending on how many other guys I'm already trying to help, I might actually help you with getting a job, or with building your strengths and losing some of your weakness. But as you could probably guess, doing much of any of that is time consuming and effort-filled, and with a family and a job I don't have much extra time or energy these days. So best to come to me if you're already very competent with very little weakness. Or even better, you're competent and I like you. Or maybe even better better, you're competent, I like you, and I think you can help me get work down the road because you seem really motivated, talented, and together. Sorry, I don't mean to be less than authentic, but a truth of Hollywood is that you can get by without friends, but you can't get by without people willing to hire you. Having something to trade for something you want is always a good idea in this town.

Hopefully after reading all this you understand better what you need to bring to the table if you want to write comedy in Los Angeles. It's a sharky world in Hollywood, but it's not an impossible one. You just have to have your game together so you end up being a little sharky yourself, and not floating around like chum.