Keep the stories coming!

What's the most frustrating thing about working in the industry?

How real is "Episodes"? "Entourage"?

more stories please !!

i couldnt imagine living this kinda life, its like the opposite of how i am except the weed part. but its super entertaining.

Any poker or gambling or degen stories? Especially involving celebs, or not?

Fiddy killing it with the questions! I'll answer your above ones a little later when I'm not typing on the phone because they deserve a little more depth imo.

Easily the most frustrating thing in my opinion is the lack of stability. Projects are never a sure thing until you're shooting them. TV shows are never a sure thing to be renewed. No "deal" is a done deal until your agent/manager or yourself have signed for the check and taken possession. An exec you've been working with on a project gets canned and with them usually goes your project.

Also people being friendly and thinking you've struck up s friendship but they really want discounted/free services or inside info that's a bitch

Can you be a little more specific about what you're looking for? I'm intrigued by the question but it's a little vague to me

Episodes I'm not as familiar with. From what I know a married couple are show runners and they peg Matt LeBlanc to star in a corny ass sitcom/drama for them and LeBlanc bangs the wife? From that amount of information it seems fairly accurate. I think I remember one episode where they want to drop the show because of the affair but it's a hit with the network so they have to work through this silly love triangle - that probably has happened more than a couple times in this town

Entourage has a lot of elements of truth or realism within episodes but the larger story lines are exaggerated and grandiose for entertainment purposes. That Vegas trip where they scoop up Ari at like 8:30am on Wilshire and fight with Seth Green at the Hard Rock is fairly real tho except the absurd gambling scenes. I've never been that close to an A-lister as a friend so I couldn't say exactly how close to reality their daily lives were but I would dare to say it was real-ish and went over the top for drama/entertainment when needed. I would say Turtle and Drama were very close to reality characters I run across in life in this town within various people

I've got a couple of poker and degen stories for sure but unfortunately none involving people of note.

Still worth telling, without the star power?

Thanks boil! I'll try to keep entertaining. The questions Fid asked that I still need to address will probably spin into a story or two at least

def

When it comes to movies imo getting a big name actor/director/producer in love with the project is a huge step to getting something made. Obviously far easier to say than to even get one of those types aware of your project, much less reading it.

TV it's more about "getting in the room" or getting hooked up with an actor/director/writer that has a development deal with the network/studio. It took me years to realize the easiest way into writing for sitcoms is befriend a comic that is on the cusp of breaking through and starting writing scripts for them/with them so we they get a deal to make a show you're already a part of their writing circle.

You mentioned Hollywood was age-ist, do you also find it racist? (Assuming your race because of what Omarion's driver said). I think I've watched You Got Served three times this summer, so of course I know who Omarion is.

When you're part of a writing team, how much work is done individually vs. brainstorming together?

What's "easiest"/most fun to write; a storyline or sitcom jokes/one liners.

Do you have any insight in how big part of stand up comedians such as Louie CK or Bill Burr's routines are their own material vs. coming from a team of writers?

Also cool to hear you were on the arrested development team, one of my favorite shows all time.

This is a little harder question to answer than it seems because I could run off a list of people known to be jerks or that I had a short experience with that put me off but I don't know any of those people well enough to chalk it up to more than one out of context bad experience.

More often than not Harrison Ford is gruff and sort of difficult but I think he's really really over fame and Hollywood and just wants to live his life unannoyed by fans

There is rarely a genuine moment in reality TV. Drama, romance, humor, is all set up. Even moments that seem totally natural and are part of people's real lives they are set up for the scene you see on tv.

We don't write dialogue unless the subjects are stuck or sound unnatural/forced on their own. The writing is more focused on situations to put people in so things appear more dramatic/interesting than they ever would probably be.

It's a sad genre and a sort of sad job to write on but a job is a job!

First I'll speak to my personal experience and then comment on what I've seen/heard about with others.

When I sold my first screenplay in late 2009 after the TV Pilot got canned I moved out to Hollywood and I had already been paid for the script sale so the work I was doing on Endless Bummer wasn't getting regular checks; but I was living as if I WAS getting regular checks and after my managers fee and taxes I burned through my first script sale like wildfire. By Summer 2010 I was running out of money and had about $2,000 in monthly expenses. So I got a job selling running shoes at New Balance Santa Monica. I actually kept that job through Spring 2012 while I was doing stand-up and writing scripts. It was a steady job with consistent hours, solid money and they gave me time to do my stand-up and take meetings during the week by letting me work weekends.

Benny actually got me the job there because he had worked there a for couple years before and left to do some production assistant work and was coming back. I was happy for the job and mostly enjoyed it until management wanted too much of my time and I had to move on. I've also consulted for a while at an MMJ dispensary in WeHo that my lesbian friends manage. They needed help curbing some shrink/theft and increasing daily client count and I helped them do both and double their sales. I suppose that could be an AMA in itself that was 2014-2015 part time.

I know that Aisha Tyler kept her job as an accountant 8 YEARS into doing professional stand up at a level that could of supported her lifestyle. She just felt more comfortable having the security of a regular job and her job was very flexible with her schedule. Joe Rogan taught Tae Kwon Do through being a professional stand up until he moved to LA from New York and and got NewsRadio.

If you're smart and you have a good day job who will work with you when you "break in" to the industry and you're not breaking into a corporate job like a manager or agent or production office that has a salary and benefits you should keep that job as long as possible.

If you get an opportunity that pays well enough to allow you to leave your day job, don't burn any bridges and move from living at your means to living below your means instead of above, because while the one time payment may feel huge and un-spendable, my first script was union scale which meant $103k up front and an another $300k if the script was made.

After my Manager took 15% off the top before tax and the government took something like 18% I was left with ~$65,000. I paid back 10k in student loans and I paid 5k in back bills/medical bills/credit cards and moving cost so now there is about $50,000 in the bank. Put 10k in savings I'm down to 40k, 8 months later I've been spending about 3k-4k a month because I'm going out all the time, living with a roommate in a nice apartment in Marina Del Rey and going to dodger games and Lakers games (Lakers won the championship against the Celtics that year) and by the time I got the job with New Balance I was down to about 10k from that sale.

Yea I'm half black and half Jewish/ginger (my mom is a ginger Jew like Kyle from South Park)

Oh most definitely. But not in the way you see from Trump supports or Kapernick haters on social media. It is much more low key and backhanded, although it is just as deeply ingrained in the culture of the business of Hollywood. It's not only racist towards black actors, any minority really, it's been in casting, hiring behind the camera and in the writing of stereotyping minorities. The industry is also sexist.

There is also a horrible culture of sexual inappropriateness and molestation of young boy actors by adventurous predatory male producers/directors. I wouldn't call the last one an epidemic, but it is a much greater problem than anyone would like to admit or believe. It's kind of disturbing how Scientology (which I despise) got a ton of crap but this issue continues to go swept under the rug - like the Catholics protected their priest and silenced those victimized and those who want to stop the cycle of problems so has Hollywood with these monsters.

Guys like Bryan Singer need to be put in jail for a long, long time and they continue to get work and have their devious behaviors ignored. If any of you have a son who gets into acting and a male adult director or producer invites him to a pool party that answer is a big fat NO.

Co-writing depends on the people writing and the type of project and if the project was co-created or was created by one person and then they brought others on board to help them develop it. There's not really a formula for co-writing but it does take plenty of communication, collaboration and transparency between co-writers.

Easiest to write... I guess one liners because they are the shortest. Sitcom jokes can be difficult because there is a line between being witty or clever and being too wordy or "smart" in the writing. Sometimes simpler is better, it's what makes the masses smile and giggle.

I can't speak specifically to the amount of material that Louis CK or Bill Burr write on their own versus bits that are written by friends/other comics that work with them. I would imagine that Louis and Bill both write the majority of their own material, they are both quite prolific. I can say though that pretty much everyone as far as professional headlining/nationally traveling comics collaborates and gets bits/jokes from writers. Louis and Bill both did it for other comics for years too and I wouldn't doubt that they get some material from other writers.

It's a great way for young writers to get their material performed and to establish relationships with bigger acts.

If the writers for Arrested Development were an NBA team I was a D-Leaguer who got a 10 Day contract in March

Are you saying you are a black ginger? Is such a thing even possible?

No I didn't get the ginger goodness

Thanks Obama

Not even some freckles?

Fyi I worked in the film industry for over 15 years as a Location Manager, AD, and Production Manager (first project was a studio feature film in 1987 as a PA, last was a 13 episode T.V. series in 2003 as PM, not picked up alas...)
Not even then. I've worked on projects that were scrubbed after filming began. One was a $100 million feature from Fox that should have been a year of work for me as Assistant PM, 2nd unit AD. We were 10 days into filming and Natamus will confirm they lost $$millions$$ when they shut it down.

The effect that the industry has on your personal life can be devastating. There was a period during my career when I did 4 seasons on a network series. I worked 12 to 16 hour days for 10+ months each year. I related to almost nobody who wasn't my Boss or my employee. Everyone I met either wanted something from me that I didn't want to give them, or had something I wanted that they didn't want to give me. And meanwhile, all my friends turned into acquaintances.