I recently read “A Very Punchable Face” by Colin Jost. Below are the quotes I found most interesting. If you like them, buy the book.
“Harvard is a quarter athletes and legacies, a quarter geniuses, and then the remaining half are fairly smart kids who suddenly realize they aren’t geniuses.” (53)
“I spent about eighty hours a week at the Lampoon, and took an approach I would later take at SNL: I wrote more than anyone else because I wanted to improve as fast as I could.” (67)
“Only a couple made it into the magazine, I was still learning from all the rejections, too. My thought process was always: Keep writing new stuff. Don’t worry about what gets accepted or re-jected. Just keep moving forward and keep improving.” (67)
“It was the first time I was willing to put 100 percent of my effort into one single pursuit without fear of failing, because I loved doing it so much that I couldn’t focus on anything else. (It’s a miracle I graduated.)” (67)
“No one in comedy (or any field, really) succeeds in a vacuum. And the faster you find friends who challenge you and sometimes make you jealous, the faster you’ll grow as a comedian (and regress as a human).” (69)
“Liz Cackowski, one of the senior writers, warned me: “Don’t let it get to your head. Last year, a new writer got two sketches on his first show and by the end of the year he was fired.” … I took Liz’s advice to heart and completely let go of any joy I derived from my first sketch. It’s a Puritanical pattern I would follow for the rest of my career at SNL: If I had a great week, I would enjoy it on Sunday, then forget about it by Monday. And if I had a bad week, I would fall asleep on a pizza on Sunday, then forget about it by Monday.” (115)
“What you realize years later is that so much of your career is driven by your peers. Lorne always says, “You never want to be the smartest person in the room,” because you always want to challenge yourself and try to get to the level of the people you admire.” (118)
“Being the head writer at SNL is like being an assistant zookeeper at a zoo where you used to be a monkey.” (135)
“The reality is: If there are great writers on staff (and a great cast), you’re gonna look like a great head writer. If the writers are only so-so, then you better find new writers fast or they re gonna find a new you.” (139)
“The only other thing you can do is lead by example. If you want the staff to write smart sketches, then you have to write smart sketches yourself (and occasionally some really dumb sketches to keep them honest).” (139)
“Basically, I was terrified of fucking it up. And that might be the single worst instinct to have when you’re trying to make something your own.” (195)
“Any promotion or opportunity you get in life comes with increased exposure and increased criticism. The more people want your job, the more shit you’re gonna get for not doing it well. And the more famous you get, the more people are gonna hate you.” (199)
“Sometimes it takes a long time to learn how to play like yourself.” -Miles Davis (207)
“If I’m gonna get fired, I might as well get fired doing what I believe in. And after that moment, I never tried a joke unless I wanted to try it. I never went along with a bit I thought was lame just to appease someone else. And I truly didn’t care about getting fired. I wanted to tell jokes and write sketches that I cared about and not really worry about anything that was out of my control.” (208)
“The thing I learned about Weekend Update, and about SNL in general, is that no one (including Lorne) actually knows what they want until they see it succeed.” (208)
“I’ve learned to eliminate any joke I wouldn’t be excited to say on the air, even if it seems like a “safe” joke that “will work.” (I now hate the phrase “That will work.” It’s such a mediocre goal to set for yourself.)” (209)
“I’ve also learned that if a joke makes us laugh in our office on Friday night, it’s probably worth trying even if the audience doesn’t like it. Because why not? Even if the joke bombs at dress rehearsal, at least I can turn to Che and say, “Remember when we thought that was funny?”” (209)
“My first year on Update, Jason Sudeikis told me, “Try at least one thing on Update every week that’s totally your voice. That only you would write.” Four years later, that advice finally made sense.” (209)
“What I didn’t understand, having never hosted an awards show before, is that you need to violently prioritize the one or two ideas you really care about or they will get pushed aside.” (269)
“Out of the roughly thirty writers and cast members, only two of them were married and only one had kids. It’s a job for young, single people, because when SNL is at its best, the cast and writers are essentially living at work. They might go home for a few hours, but they’re still thinking about the show.” (306)
”Being forced to generate something every week means at some point you’ll be tired enough to let down your guard and write the dumbest idea that pops into your head because your brain can’t think of anything better. And sometimes that turns out to be the best sketch you wrote all year.*” (307)
Liked the quotes? Buy the book here.
