An Interview With
Jason S. Grossman

Love Me

 

I have known you for a long time and was quite excited to see your play, Love Me.  It is clever, funny, and filled with great one-liners.  How do you learn to write like that?

I love comedy.  It’s one of the most important ingredients to a good life.  I love all forms of humor.  I try to write regularly, but that doesn't always happen.  Whenever I think of a joke, half-joke, observation, premise, line of dialogue, or semi-thought, I scribble it down for possible future use.  Ever so often a little nugget finds its way into a bigger work.  Most of the good stuff, however, comes from writing and then rewriting and rewriting…

You do a lot of writing for various comedy groups including your own company, Funny Sheesh.  How does this type of writing differ from playwriting/screenwriting, etc.?

The short pieces are a little easier to do, especially when you have specific characters in mind.  You have a full world to explore but only a few pages to do it.  The more substantial pieces take a lot more work.  I've collaborated with people on full length scripts, and I enjoy that.  When I'm writing, I ask the right questions, I think.

Since 2000, every Christmas, you play 33 characters in It's a Wonderful One-Man-Show Life!  (co-created with Sharon Fogarty; adapted and directed by S. Fogarty). It is a fun show.  Why did you want to do this and what's it like to take it out of the closet each year performing it here and at many other places in the country?

Well, first of all, it's my favorite film.  It's brilliant, emotional, hilarious and absolutely wonderfully executed. I'm sure I've seen it more than anything else.  Years ago I wrote and staged a couple of short pieces that were parodies of the film.  One was called "It’s a Wonderful Vice" about what would happen if George Bailey decided he preferred the darker world that Clarence, the angel, showed him.  We came up with the idea to do a full one man show of the whole thing, and the feedback from audiences and press has been quite generous.  I'm very proud of the work and very appreciative that Sharon did the adaptation and direction.

Most of the writers we publish have degrees in some aspect of theatre.  Your degrees are far afield from theatre but you have instead taken classes with several excellent improv people and writers. Does this prove that talent usurps most classroom training?

Whoa. No. I'm the official exception to the rule. No, seriously, I've learned from some very talented people.  I've had the pleasure of working with many very funny people in plays, sketch comedy and improv shows over the years and things have rubbed off.  I've learned a lot through trial and loads of errors.  I just want to get better and create more. And I hope that others like the stuff, too.

You wrote and developed a motivational course "The Art of Socializing and Networking" which incorporates improvised social scenarios. You have taken this to various colleges in the area.  Could you tell us more about this course and how it demonstrates the practical side of theatre?

I used to teach the course a lot earlier in the decade, and it was quite rewarding for me. I think the course helped some people be a little more confident in different social and networking situations. I know it helped me to listen to others while conversing and focus on them as opposed to being in my head. While developing the class I got the brainstorm one day to take advantage of my experience writing comedy and doing improv and incorporate it into the class. I put all these scenarios into the class where we explored how not to act in different situations and how bad, and funny, it appears to the outside eye. Bottom line, I wanted the class to be instructional and entertaining.  I figured it would make the class more memorable and the material more useable.

Do you think you would ever write a play that didn't have at least one funny character and, if so, what would it be about?

That's an excellent question. No. I think everything I will ever write will have at least some funny characters.  But then again, I think every character is funny. All people are funny. Even if someone doesn't appear to be inherently funny or is even overtly humorless, what's hilarious is that they are oblivious to how they appear to the world. They'e not in on the joke.  Now, that's funny… Well, maybe I'll write a psychological thriller… Nah.

When asked you say you consider yourself a writer first, then a producer.  What is it about producing that you do seem to enjoy it and do a good job as well?

I don't know if I consider myself a producer at all.  But I want to get my stuff out there so I "produce" it so it's seen.  I still have a lot to learn about that.  But I' m learning.  Slowly…

Interview with Jason S. Grossman was conducted by NYTE Small Press April 2011

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