Last month I applied for a spot in NBC's Late Night Writers Workshop, "a two-day program focused on exposing talented sketch and comedy writers to NBCUniversal's late night line-up and readying them for a staff writer position."
If you know me and/or have visited this site, I've been on a mission to land a steady, comedy writing job. This was the perfect opportunity to showcase my skills!
Well, I didn't make the cut.
But, I'm posting this for other aspiring comedy writers, and for the NBC staff who vetted entries to realize they've made a terrible, terrible mistake by excluding me! (It should be noted that the submission website mentions "We particularly encourage female writers and those of diverse backgrounds to apply." So I'm unsure how much my chances were wrecked by not being female or diverse. In fact, I'm a white Jewish male. Which is the exact opposite of "diverse" in a writer's room.)
Applicants were asked to submit "one properly formatted 'sketch' packet", which would contain the following:
1-2 pages of monologue jokes (a la Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) for one or several characters/host personalities.
1-2 pages of headline news/ topical jokes (a la Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update”).
2 sketches, at least one should be a “correspondent” “desk bit” or “pre-taped” sketch (Examples: Jimmy Fallon’s “Thank-You Notes” or Jay Leno’s “Ross the Intern”).
I had trouble discerning the difference between "monologue jokes" and "news/topical jokes", because to me these are the same. So I cherry-picked what I felt were my strongest topical jokes from the last 3-4 months. The "hard news" based jokes I designated for the "Weekend Update" batch, and the lighter, goofier ones for the monologue batch (intended for Jimmy Fallon's voice).
Also, I don't fancy myself as a traditional "sketch" writer, so I churned out two original desk piece ideas for Fallon, instead of an SNL-style sketch.
All of these choices seemed to showcase my strengths, hide my weaknesses, and fell within the competition guidelines. But did these choices help/hurt my chances? The frustrating part is that I'll never know. But I will take another crack at it when the 2014 submission window opens.
Anyhow, here's the packet I submitted:
