Ep 189: David Iserson

First Draft Episode #189: David Iserson

David Iserson, screenwriter of The Spy Who Dumped Me, writer on
Saturday Night Live, United States of Tara, and New Girl, and
author of YA novel Firecracker, talks about micro and macro
humor, how unreliable narrators is one of the beautiful
advantages of writing a book, co-writing as being in conversation
with someone, and the merit of spite writing.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode



Encyclopedia Brown by Donald J. Sobol was one of the only
books marketed to boys that David read as a young boy




Judy Blume, author of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret
and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, and Sweet Valley High by
Francine Pascal were some of the books David read as a kid,
because he wasn’t drawn to the “Boy who only throws
strike-outs!” books




B. Dalton Bookstore, where David would go shopping for books
at the mall -- David says, “As a New Jersey pre-teen and
teen, most of my memories are mall-related.” RIP B. Dalton!




David was very, very into comic strips as a kid, like Calvin
& Hobbes by Bill Watterson and Bloom County by Berkeley
Breathed




There’s a Bat in Bunk Five by Paula Danziger, a book set in
an art summer camp that made David realize he could go to
something other than sports camp during the summer Buck’s
Rock camp in Connecticut




Quentin Tarantino, an independent screenwriter and director
of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction whose work made David
realize that people wrote movies




Zach Braff, actor in shows like Scrubs and writer and
director of Garden State, was David’s TA and freshman year RA
at Northwestern




Miramax, Harvey Weinstein’s film production company, was
where David got his first assistant job after moving to Los
Angeles. David worked for a producer who played a part in
creating The Cider House Rules, Pulp Fiction, and Bourne
Identity




Parks and Recreation, a TV show that I believe shows all its
characters being excellent at something, which makes us like
them more




Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon were the anchors on Weekend Update
when David was submitting jokes to Saturday Night Live and
first got a joke on the air




“Seinfeld, a show about a stand up comic written by some of
the funniest people in the world, but there are very few
‘joke jokes,’” David says. “They are placed in a situation
and you see what this situation means to them. To me, that’s
the highest form of writing comedy.”




David wrote on New Girl, where he says he wrote a lot of
joke-jokes




The United States of Tara, starring Toni Collette, was the
first scripted TV show David worked on




UCLA Extension, which offers a lot of continuing education
classes for writers




Susanna Fogel, David’s co-writer on The Spy Who Dumped Me,
which David says was written out of a “fist-shaking, ‘We’ll
show you!’ energy.”




David and Susanna’s episode of Scriptnotes, a screenwriting
process hosted by John August, writer of Charlie’s Angels,
Big Fish, Go, as well as the Arlo Finch middle grade series
(listen to his First Draft episode here), and Craig Mazin,
writer of upcoming series Chernobyl, as well as The Hangover
Part II and Identity Thief.




“I write jokes for a living, I sit at my hotel at night, I
think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I
write it down. Or if the pen is too far away, I have to
convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny.” ~ Mitch
Hedberg’s joke about writing jokes


 


Subscribe To First Draft with Sarah Enni

Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author
of Divergent; Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of
Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big
Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or
Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we
take deep dives on their careers and creative works.


Don’t miss an episode! Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s free!
Got a book to recommend?

Record yourself raving about it, and send the audio file to
sarah@firstdraftpod.com!
Rate, Review, and Recommend

How do you like the show?


Please take a moment to rate and review First Draft with Sarah
Enni in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen to
podcasts. Your honest and positive review helps others discover
the show -- so thank you!


Is there someone you think would love this podcast as much as you
do?


Please share this episode on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or via
carrier pigeon (maybe try a text or e-mail, come to think of it).
Just click the Share button at the bottom of this post!


Thanks again!