Ep 187: Will Hines

First Draft Episode #187: Will Hines

Will Hines, improviser and actor, host of the podcast, “Screw It:
We’re Just Going to Talk About the Beatles,” and author of How to
be the Greatest Improviser on Earth joins me to talk about using
his Tumblr to test audience engagement; the delicate nature of
writing about a community you are a part of; his thorough
approach to making the self-publication process as professional
as possible; and his next (fictional) book about improv,
co-written with fellow improviser Billy Merritt, Pirate Robot
Ninja.


 
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

Josh Simpson, an improviser and teacher at the Upright
Citizens Brigade training school in Los Angeles, and co-host of
The Meat, an improv podcast

Jimmy Breslin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and
journalist, who wrote The Good Rat, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot
Straight, and The World According to Breslin, and more

The Upright Citizen’s Brigade, the improv group and school
founded by Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, and Ian Roberts.

Will’s Tumblr, Improv Nonsense, which gained traction and has
been featured on Vulture and elsewhere



 


Truth in Comedy by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim
“Howard” Johnson, considered one of the premiere books about
long-form improvised comedy

Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual, the UCB
training manual

Improvise: Scene From the Inside Out by Mick Napier



 


 


Bird by Bird: Some Instructions of Writing and Life by Anne
Lamott, a writing advice book that Will read as a young computer
programmer

Andrew Sullivan, a conservative author, editor, and blogger
who featured Will’s post, “Improv as religion,” on his site,
garnering lots of attention



 


 


The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo



The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Repetition exercises as a part of the Meisner Technique study
of acting



 


 


Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

“A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room,” by George
Saunders, a silly and slightly sci-fi short story that typifies
his early writing and is the kind of humor writing that inspires
Will

John Hodgman, author of Vacationland: True Stories from
Painful Beaches

In writing, Will is concerned about what he calls “The Kevin
Smith Problem,” where every character sounds the same (a la
Clerks, Mallrats, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)

Jason Mantzoukas, an actor, writer, and seasoned improviser
who Will saw constantly improving his craft

Offset printing, a style of printing on the page that is “the
way to make your book look beautiful,” according to Will, but it
is more expensive, and requires a minimum print run

Artist Maëlle Doliveux, who drew the cover of Will’s book

Chip Kidd, a well-known book designer of Jurassic Park by
Michael Crichton; Dry by Augusten Borroughs; and Naked by David
Sedaris (he also has a hugely popular Ted Talk!).

Daniel Clowes, a cartoonist, graphic novelist, illustrator,
and screenwriter. His work is collected in the solo Eightball
project.

The Pirates, Robots, Ninjas theory, coined by Billy Merritt,
a fellow UCB alum and teacher



 


 


The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho; and



 


“Carry On, Jeeves,” by P.G. Wodehouse; and

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams are some of
the funny books Will recommends

Without Feathers by Woody Allen, a collection of his writing
which Will read and enjoyed as a masterclass on comedy before we
knew all that awful stuff about Woody Allen

Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence by Geoff
Dyre, a meta novel about a man who wants to write about D.H.
Lawrence but finds himself wanting to focus on anything else

Steve Martin, who blurbed Geoff Dyre’s book and has written
his own, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life (nonfiction) and
Shopgirl: A Novella (fiction)

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