The Secret To Being Funny
By Mark Scarbrough - November 28, 2011
Bruce and I have had so much fun giving interviews and talking to people about our book busting 101 cooking myths: LOBSTERS SCREAM WHEN YOU BOIL THEM. We've even hosted a few culinary trivia challenge games at bookstores across the country. What a blast!
One question comes up all the time: how'd you make the book so funny?
The secret? There are two of us. You know the hardest thing? Being funny alone. Sure, you can crack yourself up once in a while. But most of the time, you're just amusing yourself. Other people won't think it's very funny. It's too insidery, too personal.
But comedy usually gets written in teams. Because you can figure out if you're just laughing at the voices in your head. You've got a built-in audience.
We're always trying to crack each other up. I'm a pretty good mimic, so I sneak up behind Bruce and suddenly start talking like John Wayne. Or Joan Rivers. He's more Borscht belt. He hikes his pants up to mid-chest and starts complaining about how he's so "greppsy."
It goes from there. We wrote the book in a state of constant laughter. We'd sit in my office--I was at my desk; he was in the cushy chair next to it. (Hey, how'd that happen?) And we'd just start riffing on the myths. We knew the science, had done our homework. Now it was time to get it on the page. And so we spend most days laughing hysterically.
Plus, we had an editor with a great sense of humor. Some of the best lines in the book were inspired by her comments.
So the secret to being funny? People. The more, the better. Because laughter ties us together, makes us human. And busts some pretty stubborn food myths, too.
One question comes up all the time: how'd you make the book so funny?
The secret? There are two of us. You know the hardest thing? Being funny alone. Sure, you can crack yourself up once in a while. But most of the time, you're just amusing yourself. Other people won't think it's very funny. It's too insidery, too personal.
But comedy usually gets written in teams. Because you can figure out if you're just laughing at the voices in your head. You've got a built-in audience.
We're always trying to crack each other up. I'm a pretty good mimic, so I sneak up behind Bruce and suddenly start talking like John Wayne. Or Joan Rivers. He's more Borscht belt. He hikes his pants up to mid-chest and starts complaining about how he's so "greppsy."
It goes from there. We wrote the book in a state of constant laughter. We'd sit in my office--I was at my desk; he was in the cushy chair next to it. (Hey, how'd that happen?) And we'd just start riffing on the myths. We knew the science, had done our homework. Now it was time to get it on the page. And so we spend most days laughing hysterically.
Plus, we had an editor with a great sense of humor. Some of the best lines in the book were inspired by her comments.
So the secret to being funny? People. The more, the better. Because laughter ties us together, makes us human. And busts some pretty stubborn food myths, too.
