Here’s a short film I co-wrote with Brett Johnson for this year’s Boston 48 Hour Film competition. For those unfamiliar, the entire production must be written, filmed, and edited in two days. Our entry was just accepted into the Best of Boston screening, which will be held at Kendall Square Cinema on June 11.
Our constraints for this year’s project were:
Character - Brian Higgins, inventor
Prop - a net
Line - “Believe me, it’s worth it.”
Genre - Suspense
“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”
Henry Miller, 1950.
TSJ: You riff a lot with the crowd. That must make each show stand out.
MN: That’s the beauty of stand up. I realize, as I get better, that every show will naturally be different. I used to go up with this particular order of each joke. Now I just go onstage and see what happens. I’ll start with something and then just go. If it doesn’t work, I’ll pick up another. Seinfeld has a great analogy, you’ve got some jokes that are your heavy hitters, you’ve got your bunter, you’ve got your first baseman and so on.
TSJ: Then in the early days was it boring doing the jokes by a specific order?
MN: It wasn’t because it was hard. If it’s hard it can’t really be boring, you know? But it was definitely more structured. Now I’m like let’s have fun. And that’s great because you feel like you’re being funny instead of just saying funny things. I want to get good quick, and the only way to do that is to work it, work it, work it.
-Mark Normand
via the smoking jacket
“If I’ve learned anything, anything, getting older, it’s the value of moment-to-moment enjoyment. When I was young, all my career was “If I do well tonight, that means that Wednesday will be better. That means I can give this tape to my agent and … ” It was this ongoing chess game. And that is a really disappointing game, because when you get to checkmate, it never feels like it should. And there’s another board that they never told you about. So if I come here and talk to you, if I have an enjoyable three hours, goddamn it, that counts.”
Albert Brooks
