A Life in Comedy 2 – Now (Part 1)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): A Life in Comedy
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/06/08
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: What is going on in your life now?
Rick Rosner: If you’re a TV or a movie writer, even if you’re successful, you’ll have some periods of unemployment. At any given time, only about half of the members of the Writers’ Guild are employed. I had a really long run. Where I consistently employed for 14 years, then I lost my late night writing job about 3 years ago.
And quickly learned, I was screwed for getting more employment in that area. In that, there are only about 100 late night writers employed at any given time. There is not a lot of turnover. I don’t have or didn’t have a reputation for being a unique voice, even though I pretty much am, that is a gem who will be an asset to any late night staff.
I talked to an agent who said he would only represent me if I came up with a half-hour comedy spec. script, which struck me as not super difficult, but pretty hard to do an excellent at. So since my experience is not in that area, I could write a spec. script and I could try my hardest. And it would end up being one of a 100 scripts in a pile of submissions.
Out of those 100 people who have submitted. Only 1 or 2 get hired. It seemed like not the best way to proceed to try to make myself one of the top 1 or 2 out of a 100 experienced writers with representation. That I could suddenly jump in and write best one of the best spec. scripts with zero experience. It seemed unlikely.
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