Comedy writer Eric Cunningham talks about what it takes to be funny with Kira and Rob for the 109th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. A lot of writers dream of working for comedy shows like Saturday Night Live or one of the late night shows. But there’s a lot of competition and success isn’t guaranteed. What does that have to do with copywriting? It turns out, quite a lot. We talked to Eric about:

•  the career path to become a comedy writer and what it takes to succeed

•  how to deal with the up and down of project work

•  what a day in the life of a comedy writer looks like

•  how to stand out in a competitive space

•  why you can’t wait to be chosen and what to do instead

•  what sets the successful comedy writers apart from those who fail

•  what does it take to be funny (and what we can do to be funnier)

•  why he says “Yes” to lots of things (including condo board meetings)

•  why copywriters should use more humor in their copy

•  the one thing he has done to up-level his career

•  where comedy is headed in the future

We had some technical difficulties half way through the show but it doesn’t affect the excellent advice Eric shares about what it takes to succeed in the world of comedy—and copy. Listen by clicking the play button below. Or subscribe on your favorite podcast app (we like Overcast). Prefer to read? Scroll down for a full transcript.

 

The people and stuff we mentioned on the show:

Streaks

Eric’s Twitter

Upright Citizen Brigade Theater

Kira’s website

Rob’s website

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

Intro: Content (for now)

Outro: Gravity

Full Transcript:

Rob:   What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That's what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast.

Kira:   You are invited to join our club for Episode 109 as we chat with comedy writer Eric Cunningham about writing for TV outlets like Comedy Central and TruTV. What it takes to stay sharp as a comedy writer, his writing process and what we might borrow from it, and what it all has to do with copywriting.

Welcome Eric.

Rob:   Hey Eric.

Eric:   Hello! Thanks for having me.

Kira:   I'm so excited to have you here. I was just telling Rob, Eric is a good friend. He's close to home. He's a fellow New Yorker, and I've known him for a while and he's married to one of my best friends. So, this is a very special interview. I'm really excited that you're here.

Rob:   Don't blow it Eric.

Kira:   Yeah. No pressure!

Eric:   What if this ruins a friendship? A long lasting ..

Kira:   Right! Yeah, just to have you here as a comedy writer and someone's who's really outside of our space as copywriters and what we're doing, I feel like there's a lot we can learn from what you do day to day and just your experience so far.

So, let's kick this off with your story. How did you end up as a comedy writer?

Eric:   Sure, so I was not a funny child at all. I was like a big nerd and, you know, liked politics and all that stuff. And then, in college, I was kind of like looking for my thing and I couldn't find it because my whole thing growing up was being smart and then when you go to college, you're surrounded by all smart people, and then I was like oh, I don't have a thing anymore. So, I was just desperately looking for something that would differentiate myself a little bit, or just like find a home.

And, they were taking columnists at the school newspaper and I was like, I don't have the attention span to write a full column, so I'll just write ... essentially this is ... I mean this is how old I am. It was basically Twitter before Twitter was there. It was just like short little one liner observational jokes that were not associated with anything else and just like here’s joke, here's a joke, here’s a joke. And,