Creativity, co-workers found in the office
No one else was in
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
The room where it happened
No one really knows how the game is played The art of the trade
How the sausage gets made
We just assume that it happens
But no one else is in
The room where it happens
— Lyrics from Hamilton, by Lin-manuel Miranda For 38 years, I was fortunate enough as the editor of MAD Magazine to have been in one of the rooms where it happened. As “one of the usual gang of idiots,” I got to see how the satire sausage gets made. That’s why I’m both horrified and saddened
when I hear that companies, especially companies whose business model depends on the creation of intellectual property, are considering bailing on cities like New York and embracing virtual conferencing as the new norm.
A typical day at MAD consisted of the staff crammed into my office riffing on the news, asking “What if ?” and desperately trying to come up with something...anything... to fill pages in the next issue. Sometimes the ideas flowed effortlessly, but there were plenty of other times when they didn’t. And on those days people got tired, nerves got frayed, arguments erupted. In that way MAD meetings were no different than meetings at General Motors.
But you know what else happened? Relationships were formed, body language was read. Familiarity and trust were established. Off the cuff remarks were heard (and not clipped because two people were talking at once) and energy and momentum were never stymied because of a freezing of the Wi-fi or the barking of a family dog.
And sometimes, when we were lucky, some really great sausage got made. Two examples come to mind.
Several years ago I was sitting in my Manhattan office with another editor, Charlie Kadau. Charlie said he was planning a trip down to the Delaware River. In my typical snarky fashion, I told Charlie that if he was going there to see Washington crossing the Delaware he was 200 years too late. Fortunately Nick Meglin (my editorial partner and a shameless punster) was walking by just as I made the comment. “What’s that?” he asked, “Washington is crossdressing the Delaware?!”
Charlie and I let out an appropriate groan, but we knew instantly that Nick had stumbled into comedy gold. Within minutes we were on the phone to Syracuse-based artist Richard Williams to commission a dead-on parody of the famous Emanuel Leutze painting, only in the MAD version Washington would be dressed in a shocking pink evening gown with spaghetti straps and a white mink stole. It became an instant MAD classic. OK, technically Nick didn’t have to be in the room where it happened, he only needed to be walking by it.
Another time the staff was hunkered down in my office struggling mightily to come up with the magazine’s next cover. No good ideas were presenting themselves. About two hours in, the meeting was interrupted by MAD’S licensing director who was giving a tour of the offices to a buyer for a national retailer. After some pleasantries, MAD editor Joe Raiola asked, “Do you know what makes MAD different from all your other licensees? Before the buyer could respond, Joe said, “Only at MAD will someone do this.” And with that Joe poured an entire bottle of water over his head. The room exploded in laughter. In that moment, whether by luck or his instinct, Joe’s outrageous, stupid stunt broke our creative block and unleashed the pent up energy in the room.
We came up with a cover a few minutes later.
So let COVID-19 run its course, but then let’s all get back to the office. Call me old school, but I don’t think anyone will ever be singing...
No one else was in
The Zoom where it happened The Zoom where it happened The Zoom where it happened