Los Angeles Times

Judd Apatow learns from the best

- By Carolyn Kellogg carolyn.kellogg@latimes.com

Judd Apatow started interviewi­ng comedians 30 years ago, when hewas a teen comedy fanatic from Long Island. Armed with a bulky recorder and the media credential­s of his high school radio station, Apatow talked with heroes such as Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno to discover the keys to the comedy kingdom. It worked: Apatow has become one of our most successful comedy writer-director-producers, responsibl­e for, among others, “Knocked Up,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Anchorman” and “Freaks and Geeks.” Nowhe has sat down with more comedians (including Louis CK, Steve Martin, Jimmy Fallon and Amy Schumer) and collected all these conversati­ons in a book called “Sick in the Head” (Random House: 512 pp., $27).

“Sick in the Head” offers an oral history of contempora­ry comedy, revealing a drive away from joke telling and toward a more intimate point of view. The funniest interviews— like those with Mel Brooks and Jeff Garlin— were done in front of live audiences. Apatow spoke tome by phone. You recorded some of these interviews on cassette in the 1980s and have kept them all this time.

Oh, my gosh, I’m such a hoarder. I’m just the kind of person who would treat these cassette tapes like gold. I had them transferre­d digitally as soon as CDs were invented. I’m a nerd thatway. Theywere always handled with care, although a few did disappear over the years. But for the most part, I treated them like the ark of the covenant. When you started, you wanted to crack the code of these comedians. Did you?

Somuch of the advice thatwas given tome when Iwas15 and16 years old, I took. Everything from the logistics of howto get on at a comedy club to discipline and patience. Alot of what people talked about was that it took a really long time to becomea good comedian. Thatwas important to hear. Itwas good to know, “Oh, you’re not going to be good at this in six months; this is going to take about seven years.” When you’re a kid you’re so impulsive— to set your clock at a slower pace was really healthy for me. Did you edit down those early interviews? You never seemto ask any silly questions.

Iwas really serious about trying to do a good job. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, because I looked up to everybody; my night mare would be to come across as some idiot kid. I did better in some than in others; a lot of those people were very intimidati­ng. Some people were so nice that it became easy. Jerry Seinfeld was so easy to talk to and warm that Iwas able to have a great conversati­on about howto get into comedy and howto write jokes. That was my favorite one of the time. You write that you started doing these interviews as away to build a career.

My grandfathe­r was a jazz producer. In the 1940s he recorded all these great jazz and blues musicians at their homes and on their front stoops, people like Dizzy Gillespie and Ray Charles and Charlie Parker. I always knew thatwas away to create your own career, because I had heard the legends of what he had done. I studied screenwrit­ing at USC, but Imainly did it because therewas no comedy major. Nowthere is a comedy major at a lot of these colleges, but back then you had to figure it out for yourself. The proceeds of this book go to 826, an organizati­on that supports disadvanta­ged kids develop their writing skills.

I started working with 826 because I so admired Dave Eggers and his commitment to charity. I started helping him out, but I didn’t think toomuch about it. Then I realized: Oh, I’m doing this because writing saved my life. Without writing, Iwould never have been able tomake it in this world. The idea that there are these places where any kid can walk in for free and get tutored is really powerful. Whenwe sold the book, there definitely was a moment where I thought, “I should have kept all this money for the Judd Apatow Charity.” But I’m glad it’s doing well for them. You showcase Amy Schumer at the front of the book, although it’s because her name starts with A. Howdid you decide on the interview order?

I tried to block them into old ones and newones, or here are friends, here are heroes. I never liked howthey bunched up. Then I said, “Why don’t we just look at what would happen if itwas alphabetic­al?” If Twitter and the Internet had been around when youwere a teenager, would you have been driven to go as deep and far?

I think if all this stuff existed I wouldn’t have interviewe­d anyone: I just would have gone on YouTube and watched their interviews or listened to podcasts. And Iwould have been very happy doing that. But what it did for me, it made it feel like being a comedian and a comedy person was possible. Because when I met them I thought, “Oh, they’re just like me. This is just another guy from Long Island whoworked his ass off.” Andthat gave me hope that I might be able to succeed. All these people were incredibly nice tome when Iwas some snot-nosed brat bugging them for stories.

 ?? Random House ?? SINCE his teens Judd Apatow has interviewe­d comedy greats.
Random House SINCE his teens Judd Apatow has interviewe­d comedy greats.

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