JUST THE FUNNY PARTS

Nell Scovell Loot.co.za (R189) DEY ST

NELL Scovell is a television and magazine writer, producer, director and collaborator on the #1 New York Times bestseller Lean In: Women, Work, and Will to Lead.

She is the creator of the TV series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and her TV writing credits include The Simpsons, Coach, Monk, Murphy

Brown, Charmed and NCIS. She has directed two movies for cable TV. She has contributed to Vanity Fair, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.

Her new book, Just the Funny Parts is a fast-paced, candid, forthright and at times funny and at other times shocking insider’s look at the life of a top TV writer who managed to sneak into the “Hollywood Boys’ Club”.

Through her eyes, you’ll sit in the Simpson writers’ room… stand on the Oscar red carpet… pin a tail on Miss Piggy… bond with Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy… and experience a Stephen King-like encounter with Stephen King.

The book delivers fascinating insight into the creative writing process and ways of surviving the oft fraught workplace that is writing for a living, particularly in a maledominated and difficult workplace.

Comedy writing is Scovell’s speciality: “Nothing is more satisfying than having a positive impact on people’s lives. This realisation also helps explain why I love writing jokes. On a much smaller scale, laughter is a sign of impact. That impact may be fleeting. A laugh may be over in a wink of an eye. But for me that moment is bliss.”

Most of the book is informative and also very funny, but early on Scovell starts weaving a gentle feminist thread that gradually gains momentum and strongly and necessarily dominates its latter parts.

Mostly, Just the Funny Parts is up there with William Goldman’s much acclaimed Adventures in the Screen

Trade. Scovell’s book is interesting. Informative, extremely funny and courageous.