Growing up, I was easily impressed by talent. I had so many crushes on female performers as a preteen and beyond. I mean, I loved Laurel & Hardy and the Three Stooges, but I’d get starry eyed watching Mary Tyler Moore or Jane Curtin. Funny ladies definitely helped fuel my growing desire to write comedy. The culmination of my wayward crushes occurred in my 16th year watching Carol Burnett. |

She answered the question, which is not the question I should have been asking. I flat out should have asked about writing, not “show business." It was almost like I couldn't even admit this was something I wanted to do to myself. A middle-class kid from Staten Island? Yeah, that'll happen. The urge was there, but not the nerve.
I had seen them do a quick “Who’s on First” type routine in a sketch and that sparked my plugs. Being a huge fan of Abbott & Costello, I had written an “updated” “Who’s on First”-style sketch and submitted it to them as the “proper” way to honor the original. I dug up an address (not as easy back in the pre-Internet days) and mailed out that sketch along with a parody of a syndicated Twilight Zone-like TV show that was hosted by Orson Wells which was broadcasting at the time. Needless to say, I had no idea about formatting. The only thing I had seen of stage plays were the published plays we saw at school and I followed that template.

Oh, well, I'd keep at it, learn formatting and stop sending carbon copies. There would always be a need for comical writing, right?