Recap of my guest lecture at the School of Visual Arts

On Monday night, I gave a guest lecture at the School of Visual Arts.  The students said it was "very entertaining" -- because when I lecture, I put on a show!

The class is titled "Careers in the Industry", so I spoke about my various writing jobs.  During the 90-minutes I covered a ton of topics including:

cliches in writing, the dangers of advice, my best jobs, my worst jobs, working at CNN, never say you "want to be a writer", what happens when you don't set goals, writing a polite email, writing for Leslie Nielsen, how topical humor is like a kidnapping, figuring out what the monster wants, the evil Genie, creating characters like you're paining self-portraits, Charles Willeford's tip about writing a page each day before you urinate, finding symbolism in everyday life, trying to fit 10 jokes into a :30 video, unpacking an assignment when someone says it should be "short" and "funny", coming up with a show that's cheaper than "Pants off Dance-Off", and so much more.

I was thrilled that when I mentioned Rod Serling, everyone knew who he was.