"what do you call the person who got the worst GPA in their PhD program but still defended successfully? Dr."
a mini-interview with Amy Silverberg
Amy Silverberg is so fucking funny.
I noticed her on Twitter years ago, and then had the absolute delight of having a drink with her in a bar during some AWP (which city? I don’t remember now…) and then there were several times I thought, We should get a drink, did we do that? In my fantasy Amy and I have had a lot of drinks in bars.
In, I think 2017, I also went to one of Amy’s stand-up shows here in Los Angeles. I hope that if you’re ever in L.A. you make it to one of her appearances. You won’t regret it. Be on the lookout for her debut novel First Time, Long Time, forthcoming from Grand Central Publishing in 2024.
As is my mini-interview practice, I asked Amy to respond to three to five questions from a total of eight offered.
What are your thoughts in the moments before you get up on a stage you've never been on before?
If I've never been on a stage before, I'm normally worried about small logistical things -- where are the steps (are they steep?), where is the light that signals me to get off stage, how close will the crowd be to the stage, stuff like that. Probably 10 minutes before, I have a rough idea of what jokes I will do, particularly what joke I'll start with, but I usually give myself a lot of freedom to veer from that list, with the exception of a set that's being taped for something "important." This is corny, but the moment I step on stage I say to myself: have fun! That's the reason I started doing standup anyway—I try to remind myself not to put too much pressure on myself or the set.
How old were you when you decided you wanted to be a comedian and what were the thoughts you had about what that would be like?
Oh man, similarly to being a writer, I think I thought of myself as a comedian before I even knew it was an occupation, and definitely before I ever got on stage to tell a joke. I think I've always thought of myself as funny. I've always been funny. A coping mechanism, I think. I grew up in a very anxious Jewish family, and it was my job (though unspoken) to soothe my parents, and make my dad—he was the most anxious— laugh. I think a lot of the things that make you want to be a comedian are the same things that make you want to be a writer: you're a kind of spy, on the outside and inside simultaneously. And in whatever house you grew up, there's usually not enough space/time allowed for you to express yourself. I think the details are always different, but those basics are usually consistent. Strangely, I didn't admit I wanted to be a comedian until after college, despite always being funny. (I was even voted class clown in high school!) It still felt strange and embarrassing to admit, to say "I think I should be on stage for a living -- I think I'm that funny, that I could make a career out of this." Of course, nobody was surprised, It's not like I'd grown up shy, the quiet the math whiz or something. Instead, when I later when on to get a PhD, my dad said, "why!? You're too funny."
Tell us about your ideal audience, whether as a comedian, a writer, or both.
I think it's my therapist, Dr. Barbra! Just kidding, but I do think it's someone smart and funny, for both writing and comedy. In standup, I hate when I do a drunken late night comedy club, and find myself dumbing down material (or doing old sex stuff, let's say) just to make the crowd laugh. Sometimes it's hard to ride that line of making the crowd laugh, but also telling jokes that please you. For the most part, I think audiences are sophisticated, and they want to hear something they haven't heard before. If I had to sum up my comedy style, I'd say I like combining high brow with low brow, quoting a novelist while talking about c*m, for instance. Am I allowed to write c*m? [Yes. —Ed.] As far as my ideal audience as a writer—the same thing I guess. Someone like me. Books have been so important to me (I was a reader long before I was a writer), and I would just like my work to sit on a shelf with the work I admire, and feel at home. The readers who love the books I love--hopefully they're the ideal reader for my work, too.
How do you edit your comedic writing?
With standup I don't do much writing on the page. I have a premise and then I try it out on stage (first open mics or small bar shows, then later larger shows) tweaking it, shortening it, lengthening it. I think I often do standup to get out of writing, so the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a computer and write out a joke word for word. I do keep a notebook with me at all times and write down anything funny, or anything that makes me upset. Usually the best jokes come from stories I find myself repeating to friends and loved ones. They'll say, you already told me what happened to you at Chipotle. If it bears repeating, it's probably funny.
How is the debut novel going?
It's going slowly, but it's going. I wish I was a faster writer! i'm trying to accept my pace for what it is: snail-like.
You're alone in the middle of the ocean. What are your thoughts?
My joke answer: at least I tried.
My real answer: I'm a type 1 juvenile diabetic, so I won't make it too long without insulin. Maybe I should try to swim!
What kind of student were you in your PhD program?
A class clown, as usual! I'm probably a bit of a teacher's pet too, though I did a very good job in my PhD of getting out of work I didn't find relevant to my interests (maybe I shouldn't admit that here haha). My PhD was a double in Creative Writing & Literature, and it was always very important to me that my research didn't get in the way of my writing. I tried to guard it. I always joked to my colleagues, what do you call the person who got the worst GPA in their PhD program but still defended successfully? Dr.). I did discover in my PhD that I love teaching. I don't love academia, but I do love being in a classroom, and talking about books, and how they can transform your life. I also just love college students -- they're so funny and smart and interesting. Come to think of it, they're one of my target audiences—my students. I also think you can become very self absorbed as a writer and comedian, and one of the best ways to forget about yourself is to teach. It is one of the great pleasures of my life that I have taught (and continue to teach) so many cool and interesting college students. And they let me tell jokes about them too, which is another thing I should be grateful for!
You've written for television and you were in a writers room. What was that like?
Well the writers room I was in was especially fun because it was a room filled with comedians. (This was for a show called The Movie Show on the SYFY channel). It was nerve-wracking, because we would have to pitch jokes in front of each other, and if nobody laughed, it felt like bombing on a standup show. During that show, the pandemic began, so we switched to zoom. I was lucky that job lasted so long. In general, my experience in tv writing is probably a lesson in persistence -- I've pitched so many shows that didn't get bought/made, to varying degrees of almost. It's part of the business, I suppose. I like doing a lot of things at once—a lot of irons on the fire—partly because if one thing fails, maybe another thing will succeed. I try not to be too precious about it all. Though my therapist, Dr. Barbra, would be shaking her head if she saw this. "You don't take things to heart?" she'd probably say. "Yeah right." There's a Lorrie Moore story I love, in which a character says, "why is everything a joke to you?" and the protagonist says, "Nothing's a joke to me. It all just comes out like one."