Writer/Director Thom Harp on Finding the Humor In HOME DELIVERY

We are so happy to have as our guest, Thom Harp, a screenwriter and director recognized for his work in comedy films and digital media. Thom is here to discuss 'HOME DELIVERY,' his latest comedy, which he both wrote and directed, scheduled for release on March 27 at a local theater. Furthermore, Thom has three feature projects in development: the teen comedy 'CRASH COURSE' for American High; the murder-mystery comedy 'KILLER PARTY' for producer Josh Shader; and an adaptation of the New York Times bestselling romantic comedy 'BUSINESS OR PLEASURE' for producer Margot Hand. There is substantial knowledge to gain here, writers, so press play!

Executive Producer Kristin Overn
Creator/Executive Producer Sandy Adomaitis
Producer Terry Sampson
Music by Ethan Stoller

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Hello, my name is Sandy, the social media director for the page, international Screenwriting Awards, and your host for the Writer's Hangout. A podcast that celebrates the many stages of writing, from inspiration to the first draft, revising, getting a project made and everything in between. We'll talk to the best and the brightest in the entertainment industry and create a space where you can hang out, learn from the pros, and have fun. Hey writers, it's Sandy and I'm coming to you from Studio City, California where I had to turn on my air conditioner. In March. I can't even imagine what August is going to look like for us, but who cares? Because my guest is the talented, funny, and sharp Tom Harp. He's a screenwriter and director known for his work in comedy films and digital media. Tom's here to talk about home delivery. His latest comedy, which he wrote and directed premiering on March 27th at a theater near you, there's a lot to learn here. Writers. Let's start the show. Tom Harp, thank you so much for joining me on The Writer's Hangout. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. congratulations on Home Delivery, which will be in theaters on Friday, March 27th. Can you tell us a little bit about the movie? Absolutely. So Home Delivery is a comedy about a woman who has been a little estranged from her family, and she's pregnant and wants to invite everyone in. To witness the birth of the very first grandchild in the family. And, uh, it goes off the rails. So everything that could go wrong does go wrong. And old resentments in the family come up. there's a lot of laughs. There's a couple tears. it's a story that's got a lot of heart, but also you're gonna laugh like the whole time. I love the premise. also you've got an amazing cast in this movie. You have Joey Pants in your movie. now everybody in Hollywood works with Joey Pants at one time or another, correct. Well, I think it's the law. When you get your union card, you, it says, you have five movies to work with Joey Pants and if you don't do it by then you're out. He has some of the greatest stories, doesn't he? He's wonderful. you know, he said that. It was very touching. He said, listen, I worked with Chris Nolan on his second movie. I worked with, the Wwki on their first movie and their second movie. I have a lot of experience with this. If you want any advice on how we can do things easily or more easily. Ask away and you know, but if you don't want to hear that, I understand, I'm fine. And I was like, no, listen professor, film school is in what? Give me everything that you've got. And we just had this wonderful relationship onset where. you know, he was very supportive of me as a director because he fell in love with the script and he wanted to make sure that, and I had a, I didn't have any tension on set with anyone, so it's not like he was in my corner and no one else was, but he really went out of his way to make sure that I was supported and, you know, and if he found something. Not questionable, but if he didn't understand why I was doing something, we would take the time. And then he was my fiercest advocate on set. and also. Such a sweetheart and was thrilled to get the opportunity to play the good guy. Like he always plays the bad guy. Yes, he does. So he was thrilled to be asked to be, you know, I just had, I joked with someone, I was like, I never would've imagined that Guido, the killer pimp from risky business would've said yes to my movie. Where he gets to play this sweetheart. You know, sometimes that's the reason why we're in the business. So things like that happen and we just secretly, our heart is just so warmed. He's a good soul, that guy. He really is. Absolute. Absolutely. Yeah. And, and honestly we were, we were, everywhere I turned there was someone whose work I'd admired for a long time, or someone whose work I was thrilled to showcase. I mean, Melanie Field was in the TV version of Heather's and she was in the TV version of a League of Their Own, and she was in a, a personal favorite of mine called Florida Girls with another actress that I've worked with before, Patty Guggenheim, which is how I first found out about her. But she's not someone who everyone is familiar with and she is. Absolutely stunning in this. So it's, from people who are veterans for decades, like Leslie Ann Warner or Peter McNichol, or Joey Pants, to people who are just kind of on the cusp of discovery. I was thrilled to have them all there. And the calming voice of Rain Wilson, who would've thunk, right, exactly. What was the original spark or inspiration behind the story? the easy answer for that is that I have three kids and with our first kid, we decided to we knew we were gonna have a doula and, but we also wanted it at a hospital because my wife's a doctor or at the time she was in med school. We wanted to have everyone there. We had the first grandchild in the family similar to this, and we had everyone in the room. And we had a friend of mine who's a cinematographer, came in and videotaped the whole thing. So all of those elements from the movie that happened to us in real life but not. Necessarily exactly as they happen. I sat around and we were jockeying for who was gonna give my wife a massage and who was gonna do all this stuff and how can we make her more comfortable. And after a while I just, I looked at this scene where everyone in the family, sister, father-in-law, stepfather, well my father-in-law, her dad. Her stepfather, her mom me all these people were in the room trying to help and just getting in each other's ways. And I thought, this this is hysterical because there's my poor wife who, you know, we had this meticulous birth plan. We wanted to have this family event, and at a certain point, she was just like, I want everyone out of here. But at the same time, I'm happy that they're here. And she's sitting there in a gown and naked underneath. And just the insanity of all that, I knew it would be a ripe. Circumstance for a comedy. sometimes you'll get an idea for a character that will inspire a story or there'll be a location that will inspire a story or there'll be a circumstance that'll inspire a story. And this is the situation where I had a circumstance that I knew was wonderful with the home birth and then. I knew I could fill it with bits and pieces of people I know friends who had their own horror stories with birth. And I could just fill it out with, an ensemble of people who are all connected by love, but they drive each other nuts. And, one of the things that I love to say is that family knows how to push your buttons because they're the ones who installed them. I just feel it's both a flower garden and a minefield at the same time, is what family is. for me, there's no way to, to separate all of the insanity of life from all the beauty of life. And so I don't see life as something that is tragic, even though there's a lot of hardship. I think that if you look and try to make genuine connections with people, that people are. One-on-one people are good. And it's only when we get together in large groups and we stop thinking for ourselves that we get off track. but as one-on-one, the connections that we can make with people, you know, we, you can break through. And to me that's what comedy is so good at is, once you can laugh, there's a small part of the facade that breaks. And the crack opens, and maybe you can get in that way. So you have this ability to break through the dogma and break through all this stuff. And, and in the perfect world, you know, I, my comedy tries to hold a mirror up. So it's not trying to make fun of people, it doesn't punch it. Finds ways to hold a mirror up to myself in the first place since I'm the writer. And ideally, if it connects with people, they can see themselves in at least one of the characters and maybe realize that, they should be a little easier on themselves and a little easier on each other. I love that writers. I bookmark that. And every time you sit down to write, go back and listen to Tom's words. What does a typical writing day look like for you? People are gonna laugh, but I, I was one of the early people who we got a treadmill at the, 'cause I had back problems with my after writing at a desk all the time. And so I was told I, you know. Get a treadmill, get more exercise that way, like take breaks and, and get on a treadmill and do a half an hour on a treadmill. And then someone suggested, there's these things called tread desks and you can put a desk. Kind of on top of your treadmill. And so now I joke that I ride at three and a half miles per hour because that's the, at three and a half miles per hour I can type. And I'm not like trying to race to keep up with myself. but the only problem is if I stop and I'm like, oh, wait, I have a thought. Then I drift back and on the treadmill and I have to run and back up to the, to where the, keyboard is. But it, it's been a. A wonderful thing for me to, there's something about the mind body thing. Like I love the script notes podcast. If people haven't listened to the script notes podcast, get on that because it's just a gold mine. is that August? John August podcast. John August. And Craig Mason. And Craig Mason. I think he's a fantastic writer, but he says he gets some of his best ideas in the shower, and I'm like, dude, we are having a drought most years. So, um, I don't do the shower thing, but I, I noticed that whenever I was walking my dog, I would get an idea and then I'd pull my phone out and dictate the idea into my phone. It turns out that for me, when my body's occupied with one thing, it will, It frees my mind to, so I have these ideas that I didn't see coming because I think my body is not only obsessed with that one thing, I have to keep my balance. I have to keep walking. My typical day is I will get up, I make an espresso for myself. I make my wife's all of her breakfast. I get her ready to go out to work. She's a doctor, so, you know, that's, she's the most important person. she saves lives and, I just make people laugh, so I make sure she's out the door with everything that she needs. my kids are all. Old enough now that if they're going to school, they can get themselves to school. But for a while that was what I would have to do. so at the beginning I would take my kids to school and then my time was my own. And so then I would write until they got home from school and I would take very breaks. That sounds like a wonderful life, Tom. I love it. I have no complaints. My life is rich and full and on the weekends I would go to volleyball games or basketball games or whatever the sport was, or, going to the hobby shop while they played Dungeon Dragons or, Pokemon or whatever it is. and I like being around people, which is the hardest part about being a writer. So I always try to find a way to be around people as much as, as I can. That's how I get my creative juices going again. Do you have any superstitions about your writing? Do you have certain things arranged on your desk? I've noticed that about writers. If they write at desks, there's usually something to fiddle with, rocks or, a toy. I don't, and, and here's the thing that cured that for me because I think that when I first started writing, I thought that's what I would need. But I had kids really young and my. And I wouldn't have the time. So my first script that I ever, well, not the first script. The first script I wrote was after college. And it was a mess. It was a disaster. And, and the less we speak of it, the better. But, um, from that point on, I would only get a chance to write whenever my kids were taking naps or on the weekend when my wife was around to, to watch the kids, or late at night, I had a writing partner and all we could do is win. He had a day job and I would have to wait until I got my kids down and then we would have an hour and a half of work. So I got really good at a very early age at a very early part of my career, rather to. Say, okay, what can I write in 40 minutes that I know my kid's gonna be asleep? Like, what is this? Can I finish a scene? So I got really good at outlining and knowing, oh, this scene is short and I know what the scene is. So I don't write in order, and that way I never really have writer's block. if I'm not inspired to write a scene or if I'm stuck on a scene, I go to write a scene that I do understand, And I know that at the end I'm gonna rewrite the entire script. Anyway, so I will, jump around. I'll say, oh, I have this idea. So I'll race forward in the and, and put in the outline. I'll say, make sure to pay off this idea. In this scene, or I'll get to a scene and I'll like, Ooh, if I could have set a seed earlier, so then I'll race back and I'll put and I'll put a note in to like include joke here. And the other thing I do, so this isn't really like having a fidget, but one of the things I learned from my early writing partner, um, was 'cause he did copywriting. There's, you can put in this thing that's, you put TK. There. And TK is like a copywriter's thing for like, it's, we don't have it. It's easy to look for if you do a search because TK doesn't exist in the English language. So you can do a search for, so I'll, I'll do like insert joke TK here. Or I will do you know. Tk description of location here. And if I, 'cause sometimes I'll just wanna write the dialogue 'cause I'm hearing it and I just write it as quickly as possible. I don't worry about any of the other stuff. And I know later I'll go back or especially if, so you can do for the writers out there. So then you can do a search and just put in tk. Yes. And then, and, my first thing once I get to the end. Is I will go back and do a search for all the TKs and be like, oh, now I can go down the rabbit hole on the internet and look for, this thing. And then ultimately it'll end up affecting something else. And I'll learn some, but I don't get bogged down in research. Right. Um, when, you know, I found that when I did do that early on in my, in my writing, it would, I, I would be, you know, three hours. Of writing, which was very precious time while my kids were in school, and I wouldn't have written anything, so Right. You're just looking up birds of South Africa. Exactly. For three hours. now, I always put in tk, TK researched this here, and then I know I have to come back to it later, but I can keep the momentum going and I feel like Momentum is our biggest friend. Once you are writing and you're in a zone, once you hear a person's voice and you, and they're dialed in and you completely understand who they are, then just keep going as far and as fast as you can. Don't think. I also really believe in, uh, what people will call the vomit draft, which is, you know, just like get it written as fast as possible or be as wrong. As fast as possible and then go back and, and get it right later. You know, you are the only other writer that I've come across that doesn't write in sequence. Tony Grapha she's just an amazing writer. Do you know of her from Outlander by any chance? Oh, wow. Well, I love my, and my wife love loves Outlander, but, um, yeah, no, I, I love that show. And I love, and it's steamy and, and yes, and historically interesting and just great. She has said that, she said, you know, if I have to get myself writing, I'll, you know, write the scene that excites me most. Exactly. And then, you know, just what you said. And it's so beneficial because the writers out there are, working full-time jobs and have kids and have a life. And you do really have to get a lot done in 30 minutes. And the other thing that I think is hard is the. The myth of waiting until you're inspired is that that will end up taking forever. Because then you start to create, that's where I feel like people start creating the I don't want to. Say crutch in a pejorative way, but they'll start having these, this checklist of requirements in order to get like, oh, I need to, I need music to inspire me. Well, then they'll sit and they'll make a Spotify playlist and there goes a day. There you go. Yeah. Every single time that you say, I need to be inspired, oh, I need to go to an art museum to blah, blah, blah. It's like, okay. I will. Now, it doesn't mean that you don't get stuck, or you haven't figured something out. And sometimes the other trick that I will do is I will write dialogue for a scene that I know is not in the movie, or I will write the manifesto. If someone's doing a job interview, I'll say. I'll have someone ask the character, well, so where do you see yourself in five years? And I'll just start writing and once that process gets going and I start talking in that person's voice, then I can take that and use it where I need it dramatically. I'll also do the thing of like, if there's a relationship that's an issue, I'll have a couple go. Like I've written a side scene that's like, this is the couple in marriage therapy. And never is that scene gonna ever be in a movie? It might be in a rom-com and it's like, I'm five years down. It's like, well, tell me about how you first met and what did the people start talking about? And then I know, oh, uh, okay, that's great. This is, you know, I'm trying to imagine how they first met. And so instead of trying to come up with a clever meet, cute, if I have a couple starting talk about how they met, that's no longer about the meat. That's about. Personal connection. And if I can figure out that personal connection, then I can engineer a really good, meet cute to get the emotional connection that I needed. do you have a favorite, do you have a favorite meet? Cute from any movie I like, working Girl, Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith. They're, I mean, it's, first of all, working Girl Mike Nichols. Come on. Like, you just work. It's, it's perfect. It's really tough to get one That's better than when Harry met Sally. Oh, you're right. It's such a perfect meet. Cute. the movie that I think created the idea of a meet Cute was, it happened one night and it's a fantastic one. I'm very curious about how we make love last. So there's times when I will when. I'm not in a meet cute with the characters. I'm in a I am, you're sort of dumped in the middle of the story. I find that fascinating. So that's another challenge. And then I have to find out what's the most engaging way to meet both of these people. But a good meet, cute. You just feel it in your bones. You're like, oh, this is wonderful. that's one of the reasons why there's a book that I adapted that the Meat Cutin is fantastic. I got through that first scene and I was like, if the rest of this novel is horrible, at least there's that. And then it kept delighting me throughout and I just was like, okay I know these characters and I can bring it to the screen and make it something that is. A lot of times in romance novels or romcom novels, it's usually from one person's point of view. So it's very aggressively in a single person's point of view, and that doesn't work as well for a romcom. You really want, even if you're mostly on one person's side, it really does need to be a two-hander and it's gotta, you know, you have to understand who the. Guy is as well as you understand the woman and a lot of romance novels are taken from the woman's point of view. So what I enjoy when I'm reading a romance novel, when the guy is it's kind of this beautiful revenge because a lot of times women will rightly say that women are very thinly written in, movies. And that's always been my complaint too, is, the women aren't like any of the women I know. So I work really hard to make the women as deep and rich and as complicated and messy as possible. What I love about reading romance novels is that the women are messy and you know, they're. It's speaking from a woman's point of view most of the time. So you get all that complexity and the only downside is that the guys are almost always Prince Charmings. So they're as thin as the women are in, in other movies. So that's one of the things that I love to do. And the two books that I've adapted to Scripts, one I'm working on right now in both the cases, and it's not the fault of the authors, it's just They were telling a first person point of view for their heroine and making it into a movie. I get to have fun coming up with a guy who deserves to be with her. I get to invent the parts of him that give him depth and complexity and show that no guy is a prince Charming. Like everyone you think of as a prince Charming is actually a bit of a troll as well. And it's that thing of how do we get to our higher nature? how can I inspire the guy to want to be his best? for me, a love story is all about. How do we embrace our imperfections, not only in the other person, but mostly in ourselves. I've been fortunate to be married for decades now, and I'm always grateful every single day. I don't look the same as I did when we got married. I don't have hair now and my wife and when we got married, I still had hair. It was starting to go, but I still had hair. I don't think my wife would've said on her wishlist was a bald guy. And she had been very involved in cross country skiing and mountain climbing. I am not athletic in that way at all, but I think that, you know, what she recognized is that. The person who was going to love her forever was the person who was going to embrace the fact that she was going to grow and that she was going to change over the course of her life, and that life was gonna throw lots of curve balls at us. And can you be with someone who will pick the ball up and throw it back? And you know, and also to be able to see yourself and say, you know what, I am being a dick. I need to get over myself. So I feel like all love stories are about, wanting to be our best version of ourself. In order to deserve the love that we feel for the other person. that is a great theme to land on for your career. And it sounds almost like it's opened you up personally, besides just creatively. Absolutely. Well, I also, I think that the thing that helps, the biggest advice that I would give any writer is to make sure you're going out and you're living You're not sitting there being a tortured. Artist, you know? Yes. That you're actually out in the world going shopping, interacting with people, being around other people will give you everything that you need. It will give you inspiration for the people who are driving you crazy. It will give you inspiration for the people who are, something to aspire to. we're being trained more and more that we can talk to a chat bot and get kind of confirmation bias if we want it, or get someone who's gonna tell us we're amazing. And the people who are the valuable people in your life are the people who love you, but also are, are the ones who will call you on your bs. that's what you need. So a machine is not gonna do that for you. A machine is engineered literally to tell you that you are on the right track and keep going. And, that's great as a tool, but I just feel You need to look in the mirror and looking in the mirror is the thing that will lead you to, and being honest with yourself will make you such a good writer. If you can be honest, I mean, I think that, you know, I. We joke about Proust, as, writing about himself and incessantly, and I can't get through all of it, but I've, I read one of the books and was like, I just the level of self-reflection in it was sobering. Like, oh, that's what it takes. It means, when you're writing, be. as honest as you can be with yourself. Write from a place that is unflinching and then, if you're writing a comedy, try to find the, and this is my life attitude. Try and try to find the thing that's ridiculous. That can make you laugh at yourself, because then your cortisol level will go down. All the stuff that will, you know, you'll be, you'll be able to live a lot. More happily if you can laugh at yourself. the only way that you can do that is by being really unflinchingly honest. you gained recognition by starting in shorts. What lessons from working in shorts have you carried throughout your career? Or maybe not. Did you learn anything in shorts that you're like, I'm never doing that when I'm the director or the writer? I'll say this. when people ask a question about how do you find your voice The easiest answer is just keep writing. Write and write and write and write. And for me, what was great about doing shorts was on a practical level, it taught me to be extraordinarily efficient because when I was doing the shorts, especially for Funny or Die, we had one day, if that's all we were given the budget for, it was like you had to get the entire thing done in a day. If you couldn't get it done in that day that you weren't making that short. So it was, being absolutely vigilant about what is the essential. And that's an incredibly. Important thing for working on a feature because something will happen, you'll get rain on a day when it wasn't supposed to rain. You'll have to go inside and shoot a scene that you were not ready and you haven't blocked out with the actors or whatever. And. Anything can happen. I mean, we had this happen on home delivery. Someone was doing a trombone not recital, but like they, it was a trombone teacher and we had to go pay them to stop teaching that day. because it kept ruining our shot. we kept hearing the trombone in the background. you have to know what's essential. So for me, I learned that during shorts was what was essential. I think the other thing that's great about. Shorts was, that's how I discovered all the things that, like one of the first shorts I did was with Sandra O it was a speed dating thing. So I had to shoot all of her stuff and then turn around and shoot all the guys stuff and then get the, get stuff of both of them at the same time. And, and it took forever for a scene that was not terribly long. If I'd had two cameras, we would've been able to get it all done at the same time, and I could have had a chance to do more play. So once I started working on features, I said, listen, for comedy, I wanted to encourage people to improvise. If they felt inspired or just to be able to get the reaction that someone was saying something funny, then I didn't have to recreate it later. They could actually get the reaction to the humor in the moment and on. So we did that on donor party and then on home delivery it evolved to even more of a, an approach of getting a lot of people in the scene at the same time, in a shot at the same time. And knowing I could stack people, but then I would have scenes that had eight people. And if you try to get all the coverage on all eight people with one camera it's a nightmare. and it will take all day just to get one scene done. So having two cameras and having things play out more with wide shots. Again, I learned all this stuff from doing it on shorts. So as a director, it was tremendously helpful as a writer. What's great about a short film is that you really have. Especially doing the funnier die method, which was you gotta get in it in five minutes or less. so it was like the sketches on Saturday Night Live. So how do you tell your beginning, middle, and end in less than five minutes? And that is a tremendous, tremendous discipline to work under. you have to get it as tight as possible. So those were very valuable tools. I've been talking to the writers, the listeners out there a lot about vertical series. If you were starting out today, what would you be leaning into for a calling card? Right now I think that the vertical series is great because. And I feel so bad for everyone involved in Quibi 'cause they just missed the boat by five years. If they'd been able to stick around, they would've been at the forefront instead of a footnote. so I think what's great about vertical series is that it creates this, It's implied because it's series that creates this notion of, I mean, look, everything is a different art form and it makes it like a TV show where you had to have a cliffhanger before the commercial break. Well, same thing. You have to have it if there's gonna be an, the next vertical. So you kind of have a mini three act structure in whatever it is that you're doing. I think a short film is very much like a short story. You can tell one story that you're, you know, that you have in your mind and so sometimes you can make it. A very provocative or scary. I know that the original, there was a movie called Lights Out that was based on a short, it's a terrifying short film and it turned into a terrifying movie. so if you have an idea for a movie, but you can perfectly put it into a short film, then make a short film. But I think that if you want to just get your skills up as a storyteller the grind of having to do a vertical series Is something that is extraordinarily valuable because it teaches you long form storytelling and that can translate into a TV career that can translate into a feature career. because the challenge is, there's a sketch is difficult to turn into a feature, because what you're aiming for in a sketch is to get in, get out, have a really funny. Hook and, and nail it that way. I mean, Saturday Night Live used to do this all the time where they would try to take a sketch and turn it into a movie and there's only One Wayne's world and a lot of other things that didn't work Night at the Roxbury Yeah, exactly. it's a great sketch, but not a great movie. if I were starting out, I would probably get into vertical storytelling unless I had something that conceptually was like, oh, here is a self-contained little bit of something that could be expanded into a feature. Smile was another horror short that then. Turned into a feature and they actually incorporated the actress from the short film into the feature. So you can see it as one continuous story, which was brilliant. And if you just wanna get your skills vertical, a hundred percent Switching gears, I'm a fan of Terry Carnation, AK Rain Wilson. Can you tell us a little bit about the podcast and also what's it like writing for a podcast? Is it a different type of writing? Absolutely. I, and I think that's the joy is, I, like I said, I did a short film for Rain Wilson's. Website, soul Pancake. And that's how we met and we became friends. And then I wrote the part of in Home Delivery for Rain based on, you know, who he is as a person and how he's a sweetheart. And not at all like Dwight Shroud. So. He and I knew each other and, and were friends, and when he asked me to do it, I had done the Funny or Die stuff and so he asked me to come on board, not only as a writer, but also as a producer, because Terry Carnation, for those of you who haven't checked it out it's still available on Apple and Spotify and all the podcast sites, but the concept of it is so absurd. every episode begins as a. Book on tape what it is, the framing device that we used that he's, here's this late night am paranormal radio host, who is writing his book and recording it in the recording studio, and then it goes into the present. Stay where it, it goes into the things that he's describing and that's where it's scripted. And then because he's a paranormal radio host, a part of every single episode would be the call in section of a. One of his shows. So we had segments of every show that we knew were going to be completely improvised. 'cause that was what we wanted to do, was get him to react naturally to these absurd situations. So I was brought on because I'd done so much work with Funnier Die. To bring in the people who would be the callers because he would bring in, because he is Rainn Wilson and knows everyone. He brought in people like Tom Lennon from Reno 9 1 1, or, uh, y event, Nicole Brown from community, or Al Madrigal from the Daily Show. Like he, he knew all these people who were stars and Nathan Fillon from the rookie the cast list, I, I can't even begin because there's so many amazing comedy all stars in it. But we were able to, he hired me to bring in the people who would be the callers. And that ended up being such a delight because what we would do as the writers, we recorded it over Zoom because we did it during the pandemic, all the writers would be in the Zoom and we would be pitching jokes in the chat. So the actor who is the caller had a character that they were playing and something that they wanted to talk about, and then we kept pitching ideas and jokes to them. and responses that Terry could do and rain was just, it was almost impossible to make him break. The only actor who made him break was Janet Varney, who is brilliant. so you would be riffing at, so the two characters would be talking and you'd be listening and then you would write in on the chat like a joke? Yes. was there lag time from the actors to the jokes that you were pitching? The beautiful thing is then the other, there were two producers on it. I was the talent producer and then we sent it up to we had a post-production house in Vancouver who was doing all the audio and he was the other producer and he would. Come together, he would bring all the elements together and did the sound design. Now, what I will also say is that when you're writing a radio play, which is essentially what a scripted podcast is, you have to kind of go back to the things that are in the old radio plays where you have to. Create a picture in the listener's mind. So there's a lot of stuff that we would have as dialogue that we would never put in a normal script because you'd see it, it was a, just a different part of the brain, and I'm so, I can I will tell. Everybody that it is the most absurd thing that you will ever hear. The probably the most absurd thing that I will ever be involved in. But it's absolutely one of the highlights of my professional career was working on that and just being able to work with those amazing people and to work so closely with rain and the writing staff that we had, they were just. All wonderful people. We're all still in close touch. We will have group chats and, you know, wonderful. Like, aw. So it's, it's the kind of thing it was like, I've never written on a TV show, but it, for what it was like, for the people who have. Some of the VAR writers were on, were TV writers. It's the same kind of thing. You have that every joke is, has a chance to get better because people are pitching other things and at the same time, everyone is, you know. Gets a moment to shine. It was a team sport and that's what made it so much fun. Cool. When you started out, what was your biggest misconception about what it meant to be a working writer and director? think that the biggest misconception is that you would write something and someone would read it. I thought that if someone read it then and loved it then and said, we're gonna get this made, that meant that it would get made pretty quickly and it never is the case. I mean, I've heard of a couple situations where it can happen quickly, and most of the time it feels like baseball. the producer is pitching and pitching and pitching, and then there's suddenly oh, this actor said yes and there's a window. I, for example, the donor party, when we got Malin Ackerman on board, she said, I have a window between the end of April and the beginning of June. So if you can make the entire movie in the month of May. Then I can do it, but I can't do it before then because I have another commitment and I can't do it after that because I have a three month shoot in Sweden. So we suddenly, Everything had to come together in that short amount of time between when she said yes and the beginning of May. And it did. But it also took forever to get her to say, you know, not because of her, but we were out to, you know, we were trying to get the financing and all this kind of stuff, and it was all about can we get an actor to sign on board? And so that process was very, very long to get. Her to say yes, but once she said yes, it, it was like suddenly we were in warp drive and everything had to happen very quickly because she was, this was her window and if we wanted her, that was our window to do it. So I had never experienced that before and it's, and it was an eye opener. Thank you for that. would you like to play a lightning round of brain drops? Yes, please. Okay. Now brain drops is a fast-paced q and a with answers only a writer can provide. Let's see how many you can get in two minutes, and I'm going to start the timer. Now I'm nervous. When writing music, on or off? Off, if you're reading a hard copy of a script, one Brad or two Ooh. Two. Whiteboard or Legal Pad. Whiteboard, final draft or Celtics? Ooh. I've used, I've never used Celtics, so I've used Final Draft, so I'll say final draft from the past or present. What TV show do you wish you wrote on? Oh, wow. TV show that I wish I wrote on boy, lightning round. I'm gonna have to go with, Seinfeld. Widows and orphans. Get rid of them all. Don't really care. Get rid of 'em all. Favorite snack while riding water? 'cause I'm walking. Favorite snack at crafty? Anything with chocolate and peanut butter. Reese's or any, anything with chocolate Peanut butter. Do you come up with the title for your scripts at the beginning or end? Usually at the beginning when I haven't, it's vexed me. And yeah, I, i beginning writing at home PJ's sweats or clothes sweats shaded parking spot right next to the production office. Or 20 5K extra in the budget. A 20 5K extra in the budget. Favorite time to write day or night? Day, who would you hire? A writer who never fails to write the perfect joke, or the staff writer whose first draft needs a minimal rewrite Perfect joke. Would you read my Neighbor's nephew's math teacher's? 200 page comedy titled A Cow's Holiday in Rome. You got me to laugh. I mean, that's a better answer than anything. great job on that. what do I win? You get to read my neighbor's script. That's too, there you go. Now once again, before you leave, can you tell us when we get to see home delivery? Home delivery comes out on March 27th in theaters nationwide. Please take a friend, go see it, with someone who you love to laugh with and be the loud laugher. Everyone loves a loud laugher. I will be there. I'm gonna bring my friends. And thank you so much for spending time with us on the Writer's Hangout. You are so welcome. Thank you so much for having me. and that's a wrap for the Writer's Hangout. Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Your positive feedback will help us keep the show going so we can continue bringing you more future episodes. Remember, keep writing. The world needs your stories. The Writers Hangout is sponsored by the Page International Screenwriting Awards, with executive producer Kristen Overn, Sandy Adamides, And our music is composed by Ethan Stoller. Alexa, you are gaslighting me,