April 23, 2008

The Many Careers of Marshall Brickman

April 23rd, 2008

Dennis Brown of RiverfrontTimes.com has a terrific interview with Jersey Boys co-author Marshall Brickman.

Brown states that Brickman should be an inspiration to everyone who has never been able to hold a job. Brickman is the ultimate freelancer: He has had all kinds of jobs — comedy writer, screenwriter, director — but never for long. He’s always moving on to something new. “I never tire of telling my kids that my life is no example of how to plan a career,” he says. “My life has been like trying to cross a river by jumping from stone to stone.” Brickman landed feet first on the latest rock two years ago when, at age 62, he co-wrote the book for his first Broadway musical.

Regarding Jersey Boys, Brickman states, “I had an enormous amount of help on Jersey Boys. Des McAnuff, our director, is very skillful. I learned a lot from him about how to keep it moving. Which is not to denigrate my own contribution, which is sensibility and the dialogue and the joke. A laugh in the theater is not a superficial thing. If you can get 1,500 people to all laugh at the same time about the same thing, then you’ve extracted some kind of basic truth about whatever it is that the laugh is.”

As the Jersey Boys royalties accrue, and Brickman eyes that next stone in the river, he will be guided by two simple rules. “My philosophy of life is twofold,” he says. “The first rule is to always do the opposite of what my father suggested. That is a constant, like a weather vane that points in the opposite direction. The second is to work with people that you look forward to having lunch with. I have had some fabulous lunches.”

1 Comment »

  1. From the article: The head writer was responsible for everything else. He had to write the sketches. ‘Carnac the Magnificent,’ ‘The Tea Time Movies.’ It was a killer job, and I loved it.
    ——
    I knew there had to be a “Jersey Boys/Tea Time Movie” connection. Just click on this shameless act of self-promotion. I knew it was no vision!
    ——
    One joke makes you chortle
    And one joke gets guffaws
    And the ones by Marshall Brickman
    Have you pounding on the walls
    Go ask Elice
    What the Des-man saw….

    Comment by stubbleyou — April 23, 2008 @ 10:34 pm

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