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Bruce Vilanch: How To Write For The Oscars

MisterD — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:39:40 +0000

Vulture
How to Write Jokes for the Academy Awards
By Mike Sacks

Have you ever wondered how the Academy Awards gets written every year? Bruce Vilanch is the man to ask. Starting as a writer on the broadcast 25 years ago, Vilanch has been the annual show’s head writer since 2000. What he specifically writes varies from host to host, but ultimately, everything you see on the telecast goes through him. Below, in an interview withVanity Fair writer Mike Sacks, Vilanch dishes on trying to make celebrities seem funny, the “cock joke” that Steve Martin refused to tell, and why exactly James Franco, Ellen DeGeneres, and David Letterman each bombed as hosts of the Oscars. The conversation is an excerpt from Poking a Dead Frog, Sacks’s new book of interviews with notable comedy writers such as Amy Poehler, Mel Brooks, and Adam McKay,which he put together as a follow-up to his similar 2009 collection, And Here’s the Kicker. You can buy the book in bookstores starting June 24, or preorder it here.

What’s the joke-writing preparation for a televised awards show such as the Oscars? How much time and effort are we talking about?
A tremendous amount. People have no idea. Billy Crystal came up with the idea of creating a huge playbook, almost like a football team would for a big game. The script itself is three hundred pages. It’s a big hefty tome, and it’s kept offstage, generally offstage left. The host will leaf through it during commercial breaks. It’s most based on what might happen during the broadcast. “Supposethis happens. What if that happens?” You know, just in case. So, you end up creating a lot of material: “Oh, if that happens, we’re covered.” You study who’s nominated to win all the awards, the movies these people are associated with, everything that’s necessary to come up with jokes. A ton of research.”

How many of these jokes, on average, end up being used during the performance?
Out of the hundreds that we write — really, hundreds — if one or two are used, it’s a big deal. We’ll start the actual writing process about two months before the ceremony—usually in December for a February or March broadcast.

It must be frustrating to come up with some many jokes each year, only to have about 2 percent used. Have there been any jokes you wished had been used but weren’t?
There’ve been a few. We had one joke [in 2003] that involved Steve Martin coming out after the monologue, and he was going to say, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that my fly was open throughout the monologue. The good news is the camera puts on ten pounds.” But Steve wouldn’t say the joke; he said it was a “cock joke.” He just didn’t feel comfortable doing a cock joke on the Academy Awards. I said, “But it’s not a cock joke! It’s a camera joke.” Everybody loved the joke. Even the network censor thought it was hilarious. We could have gotten away with it because it didn’t cross any kind of line, but the fact that the network censor thought it was hysterical meant we had done something right.

It might very well have become a classic if he did say it.
I know, but Steve felt it was just a little too anatomically correct. You can see the visual a bit too easily. I can understand why he would come to that conclusion. The host has to decide, “Do I want to take the audience to that place?”

The Academy Awards is a strange show to work on as a comedy writer. You’re writing jokes for over one billion people, of all ages, countries, backgrounds. How do you determine what is and what is not appropriate, without sapping out all the humor?
You have to be careful not to cross that weird line. There are celebrities you just can’t make jokes about, whether because it’s cruel or because they’ll be in the audience, or just because it’s too embarrassing a situation. Keep in mind that whatever a host says is going to live with them for the rest of their career. The choice you have to make is, Do I, as a comedian, want to be remembered for this joke or not? You can’t un-ring that bell.

Can you tell me about the backstage writing process during an Oscars broadcast? How do the writers work? Together or separately? Writing down jokes? Pitching them out loud?
It’s frantic. It’s chaos. It makes the fall of Saigon look tame. It’s all happening so, so quickly. My favorite example is from 2003, when Steve was hosting. Now, this goes back to something happening just before the commercial break that you can work off of. Michael Moore had won for Best Documentary Feature for Bowling for Columbine and he made a speech against the second Iraq War. Some in the audience booed, but we also noticed that some of the stagehands started booing him, too. When we returned from commercial break, Steve came out and said, “It’s so sweet backstage, you should have seen it. The Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo.” That was a joke that we came up with in the wings.

Who are you writing for? The live audience in the auditorium? Or the audience at home?
You’re playing to the auditorium because they’re the ones who are giving the immediate reaction that the home audience will hear. You’re always playing to both of them, really, but I think what you want most is a reaction from the live audience, clearly.

The problem is that the vibe in the room changes as the night progresses. As the night gets longer, there are more and more audience members who have not won an award. Their high hopes have disappeared. For every winner, there are at least four or five who won’t win. It gets chilly. The audience is not really paying attention. At this point, you’re getting down to the big awards; its been a long day. The audience would like to get out of there and start drinking—those who aren’t already potted, that is. So, by the end, the audience is not really paying close attention. Also, there are a hefty amount of seat fillers, because have children, have to relieve the babysitters, they get bored, they just leave. Say, for an example, there are ten supporting actor nominees and those categories are given early. Those ten faces will be gone, generally, by the middle to the end of the show. And they’ll be replaced by secretaries from Paramount who might not be too keen to laugh.

Were you responsible for some of the jokes that bombed the night Letterman hosted, such as the Uma/Oprah joke?
No. The Uma/Oprah joke was written by Rob Burnett [executive producer,Late Show With David Letterman], who lethally takes credit for it. Just lethal. I told Rob not to do it. I thought it was a bad idea to have David Letterman from New York TV making fun of these huge stars from Hollywood. Hosts are vital to the show’s tone. It’s a very specific role that the host plays. You have to bring your personality, but you have to do it in a clever way so it doesn’t feel like a retread of what you do at your other job. I think that’s what happened with Letterman. The comedy didn’t translate well. It takes a very specific type of performer to do well at the Oscars. Ellen DeGeneres [in 2007] had a different approach, and I don’t think it worked. She was very daytime. There wasn’t a sense of occasion. She was scared, I think, and wasn’t willing to go the extra mile. James Franco [in 2010] didn’t work out well at all. He was really out of his comfort zone. He’s not a live stage performer. It’s better if the hosts are comedians. They have to have a bit of an attitude. It’s easier for us writers to find words that suit a comedian’s attitude. Actors tend to act. It’s tough for them to play themselves, to have a persona. You’ll never see Johnny Depp performing An Evening With Johnny Depp.

What’s it like to write for celebrities presenting awards, many of whom are not used to performing comedy before a live audience?
It’s tough. It’s constantly a negotiation of some sort. Each of these celebrities has a flotilla of assistants who are advising them or what to say and not to say. A lot show up with their own writers, depending on who they are. And it’s hard for me to bitch about that. That kind of goes with the territory. So that doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is when you get people who don’t do this kind of performing for a living and they go into a major panic and every single word has to be edited by everybody. By their hairdressers, their yoga instructor, their publicist, their pet psychiatrist. Everybody’s got an opinion. And all of those people who are supposedly helping are really enemies of comedy, because they don’t want anybody to get into trouble. You can’t be funny by saying, “I’m not going to get anybody into trouble.” You know, that’s the risk you run. Read Freud on jokes and tell me that you’re not ever going to get anybody into trouble.

The post Bruce Vilanch: How To Write For The Oscars first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Video: Chris DeRose talks one-on-one with comedian Bruce Vilanch

MisterD — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:14:58 +0000

Chris DeRose talks one-on-one with comedian Bruce Vilanch about his new movie ‘Scrooge & Marley’, as well as the comedy business and his Twitter feud with James Franco.

The post Video: Chris DeRose talks one-on-one with comedian Bruce Vilanch first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Feast Of Fun Audio: A Double Date with Bruce Vilanch and Ronnie Kroell

MisterD — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:55:32 +0000

Feast Of Fun

A Double Date with Bruce Vilanch and Ronnie Kroell

Marc Felion
Oct 2, 2012

Today we are thrilled to have two of our favorite guests in the home studio- Bruce Vilanch and Ronnie Kroell. Bruce is best known for his 4 year stint on Hollywood Squares, and as the head writer for the Academy Awards.

The biggest biggest names in comedy, like Billy Crystal, Whoopie Goldberg and Bette Midler turn to Bruce when they need some seriously funny stuff.

And we also have the incredibly handsome Ronnie Kroell, who rocked the best bod in a long time on the cover of Playgirl and stole people’s hearts on Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel.”

Bah humbug– is just an old fashioned way to say– oh Mary!

They’re in Chicago filming “Scrooge & Marley,” an update to the Charles Dickens Classic with a 70s gay disco twist.

Listen as we go on a double date with Bruce Vilanch and Ronnie Kroell! Bruce talks about what happened between him and James Franco at the Oscars. Last we heard, the Hollywood hunk blamed sweet Bruce for his lackluster hosting abilities, and then later deleted his Twitter account.

What was it like to working with Diana Ross in the film Mahogany,

And how drunk did Joan Crawford get when he interviewed her.

To Listen: Click Here

The post Feast Of Fun Audio: A Double Date with Bruce Vilanch and Ronnie Kroell first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bruce Vilanch Makes Cameo In Film “Going Down”

MisterD — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:24:09 +0000

A touching story about a boy, his best friend, and their dreams of stardom, Going Down includes cameos from Bruce Vilanch, Alec Mapa, and the Petite Flower and Empress of Elvis Impersonators, Judy Tenuta. Stars Matthew Ludwinski and Michael Medico were not on hand, but Andreas and star Allison Lane held a lively Q&A and gave out DVDs to several lucky fans.

The post Bruce Vilanch Makes Cameo In Film “Going Down” first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Eddie Murphy To Host 84th Oscars – Yes, Bruce Will Be Head Writer

MisterD — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:51:51 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Deadline Hollywood
Eddie Murphy Agrees To Host Oscars; Producers Tell Film Academy Itâ€s Official
By NIKKI FINKE Tuesday September 6, 2011 @ 10:47am PDT
EXCLUSIVE: Eddie Murphy In Talks To Host 84th Oscars

UPDATE: The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences just made it official.

EXCLUSIVE: Iâ€ve just learned that Eddie Murphy has officially agreed to host the 84th Academy Awards. Today, Oscar producer Brett Ratner is formally telling the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences that heâ€s chosen Murphy to emcee the Oscars and an announcement will be made. I broke the news over Labor day weekend that Ratner was in talks with Murphy and was going to offer AMPAS President Tom Sherak only the comedianâ€s name to host. I was told that a lot of big names had approached the other 84th Academy Awards producer Don Mischer saying they are interested in hosting, and Don was fielding those calls. Brettâ€s talks with Murphy had been along the lines of, â€œIf the Academy asked you to host, would you accept?â€ I learned that Eddie has now formally said yes. This iscoming months earlier than normal because usually the Oscars host isnâ€t chosen or announced until January. But everyone is eager to get out the news now. I do know that Murphyâ€s Hollywood agency WME thinks itâ€d be a real coup for Murphyâ€s dormant career which is about to get a kick-start. Thatâ€s because the veteran comedian is starring in the Brett Ratner-directed and Imagine/Universal-produced Tower Heist action laugher with Ben Stiller that opens on November 4th and is receiving great buzz. So Murphy and Ratner already have a close relationship, and this would be a way for Brett to put his personal stamp on 2012â€²s broadcast. Plus Murphy is starring in the DreamWorks dramedy film A Thousand Words scheduled for release on January 12th.

Eddie, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2006â€²s Dreamgirls but lost, is said to worship the Oscars. â€œNobody knows movies better or is a bigger cinephile than Eddie. Not Brett. Not even Quentin Tarantino. Eddie can quote scenes from every single movie word for word,â€ an insider tells me. â€œHe can bring all that experience to hosting. Plus he has Saturday Night Live experience before a live crowd. And worldwide the biggest crossover comedians are Will Smith and Eddie Murphy.â€ Thatâ€s important because a huge part of the Academy Awards telecast audience is global. And with two movies opening before the Oscars, Murphy could benefit from the publicity bonanza especially overseas where international releases usually follow U.S. openings by several months. Besides, the Academy has been after more diversity which is why this October itâ€s honoring James Earl Jones and Oprah Winfrey (even though sheâ€s much more of a TV personality than a movie star or filmmaker).

The comedy and urban entertainment website Humor Mill posted first an exclusive (sourced from several close friends of Eddieâ€s) that Murphy was a done deal. But Iâ€ve confirmed it wasnâ€t until today. A decision like this to host the Academy Awards is made by committee with a star and his/her reps and pals weighing all the pro and con options. Which is why the Academy has such a tough time finding new hosts every year because it can be such a career-altering decision. Meanwhile, I hear that veteran Billy Crystal, who recently expressed interest in hosting again, will almost certainly be incorporated into the show in some marquee way.

This is now the 4th straight year that Deadline has first reported the host of the Academy Awards, including Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, James Franco and Anne Hathaway, and now Eddie Murphy. Although there was tremendous excitement and anticipation over Franco and Hathaway hosting last year, the pair laid an egg onstage. So the general concensus was that the Oscars needed to return to a comedian to emcee. In recent years of Oscar telecasts, even going back decades, the ceremony has been emceed by mostly TV or movie comedians â€” whether Will Rogers and George Jessel in the 1930s, Bob Hope off and on for the next three decades, Johnny Carson in the 1980s, even David Letterman in 1995. In the 1990s and 2000s, thereâ€s been a mix of film funny people like Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and Steve Martin as well as stand-up comedians and TV personalities like Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres and Jon Stewart. When the producers of the 81st Oscars decided to omit the stand-up portion of the show (since these one-liners are usually understood only by the movie industry and leave TV viewers bewildered), it opened up the possibility of an actor hosting again. But that flopped for the 83rd telecast.

There was a period in the 1970s when groups of actors emceed: 1973 when Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Charlton Heston, and Rock Hudson did it as an ensemble; 1974: John Huston, Diana Ross, Burt Reynolds, and David Niven; 1976, Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn, and Gene Kelly; 1977, Richard Pryor, Jane Fonda, Ellen Burstyn, and Warren Beatty. Only a few thesps have hosted the show by themselves, including first AMPAS president and one of the founders Douglas Fairbanks, followed by Jimmy Stewart, Robert Montgomery, and Jack Lemmon, when the Oscars consisted of an awards banquet, then a radio show, and ultimately a globally broadcast TV spectacle.

Hosting the Academy Awards is like performing the most dangerous stunt imaginable for a Hollywood actor or actress. Itâ€s playing the biggest room with a worldwide TV audience and working in front of a live audience at Hollywoodâ€s Kodak Theatre. â€œThereâ€s no job quite like it in the world,â€ Bruce Vilanch, the writer of more than two decades of Oscar shows, told Deadline last time around. â€œYou have to entertain this industry crowd. You have to stay cool when the lights are blazing down. Youâ€ve got to move things along. And youâ€ve got to be charming without offending anyone.â€ There was general consensus that Steve Martin (who hosted on his own twice) paired with Alec Baldwin were a breezy and classy twosome last time around. So the feeling now is to keep the hosts in the movie family. Whoopi Goldberg was the first woman to fly solo, and her four hosting stints were considered a mixed bag. But by her final two efforts, sheâ€d figured out how to blend wit with charm. In her wake, Ellen De Generes proved to be fun, self-deprecating, and clever as emcee, as well as unafraid to interact with superstars in the audience. Unfortunately for Oscar, both women are now TV talk stars. But itâ€s not just the host that matters but also the movies. The most-viewed Oscarcast continues to be the 1998 show Crystal hosted that honored James Cameronâ€s Titanic.

The post Eddie Murphy To Host 84th Oscars – Yes, Bruce Will Be Head Writer first appeared on We Got Bruce!.