After two years of research and interviews, Mike Sacks is convinced there definitely is a connection between being Jewish and comedy and humor writing.
But the 31-year-old isn’t quite sure what that connection is.
“About half the people in the book are Jewish,” Sacks says about the comedy writers he interviewed for his recently published book, “And Here’s The Kicker: Conversations With 21 Top Humor Writers On Their Craft.”
“Many of the writers say they were influenced by Sid Caesar, comedians from the Catskills and the Marx Brothers.”
Even the British comedy writers he interviewed say American Jewish comics and humor writers have affected them, the author notes.
Marshall Brickman, a writer for “The Tonight Show,” “Candid Cam-era” and “The Dick Cavett Show,” as well as a co-writer with Woody Allen on the films “Sleeper,” “Annie Hall” and “Manhattan” — has a theory. “The Jews always had something amusing to say while they’re getting the s— kicked out of them,” he told Sacks in an interview.
Larry Gelbart, most well-known for his work with the legendary team of comedy writers for Sid Caesar’s 1950s TV show “Caesar’s Hour” — Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Neil and Danny Simon — credits his Jewish background for his success in writing comedy, beginning at the age of 16.
“It helped that I was the product of two shtetls,” Gelbart said. “I learned jokes from my father, but I learned humor through my mother.”
Another notable Jewish writer in the book is Buck Henry, born Henry Zuckerman, the co-creator (with Brooks) of the TV sitcom “Get Smart” and writer of the film “The Graduate.” Mad magazine writer Al Jaffee is also featured.
Many non-Jewish writers, such as Dick Cavett and Dave Barry, are also included.
The author believes that both nature and nurture are involved in the creation of a successful comedy writer. “You have to have the skill and the basic mind-set,” he says, “but you have to teach yourself, figure out on your own, what works for you and what doesn’t.”
Sacks says as a kid, he read a lot, but never aspired to be a writer. Born in 1968 in Alexandria, Va., he grew up in a Jewishly observant, kosher home in that city and later in Potomac, Md., studying at Hebrew school and becoming bar mitzvah.
After graduating from Tulane University in 1990, he began working in retail. He was writing “for fun” for Mad, Cracked and National Lampoon magazines and “fell into writing” for a living. In 1999, he moved to New York and began working for Vanity Fair, where he is a staff reporter-researcher.
Sacks says it took him two years to interview the writers — he talked to 40, but only 21 made the cut for the book — and put the question-and-answer style interviews into book form.
“I had a long list of comedy writers whom I admired,” Sacks says. “I went down the list and whoever said ‘yes,’ I talked to.”
“And Here’s the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft” by Mike Sacks (250 pages, Writers Digest Books, $17.99)