Tom Brogan

I've slowly become a fan of Simon Rich. I think his writing is among the most original, clever and funny stuff around. You can read his great short story 'Unprotected' on the New Yorker's website. A live version, read by Wyatt Cenac, is available as part of a collection to buy from the Selected Shorts website.

He has a new sitcom called 'Man Seeking Woman' starting. He speaks to Splitsider about it and his writing career.

"In the writer’s room, I would say we’re less influenced by tradition...
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This is a really good write-up, by playwright Nicola Todd, of a recent workshop run by Cora Bissett at the Tron.

"Ms Bissett also spoke about creating rounded characters - there are no such things as good guys vs bad guys, people are complex and multi-dimensional, and we have to portray that or no one is likely to care about them. She told us that she hadn't wanted to set the show in a traditional theatre, where the audience are removed from the action and viewing the character from a distance...
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With a new season of 'Louie' being announced by FX Louis CK spoke with reporters yesterday to discuss season four of his show.

For me it's been a show like nothing else on television. One week it's sitcom(although very rarely), the next it's a surrealist short film, then it's a drama, then there's lengthy stand-up sections. It's always watchable, even when he doesn't quite pull it off. But a few episodes from the last couple of seasons have been up there with the best television of all time i...
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I saw American Sniper last night. I'm generally a fan of Clint Eastwood's work as a director and I think this is up there with the best of his films. In Fast Company screenwriter Jason Hall talks about gaining the trust of the film's subject Chris Kyle, and how he went from a struggling actor to a screenwriter.  

Below is an interview with Chris Kyle from Time magazine.


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There's a new book on Saturday Night Live coming out to join the others already on the shelves. Taschen have a coffee table style book by Alison Castle, created during the series' 39th season. Castle previously edited the Stanley Kubrick Archives book for Taschen. 

The book is called 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!' and promises to be part encyclopedia and part behind-the-scenes-tour.


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This is footage from a 1974 Canadian documentary on the National Lampoon magazine. It features John Belushi, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Gilda Radner in rehearsal.

UPDATE: The video I posted here changed its settings to 'Private' a day or two after I linked to it. Instead here's a link to an archive of National Lampoon magazines.


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The AV Club has a feature on one of my favourite podcasts - How Did This Get Made? To celebrate their 100th episode Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas talk about how they came up with the idea for the show and what they plan to do with it next.


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Thanks to the Criterion Collection here's the young Matthew McConaughey auditioning for his role in Richard Linklater's 'Dazed and Confused'.



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In their Arts section of their website The New York Times run a great section called 'In Performance'. Here they showcase a short scene from a play currently in production in New York. The scenes usually run from about a minute to three minutes.

This is one of my favourite scenes from it. Matthew Maher does a monologue from 'Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play,' by Anne Washburn. Maher crops up in a lot of films and TV. Most notably for me in 'Gone Baby Gone'.


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