Mike Sacks

Offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of comedy, with contributions from such noted writers as Mel Brooks, Carol Kolb, George Saunders, Amy Poehler, and James Downey, along with advice and tips for succeeding in the industry.

Conversations with Today's Top Comedy Writers

Poking a Dead Frog

"Did you hear the one about..." Every great joke has a punch line, and every great humor writer has an arsenal of experiences, anecdotes, and obsessions that were the inspiration for that humor. In fact, those who make a career out of entertaining strangers with words are a notoriously intelligent and quirky lot. And boy, do they have some stories. In this entertaining and inspirational book, you'll hear from 21 top humor writers as they discuss the comedy-writing process, their influences, their likes and dislikes, and their experiences in the industry. You'll also learn some less useful but equally amusing things, such as: How screenwriter Buck Henry came up with the famous "plastics" line for "The Graduate." How many times the cops were called on co-writers Sacha Baron Cohen and Dan Mazer during the shooting of "Borat." What David Sedaris thinks of his critics. What creator Paul Feig thinks would have happened to the "Freaks and Geeks" crew if the show had had another season. What Jack Handey considers his favorite "Deep Thoughts." How Todd Hanson and the staff of The Onion managed to face the aftermath of 9/11 with the perfect dose of humor. How Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais created the original version of "The Office." What it's really like in the writers' room at SNL. Funny and informative, And Here's the Kicker is a must-have resource—whether you're an aspiring humor writer, a fan of the genre, or someone who just likes to laugh.

Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on Their Craft

And Here's the Kicker

in Pink is the latest book from best-selling author Mike Sacks (And Here's the Kicker, Poking a Dead Frog, Stinker Lets Loose). Passable in Pink deftly sends up the 1980s and John Hughes movies while addressing the vital question: Will Addy Stevenson go to the senior prom? Addy is suffering through her sophomore year at suburban Chicago's Northridge High. She lives on the "wrong" side of the lake with her father, a struggling advertising copywriter ("Where the hell is the goddamn beef?") and her ever-boozy mom ("Get me another drink, baby, and really make it sing."). Addy's younger brother, Spaz, her soon-to-marry older sister, Princess, and a visiting international transfer student add to the mix. Her world is turned upside down when she meets Roland McDough, the "most beautiful Richie boy" at Northridge High. Is he actually interested in Addy, or is he just playing a game? Are you ready to jump back into the cool, neon-glazed, high-topped reality of the 1980s? Do you miss those kick-ass tubular synth-rockin' sounds and delicious phantasma-gaseous smells? When was the last time you put on your Members Only jacket and danced the Safety Dance? A loving send-up of a bygone era, this is one book in which Every Breath You Take will remind you of How You Used to Be.

Passable in Pink

Jason Roeder

It's a ritual as time-honored among teenagers as prom or ?drinking too much and? crashing your parents' ?Corolla into the window of a Mexican restaurant-glossy catalogs from colleges arriving by the dozen each spring. Aside from the faint odor of kiwi bubblegum vape smoke, Woodmont College's catalog, Welcome to Woodmont College, is superficially not unlike the others. But there's no school quite like Woodmont College (no longer "university" due to a court order). And every page of its catalog is proof of this uniqueness, whether it's ?t?outing the college's low rate of scorpion infestation or celebrating its faculty's various facial tattoos. The best part? You can order your own copy of Welcome to Woodmont College and learn for yourself why U.S. News and World Report has hailed the school as "a singular educational experience for young people searching for neglect of the arts and aggression by townies."

No Refunds

Welcome to Woodmont College

Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason collects Mike Sacks's unique humor pieces--craigslist ads, lesser-known tantric positions, letters to famous authors, lists, jokes, and the occasional illustration--into one handsome volume. Ever accidentally sent a mass e-mail to your office describing your Not Safe-For-Work fantasy kingdom? Or been confused about the ground rules at a cuddle party? Looking to rent an overpriced room in the Hamptons from a co-dependent sociopath with a checkered past (and a hot tub)? Good. Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason collects Mike Sacks’s unique humor pieces—Craigslist ads, lesser-known tantric positions, letters to famous authors, Shaft living in the suburbs, a classic-rock DJ suffering a nervous breakdown, the occasional list—into one handsome, convenient volume. Originally published in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, and McSweeney’s, among other venerable publications, Sacks’s writing is original and sharp, yet broadly funny. Whether it’s a groom tweeting his wedding and honeymoon in real time, or a publisher offering editorial suggestions for The Diary of Anne Frank, Sacks’s work tangles contemporary social satire with his absurdist sensibilities.

Your Wildest Dreams, Within Reason

“This book is fucking awesome. It’s my life’s story. I’m thirty-four but look twenty-one. Maybe twenty-two at the most. I live in Maryland. Please read it. I’m a writer, a songwriter, an artist. I do it all. I’m an artist of life. I’m an adventurer, I’m the president of my development. Read the memoir. You won’t be disappointed.” The follow up to Stinker Lets Loose, Randy! takes it even further. Introduced by a version of Sacks who finds the document in a garage sale, it is written by the struggling poet and novelist Noah B., who is embedded in the mind and lifestyle of a perversely unexceptional American asshole—one from Maryland, no less. Like Pale Fire if it were about a Danny McBride-style fuckup, it is both unmoored from time and eerily prescient of our own—one so stupid and unbelievable that it requires a writer like Sacks.

Randy!

“She may be an insane chimp, but she’s my insane chimp!” Two ingenious metanarratives that take comedy writing to surreal, uproarious new heights. Mike Sacks is writing the apotheosis of avant garde comedy—books written as found documents, trawling through the ephemera of suburban America, jokes low-brow, bizarre and visceral in a package more formally taut and wildly ambitious than nearly anything published as literary fiction today. Stinker Lets Loose is the deadly accurate novelization of a non-existent ’70s drive-in film, complete with images from the set; it explores the implications behind Eastwood and Reynolds vehicles while one-upping them in puerility and wildness.

Stinker Lets Loose

A collection of satirical essays, illustrations, lists, and sketches offers a humorous look at a variety of subjects, characters, personality types, and institutions.

Mike Sacks

About

Books

Join the club