Ed Solomon Script Writer Interview & Comedy Set Show # 137

Wow! I was finally able to get Ed Solomon, an early regular at Laughs Unlimited and writer for shows like Laverne & Shirley & The Garry Shandling Show, as well as movies like Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Men In Black, Now You See Me, Charlie's Angels, Mosaic, and More!
He was in London, and shared an hour to discuss standup comedy, script writing, and more. The comedy set recorded live of Ed Solomon closing the show was for our album "Assorted Nuts" Live from Laughs Unlimited released in 1985. So a great conversation and comedy set you don't want to miss!

Hosted by: R. Scott Edwards

Transcript

Announcer: 0:04

This is another episode of stand up comedy, your host and emcee, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business, stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and emcee Scott at words.

Scott Edwards: 0:22

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of stand up comedy, your host and emcee and I am so excited. We have a terrific treat. Today I have the opportunity to speak from London with a very talented entertainer. He is a writer, producer and director. But let's just give you an idea how good a writer he was one of the original main writers for the Garry Shandling show on TV. He was the writer for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, men and black Now You See Me one and two Charlie's Angels, and more recently a drama called Mosaic. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce you all to Ed Solomon. And it's been a long time, but you have been a busy busy boy.

Ed Solomon: 1:15

Yeah, kinda I kind of have it. It's funny to hear all the whole crowd you have in your in your house.

Scott Edwards: 1:21

They're just excited that I finally got you on the phone. We've been trying to do this for about a year.

Ed Solomon: 1:28

I know I'm sorry. I've been running around. We were we were shooting in Detroit that. And then when you first reached out, and now I'm here in London worked on the same thing crazy, but it's really nice.

Scott Edwards: 1:38

Oh, it's great to catch up. So let's, let's jump into it. So you and I have a relationship through stand up comedy. My understanding is at around age 19. You were going to UCLA and you got your first shot on stage. What made you get into comedy? How did it start for you?

Ed Solomon: 1:58

My dad and I used to watch these comedies on TV when I was growing up. And I just remember thinking, I wonder how people do that. I never thought you could make a living doing that. And then when I went to UCLA, I went down on the weekend I went down to UCLA. I was 18 years old. And I arrived on my birthday. I remember 1978 and my roommate said that the Westwood communist store had opened my eyes on Monday night. And so I actually went to the Comedy Store for the to do a two minutes using jokes I'd written in high school. Bizarre Yeah, no. I know, one of those bizarre nights, you know how when the crowds just kind of riding a good wave, and you just get there right at the right moment. And I just, I did really well and I shouldn't have done well. You know, the material wasn't strong enough, but it was just kind of a fluke and actually thought to myself, well, I guess I'm gonna drop out of school and become a comedian. I actually thought I invited. I know, pretty silly. I invited everyone that I knew from high school who was at UCLA, like 20 people to CommInsure the next week to watch me and I, I I bombed. Like I should have been the first week you know, that thing where you can, you can basically see the words coming out of your mouth and dropping onto the floor. You know, that feeling? So humiliating. And I felt worse for the people that had to walk home with me because they didn't know what to say, you know, then I felt even for myself. So I decided no more comedy. I'm never going back into the Comedy Store. You know, like it, like a, like a typical 18 year old kid who knows nothing. I thought if I ever walked back into the Comedy Store, they'll just all booty out, you know, like they even remember that. Two minutes set among 102 minutes. That's right, right. Anyway. Yeah,

Scott Edwards: 3:55

I was just gonna say that was the perfect way that so many people I've interviewed over 50 comics. And we all have that experience of bombing. But what's interesting is that first time on stage, when you got the great response, you kind of got the bug for the industry, then you bomb in the in what really makes somebody resilient in this industry, this art form is that you go back on stage. So how long did it take you to get back on?

Unknown: 4:25

So what happened was, for a year, I was an economics major at UCLA. Never going to try comedy gonna go to business school, if I'm lucky, or law school, that kind of thing. A girl I had a crush on in high school, Lisa and Marcia is visiting UCLA to see if she wants to go there and she wants to go to the Comedy Store with their parents and I am thinking oh my god, am I going to go to the Comedy Store? You know? So I go into the Comedy Store with her and her parents, of course. Looks like of course, like nobody even remembers, of course, nobody remembers. I'm just a regular night and Jimmy Walker is performing. And I overheat. Yeah. And I overhear a comedian Jimmy, Alec, I know you email me. Yeah. And I overhear him saying to somebody who was asking him if he ever needed writers saying he wrote his own material, but Jimmy Walker was looking for writers. So, so then a few sets later, Jimmy Walker goes up on stage, and I'm watching it. And that night, I was actually thinking as I was watching comedians, I was thinking, I wonder if I could ever like write stuff. You know, it seems like it didn't seem that far out of reach to be able to write that stuff. So I go up to Jimmy Walker, and I say, in the greenroom, and I say, are you I heard you're looking for writers. And he goes, you know, we're always looking for writers and he got me on that. He gives me a guy named Jean Bronstein. His writing manager writing head writer, gives me his phone number I call him. I go back to my dorm room. I never I called him back my dorm room. And I type up on that. Yeah, remember that onionskin typing paper where you can erase. So I type up on my manual paper under like 22 jokes, and a cover letter that I still have a copy of Dear Mr. Bronstein enclosed, please find 22 jokes for your end, Mr. Walker's perusal. And I mailed it. And then about two weeks later, I got a check for 100 bucks, saying Jimmy was buying two jokes and that they don't usually pay that much. But they want to encourage me to write more. That's the moment that I got the confidence back. And so then, you know, your question, then I noticed there was a thing at UCLA called the UCLA comedy club with students comedians is just formed. So I, that's when I thought, well, maybe I'll try and get up on stage. So I started there at the UCLA Comedy Club, and then I was up at my parents who are in Hulu at the time, we're in Saratoga, California. And I don't remember how or why. I think maybe Barry Sobel had done a UCLA Comedy Club show because the way the comedy club worked was seven or eight students, comedians doing like six or seven minutes of material, and then a professional headliner, who we'd pay 50 bucks to do that we had, you know, I mean, everyone, Gary Shandling, we had George Wallace, we had Jerry Seinfeld that evening that we had him for 50 bucks at that time, you know, 1979 1980, and etcetera. So I'm up at my parents, and I believe Barry and I have exchanged phone numbers or something. And he said, Barry, somebody said, I don't know how I ended up at your club in Sacramento. It might have been deceiver. I don't remember. But you get an audition for you. What is it been at less than limited?

Scott Edwards: 8:03

Yeah. Right. Yeah. And before we get too far ahead, those first jokes you did on stage. Do you remember any? Do you remember any of your early writing?

Ed Solomon: 8:16

I do. I remember the joke that I filled the Jimmy Walker one was the one that he that, like you got a lot of mileage off of was I just took my driver's test. I can't figure out if it's the pedestrian I hit which took the points off for the fact that I hit him in his living room. And that was, that's actually funny. I got 50 bucks for it. I know. That's a great joke. And, and then and then I remember the first time I ever saw anyone perform anything of mine on television, he was doing a TV show called DOM Kushner's rock concert. And about 30 people, maybe not that many, maybe 20 jammed into my dorm room. We had this tiny little black and white TV. And we watched Jimmy Walker say that joke on that show. And it just blew my mind. Like watching my a joke I wrote on TV. I just I remember a ton of jokes like, Oh, God is some terrible ones that, you know,

Scott Edwards: 9:14

Oh, terrible. So we'll start.

Ed Solomon: 9:18

Yeah, like, went on a blind date. Well, it didn't start as a blind date. But when she saw me, she put her eyes out. That was from high school. There was a choke. I found about I went on a date. I didn't have a driver's license. Like my dad had to drive me. The date went great, but it got kind of weird because my dad dropped me off first. Then there was like a bunch of tags to it. I don't quite remember. I mean, I got them somewhere. Just like in my apartment somewhere. I've got actually, like all those notebooks with all those early jokes. They're, they're excruciating ly bad overall.

Scott Edwards: 9:56

Well, yeah, but there's two things that have come to light One is that you're obviously a talented writer, as all the movies you've worked on is proven. But back in the day, I didn't realize that you were writing for other people, because that's not something everybody can do. Because you have to be able to write in the voice of the entertainer that you're writing for. It's not necessarily the same that you would write material for yourself, in the fact that you went from stage to writing back to the stage for yourself, probably gave you some lessons and disciplines on the whole, you know, art form, and what it takes to create in manufacture a joke. I think that's fascinating. And those early jokes are great. But what great validation to hear him on TV by somebody like Jimmy Walker.

Ed Solomon: 10:49

That was wow, that was one of the, you know, highlights of my life. Sometimes people will ask me, like, what's the most interesting, or what's your favorite moments and hearing something you've written? That is one and the other one was, I was writing jokes at two. However, many decades later, I got to write for a few political candidates for, for the debates, and writing, trying to write jokes, the actual jokes for the debates, you know, the idea was, you'd be writing, what can't what the candidates would want is a line have kind of a punch to it. But that can be used out of context, in case it was plucked by the media and put, you know, put without, you know, any other surrounding material. So I had some terrible experiences, some terrible ones with one candidate. John Kerry, I wrote some jokes for and he delivered one quite well, and one so terribly, that it was just really embarrassing to me. I did have one thing that Barack Obama said, which I thought was, you know, kind of another highlight, but it wasn't actually a joke, per se, because he didn't do any of the jokes. Me and a group of friends were reading debate jokes, and they kept never using them. And we just got punch here and punch here as we were going crass or in class or, and, you know, to we're writing jokes, like, the phone rings at 3pm. Who awake John McCain. I mean, we had another one that was like really? Just racking Caruso grants, I probably can't even say but

Scott Edwards: 12:28

well, you could say anything. podcast, but yeah, writing for politicians, that's got to be a unique experience.

Ed Solomon: 12:38

It was really kind of thrilling to be inside it for a little while, and just watch the way they work. And the way you know, their handlers work and stuff. There was no one outside like, come in for six, eight weeks. For I did it. I did it twice, really, you know, in 2004, and then in 2008, or 12. And I remember, I did it in 2008. to influence you guys want to what you're saying? To me, I think working on stage, I never would have been like a gay level comedian. You know, I don't have I maybe if I had worked as hard on my, my act, and I set my attitude, all that as I worked on my writing, maybe but I was never an inmate performer. But being on stage, what it did was it helped me understand that relationship between you and the audience, and the nature of communicating to people as opposed to just writing in your own head.

Scott Edwards: 13:41

Well, we've jumped, we jumped way ahead, I'm gonna interrupt you and just say we've jumped way ahead, because now you're in the 2000s. And I can't believe you did that writing for politicians. But going back to when you were about 2324, you started to do some stage work. And it sounds like Barry Sobel might have introduced you to the club or you came up in showcase because I know that you are an opening act, and then a featured Act. In fact, you I've already used some of your sets for the this podcast earlier on, because I recorded a lot of those shows. And you were a terrific writer, but I have to agree that on the performance side wasn't as strong as your writing side. And when did you kind of figure that out?

Unknown: 14:31

I knew always, you know, because I think I would describe myself probably as if you took every comedian who ever worked and then took the average of them. That would be me, you know, like, I never if I listened to early tapes of myself doing stand up, I just wasn't myself. You know, I was just doing what I thought a comedian would do, you know, and so I never got to the place where your true persona comes through and you're just You angle, your attitude, your true frame of view of the world actually comes out the thing that makes you really unique and makes you makes you really pop as a comedian as a presence. I just never got there. And there were a couple of reasons for that. One was, I was wanting to write and I would often use my set to showcase my jokes, and people would just buy him out from under me, and then I would just not use them anymore. So that was one reason. Yeah, and I mean, I, I was, I mean, I was 19. Scott 19. When I auditioned for you with February, I remember really, I got no, I got a no, I can't I auditioned for you at giving, I believe, when I was 19. And then February of 1980. I did my first set my first professional set, the first Fashion Week was up with you was literally my first professional gig.

Scott Edwards: 15:54

Well, that's yes, I'm glad. I sadly don't remember that. But I know that you came in as an opening act and and we liked you right off the bat. I remember working you quite a bit in those early years.

Ed Solomon: 16:08

Yeah, I went up a lot. It was actually almost like a home club for me for a while. My first week was was Sobel was headlining for me. And I think I think he put me with Barry, because I think he introduced me to you if I think I haven't talked very many, many, Diane Nichols was the featured act. And I had a really, really interesting experience with her that I have talked to her many times to friends, which is it was a microcosm of what show businesses, they kind of build the circus tent and, you know, perform in it and then take it down, and then, you know, move on. So we had that week. And, you know, at that time you had I don't remember whether the opening and middle I shared a room or if I said I think I already do, or the opening Afters out in the living room. But you know, the club would rent an apartment and condo and all that. Yeah, early

Scott Edwards: 16:59

condos for comments weren't very exciting. And it would not have been unusual for the opening act to be on the front couch.

Ed Solomon: 17:07

Yeah, I think I was on the front couch, especially as Stan was in the middle act. So we wouldn't have been sharing the room. But she and I were really, like we hung out talk. We had dinner, we have drinks after the show. And, and I was a 19 year old kid. I don't know how old but she was in her probably mid late 20s. And I thought wow, I just, you know, we're like, we've been talking at the you know, on Sunday, I think I think we were Tuesday to Sunday, right? And whatever the end of the last night was, uh, here's my phone number. And I guess we'll see in LA and she just looked at me and she patted me on the head. And she says, I'll see you down the road.

Scott Edwards: 17:48

Yeah, because the reality is where you were you were you were work buddies for a week, but in show business that does not necessarily, you know, form a relationship. And she was being kind and letting you down easy that, you know, I enjoyed hanging with you this week. It's, I'll call you don't call me.

Unknown: 18:09

Yeah, that's the way it is. I'm moving you know, I've worked on so many projects where you're out, you know, in some obscure place, living with someone or working with someone really closely, having these intense relationships during a very, you know, high pressure and often very intense, creative, emotional, vulnerable type of work. And then it ends and you're so certain that you guys are going to be best friends forever. And you just don't see them anymore. Because it was a false scenario. You know, it was a it was a heightened, exaggerated piece of life. And then it's over. And then, you know, that's why I think it's just really important to, you know, have real friends and real family that aren't.

Scott Edwards: 18:56

Oh, yeah. But yeah, I just think you're sharing with the audience, something that has not been brought up before too much. That is a truism, when it comes to show business is that it's a very veneer industry in the sense that everything's intense while you're working together. And, you know, imagine the actors and actresses that have to make out or kiss, and they have these huge romantic scenes, and then they get off the set, and they may never see each other again, I mean, it's just an aspect of the industry that has not been spoken about much but for us that are in it is so true. And I think it's interesting that Diane, who's a terrific headlining comedian ended up going on and doing a lot of TV very successful, was kind in that she was sharing that time with you and helping you as a new comic, but also sharing the reality that that it was a one week deal.

Ed Solomon: 20:00

If we never had a physical thing, it was just friends. I was like, Whoa, I made a new great friend. And then it was like actually, and by the way, she was very friendly and very kind and very empathetic and compassionate. And you know, to me about it, but also, yeah, so let me down easy, like, you know, Hey, kid getting used to it?

Scott Edwards: 20:21

Well, I'm sure working with Barry Sobel gave you some guidance as far as because he was a strong headliner always related well, with an audience. I'm sure you were able to pick up some nuances on the industry and maybe even helped your writing by hanging out with people like that.

Ed Solomon: 20:39

Oh, tons. I mean, I've met so many brilliant, brilliant, brilliant people that I just to this day, still admire. I remember, you mentioned Bill and Ted. So Chris Matheson, and I co wrote on TED together, and I just finished a draft. I was on an airplane going to Sacramento, coincidentally with Bob Saget, and then went Sherry, and then the Scripture read on the plane. And I remember we had just set it up. And so now this is like five years later, if I started and I was 19. For the first time I worked up there last. I got this job on Laverne and Shirley, when I was 21, I was a senior in college, so I got to stand up for about a year. Then I started resumed after that again. So I was 24. And it was 1984 I think and I was flying up Sacramento, again, to laugh, unlimited and Friday, I looked at their Shami, I worked with up there I worked with got so many different people, I can't even it's hard to remember, you know, because also, by then I was working in a lot of clubs all around the country. And got it. You know, they all sort of blend together after a while. Every you know how that is?

Scott Edwards: 21:51

Oh, yeah. But of course, unlimited was special.

Ed Solomon: 21:55

Well, actually, it was for me, because it was my first one. And, you know, I loved the audience because I got a you know, you were terrific. It was a great club to work. It was a really friendly club. You know, a lot of clubs were not really nice to the comedian, treated sort of like cattle or with a lot of disrespect. You were always really great sort of people there. You know, just, there was a feeling of you were welcome. There's a feeling that were a lot of deep friendships were made. I remember with other people that worked there. And I remember, you know, you stayed in touch, like how many covenanters, honestly, that you know, are in touch with people that came through the club. Not a lot. You know, I'm not in touch with any any others. To tell you the truth. So I think it was a special place.

Scott Edwards: 22:46

Well, some people would say it's friendship. Others would say it's stalking but you never know.

Ed Solomon: 22:53

Well, this last year, it's been stalking for sure.

Scott Edwards: 22:57

Just to get you on the podcast, so you've been working it laughs you've been doing some other stage clubs. You had a chance you mentioned sagot and shanling. And in others, Diane Nichols and Barry Sobel, that you got a chance to work with at my club. And I think that was a good foundation for your career as a performer and as a writer. What can you share with the audience? What? You know what that transition because you were already writing for other people. Was it a slow transition? Or did you kind of go from performing to being a full time writer overnight? I mean, well, how would you explain it?

Ed Solomon: 23:37

When I was at UCLA, I was ready to play as well. I, as I said, I was an economics major, so I wasn't allowed into any screenwriting classes, but I did get into the playwriting class. And so I wrote some plays. And the third play I wrote was play called structurally, which I wrote after coming back from it was a club in Alaska in Anchorage, Alaska, that what's his name? David. He didn't get the puppet Chuck would. Yes, yes. Yes. And he was booking that club. And so me and two other comics, Jack Greymon. And Robert guaido.

Scott Edwards: 24:20

Roberts, great comic musician. Yeah,

Ed Solomon: 24:22

yeah. Yeah, flew up to the strip club. And I'm a I'm a, whatever was probably 20. At the time. You know, took a midterm on Thursday, got onto a plane flew to Anchorage, Alaska to the strip club, which I'd never been inside a strip club before. Imagine like a college kid at a strip club.

Scott Edwards: 24:45

Yeah, that's crazy.

Unknown: 24:47

Bonkers. I remember first that I go. I do. People are buying these shots. from drinking snot. I walk off a stripper takes you off stage which is You're in college. That's craziness. She says to me, do you do too? I don't know what that means. It means cocaine, obviously. But I didn't know what it meant. I said, Yes. And then. And then she says, Do you want to come party with me and my boyfriend and I had this weird idea that wind up facedown in the snow somewhere in Alaska, so I ended up not, thankfully. But I admit that that event was really a kind of shocker for me. So I came back and I wrote a play called strip joint, which was originally about a guy who goes to New York, for some reason or another, if he does stand up in 32, to do stand up, and he ends up working in a strip club. And then I ended up changing it to a guy who goes to New York to kill us prodigy musician, and he ends up playing piano and it's true, a little more theatrical and had this play performed at UCLA. Oh, how cool. And yeah, that at that time, I had already been writing for Gary Shandling to because Gary had done one of the Utah a comedy club shows that when I met him and invited me to write with him, so I started really reading a lot with Gary, for Gary's that. And Gary introduced me to a guy named Mark sock and who was a friend of his who was a producer on the vernooij, surely. And Mark came to see that play. So I gave, so he came to that play, and I had given mark, like a bunch of jokes that I'd written and so better jokes than the first ones we talked about no jokes I've done a few years later. Yeah. And that combination, he said, he hired me as a staff writer on the burning surely. So my senior year of UCLA, my last half of it, I never went to class. I just went to Paramount Studios. What?

Scott Edwards: 26:48

That'd be early 80s 82.

Ed Solomon: 26:52

I was 21 years old. It was 8219 82. And it was really hard. I truly, you know, I was I was okay at that job. I wasn't great at it. I was, I was good enough to not get fired. I wasn't good enough to continue on in the DICOM. World after that, because it was too stressful for me. And I just wasn't the kind of joke writer that those professional TV writers are, you know, that can just crank out joke after joke after joke.

Scott Edwards: 27:27

Yeah, I had a chance to interview Lois Bromfield, who lives in Germany now. And she was one of the head writers for the Roseanne show. And also, I interviewed Karen Anderson, and both these ladies were TV sitcom writers. In fact, Karen still does it. She's working on a project with Sean Hayes. But they were so clear to explain how much work it is, in that sometimes they'd have 1214 hour days, or, or, you know, told to fix something immediately. The stress was incredible.

Ed Solomon: 28:03

Oh, it was horrifying. And I was not. You know, I just didn't have the constitution for it, really. And it was to greed. And, you know, I used to, I remember, first week, we were doing a show week, and you'd be up till two 3am Every night rewriting, you know, it was craziness. And I remember the first week mark comes in, Mark Stockton comes in and he says, okay, every day from three to 330 We're gonna do naptime. Just everything's quiet, we're gonna, you know, everyone's gonna just take a break, kind of take a nap because they're gonna be having to work pretty late. And years later, I bumped into one of the head writers of that show, not mark another guy who's unfortunately no longer alive. And he treated me really terribly on the show, he was really resentful that I was this young guy was really mean to me, you know, I could walk down the hall and I'd say, you know, hey, you know, I won't say his name. And you know, do you have the time and he'd say yesterday do and keep walking, bumped into him at Duke bars in LA went in one day and I I said, How are you doing? And we were talking and you know, you pretty mellowed out. And we ended up talking about meditation of all things. Because I started meditating and I can, man I would have been would have been. It would have been awesome. You know, had a meditation practice back then because it would have had something to do at nighttime besides just lie on the couch, unable to sleep. being terrified. I was gonna get tired. And he's like what naptime when you talk about I said nap. I remember. Like, like new or mark is somebody announced that every day from three to 330 We're shutting down, no phone calls, we're just doing naptime. And he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. It's nap time. I lie on the couch paranoid, terrified that and then I come back in after naptime never would have nap and they had all this energy and he's like, he looks at me. He goes we weren't napping. We were doing coke.

Scott Edwards: 30:12

Really? They called it now. Oh, that's funny.

Unknown: 30:17

Not Mark Mark was in. It was like some of the head some of the writers from the show, I guess we're just doing coke. And then I was always wondering like, why do they have so much energy that he must have been napping so well, again, in the no idea about coke.

Scott Edwards: 30:32

So I hate to say it. This is not condescending, but it's kind of cute. That in the naiveness of your age, in in early career, that all this stuff is going on naptime. And and you're totally clueless until years later. Did you figure that out?

Ed Solomon: 30:56

Well, what's funny too, is so the next television show I worked on with Gary show, as he said, Gary Shandling show and because I live really close to where we're shooting at the break, after we do the run through all this while Gary and Alan were getting the notes and stuff. I would go back to my my apartment in Silver Lake and I would go for a run around Silver Lake and then I would come back into the office and I'd be all flushed the day one of the other writers on the show. Years later said to me when I said he asked me what, you know what I was doing what I used to do, why do we even I'd say, you know, I'd run around Timberlake, and he looked at me because I swear to God, we all thought you were doing coke.

Scott Edwards: 31:42

Yeah, I thought it was naptime again.

Ed Solomon: 31:45

Yeah, exactly. Pretty funny. I I really did not think that that this conversation would be coke themed. But

Scott Edwards: 31:54

well, it's just interesting that we in the early 80s It's no surprise to anybody that's over 40 years of age that in the 80s Cocaine was a pretty prevalent tool for people in entertainment. And you know, we we had a no drugs, no excessive drinking rule at my club. But that doesn't mean that it didn't happen. And in fact, there was a funny story where John Fox chase me around the greenroom with a spoonful of coke trying to get me to try it. And I just wasn't into that kind of stuff. It scared the heck out of me and but the fact that you were in deep in the industry as a writer, doing sitcoms, which have really strenuous situations, long hours, it's no surprise that drugs or some sort of stimulant was prevalent, and I and it's just shows to your youth and inexperience at the time that you weren't aware of it. But now you're writing for the Garry Shandling show. We both had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with Gary. He was a genius writer, great performer ended up doing lots of TV and movies out. How did you transition from the Garry Shandling show to movies like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? Was that an easy step? I know you've already been working on the script, but trying to sell it that can that can be difficult.

Ed Solomon: 33:22

When we actually started writing it in 83, we set it up in 84. And then it took the technic awkward turnaround by Warner Brothers in 85. And it kind of sat on the shelf and then I started working on Jerry show. And then the script got picked up again. And a movie got greenlit in 87. And so I remember leaving Gary Shaffer a little bit to go do Bill and Ted and coming back onto Gary so and then the movie got shelved. And then it got purchased again by someone else. And they put some more money and we edited it out in SR two. And then it finally got released in 89. So that was a kind of checkerboard version of it didn't just kind of happen overnight, but it took a long time to get that movie. Well, what was that movie? Oh, go for it.

Scott Edwards: 34:13

I was just gonna say that. It's interesting, because I don't think a lot of people realize that when you go out and see a movie, you know, the thinking, Oh, well, it got shot, you know, the year before and it was written maybe the year before that. But a lot of successful films, have trouble getting started or can take years, sometimes a decade to get from pen to script to movie to the screen. And it is a arduous process. And I was asking was there a transition between TV and movie, but much like several other types of Hollywood projects. It's all kind of overlapping, right? You're kind of always working on something hoping that something would work. Gone previously goes

Ed Solomon: 35:02

100%. And now in my life now I'm 61 years old. I was 19. Scott, when you and I met, I'm 61 Now I've got so many things that I've been working on for so long and a lot of them overlap. Sometimes I've got three or four things happening at one time. And, you know, it's, it's, it's bonkers at the time then it was, you know, that was there were things overlapping early on, but it was only I wasn't working on a lot of different things. I you know, I had built into it. I had Garry Shandling, you know, show, and just the nature of the process led to an overlap. I have found that I have had to always have a lot of different irons in the fire creatively just, you know, because you just never know if something's going to work or not work creatively. You don't know if someone's going to want to make it or buy it. You know, you don't know if you'll get it right. Which is a lot of the problems because it takes a while to get something right. Yeah, a lot of scripts, men in brackets for years of fairly agonizing work before it got made. That should have been a billion can be started in 83. And came out in 89. Don't chase the music took us 14 years to get me while at the same time. I had a movie out last year that I'm really proud of a movie called Northside move, which was on each HBO max. And it was a I had talked to directors, Steven Soderbergh who did was act that you had mentioned. And he and I started talking about no sudden move. In December, I remember which year but in December, in February, I did an outline. In October, we were shooting it and that was with a COVID delay is supposed to shoot even sooner. And it was out the next year in late spring, early summer. So that was a super fast one. Usually

Scott Edwards: 37:00

that one went fast. But let me interject something to just ask you. If it's a truism, I think it is but wasn't the fact that you'd already written for Laverne and Shirley and the Garry Shandling show you that's writing for television or cable, and then you get finally it took years. But you got Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, at least off the page. And on to film it maybe took a few years to release but you got it made? Isn't it true in show business? Like a lot of other businesses, you almost have to prove yourself before people will trust you. Because I'm assuming and you tell me if I'm correct or not. That once you got your first movie produced and out there? Did it make it easier to sell yourself for things like men and black? And now you see me in Charlie's Angels? Does it kind of pick up speed momentum on the writing side?

Ed Solomon: 38:03

Yes, it can. But I think the best work I've done is to work that for the most part that I've written on spec, the first 10 years of my career I was writing most inspect on Ted was on inspection. And I wrote a bunch of somewhat bad spec scripts in the early years. And then once Bill and Ted's success, got me into the studio, high fidelity, I guess, market and as you're saying many black when that came out that that would mean to a different level where I was getting a lot of stuff coming at me job offers and stuff. And I think for about 10 years, I took a lot of jobs that I in hindsight wish I hadn't taken jobs that I knew might get me, which is why I took the job as opposed to jobs that I felt really personally connected to as much. It's I think it's an it's a bigger version of what I was talking about earlier in terms of my standup, I didn't really know myself that well. And I was allowing other people's opinions of me or, you know, or my resume to kind of give me hints as to who I might be, as opposed to meeting with just what means something to me the last decade or more even I've spent I've had more things made in the last 10 years than I've ever had, certainly in terms of a shop but most of it's been started as spec work. Again, the thing that I'm working on now that shoots in September the reason unfortunate I've been so busy. You know we've had to kind of reschedule the scope plans. The thing called full circle. I started in 2016. And it was a 642 I think ages spec script. You know that spent years on spec because they just you know, at a certain point. I'm not a writer who said are, you know, taking job, or money or not taking jobs because of money. And I've always, even in those 10 years, 15 years, when people were bringing me a lot of stuff, I always tried to do something that I thought I could do well, you know, in jobs that, that, you know, I, even if I thought, Well, this one will get made, I wouldn't do it and what I thought I could really

Scott Edwards: 40:24

do it, you want something you could connect with?

Ed Solomon: 40:28

Yeah, you know, and you want, you know, they didn't always end up good, or, you know, I often was rewritten or fired, or, you know, or I couldn't get it right, and movie sucks. And you know, it's my fault. Or sometimes it was someone else's fault. Sometimes it was a combination of the last 1010 12 years, I've actually I've done a little bit of comedy, but I've kind of veered away from doing comedy, because I think it's really hard. As an older person to be funny, I just, it's not just that the culture changes. It just, it requires a kind of energy, that I don't have a kind of mind. Kind of state of mind, that's very difficult to maintain. And, you know, for about the last 25 years, I've been trying to build skills that would allow me to work in a more different genres. And it took a lot of failure is honestly to get to a place where I could, you know, I could actually write in a lot of different milieu in genres.

Scott Edwards: 41:39

Well, I think that that's fascinating. And we talked about it way earlier than in comedy, you have to fail to succeed. I'm an entrepreneur, I will tell anybody that wants to get into business, you're gonna fail to succeed. It's it, you know, failures are the stepping stones to success, as Emmett Stone said, but let me ask two things. One is very generic. But for the audience, can you in the short term, explain the difference between let's say, a script, a treatment and a spec job, just just on generic stuff.

Unknown: 42:18

That means spectrum is short for speculative. And that means nobody's paying you for it. So whenever you're writing, you're writing and then going to sell or hope to get made. Somehow you're

Scott Edwards: 42:30

creating a product to sell, okay?

Ed Solomon: 42:33

Yeah, you're creating something and you're taking it as far as you can take it on your own. And most of the things you know, Bill and Ted face to music was a spec script that Chris and I wrote, even though we didn't even own it. At that point, we just wanted to get it right creatively. Mosaic was scrapped until HBO picked it up, no sudden move, which is the sort of we're gonna talk about that was spec. But I knew I had Steven, so it wasn't as big a risk as Steven was developing with him. But it was on spec, full circle, this new thing spec, thing it took me years and years to do, that shoots later, treatment is something bigger than an outline and less than a full script, you know, an outline is what it sounds like, it's an outline, it can be anywhere from two pages to 20 pages. A treatment can be something that's usually 15 to 40 pages. You know, it's, it's like a, you're describing everything that's happening, but you're not really getting into the dialogue and the specifics.

Scott Edwards: 43:38

Right, right. As you're laying out the concept of the what you picture is the film or the the show you're working on.

Ed Solomon: 43:47

Yeah, and as a writer, pressure writer, you can get work in a lot of different ways. You can write on spec, you know, somebody can come to you with an idea of a producer came to me with men and black. There were three issues of a comic book, I didn't think it was something I could write. Because it was really serious and was about kind of demons. And it was very different than the movie. And in my notes to the producer about why I didn't think I could do it. But what I thought what I could do, I think they said, hey, what if you did the version that you think you could do and you know, so that sometimes people can come to you with that. Sometimes, people will pitch an idea to try to get paid to write and by that it means meet with a studio executive of some kind and try and tell them an idea and entice them to pay you to write it. I've only done that a couple of times because I just am not a good pitcher and I don't like the process. And usually, I don't like the power position it puts you in and I also just don't like having to go to someone saying please hire me. I'd prefer to go hey, I've written Right, right

Scott Edwards: 45:01

be interested in it. Yeah. From the creative aspect, I could see it would be more rewarding, although much more risky to spend time writing scripts on spec and hoping that it goes somewhere. But in short for the audience, the difference between on spec and being a paid script white writer is that difference is that on one, you're doing it on your own time, hoping to sell it in on the other as a paid writer, of course, Saturday Night Live, or the Garry Shandling show, or whatever it is, you're hired to write. And it's a job that you're getting paid for, as opposed to spec, which is, as you said, speculative. It's a gamble, Will anybody want it. The other thing I wanted to point out, and I'm not going to take up too much more of your time, man, I really appreciate it. But I have been such a huge fan of your movies. And I have to be honest, I wasn't even aware that you had written all of them. But Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure men and black Now You See Me is one of my popular. I love those Charlie's Angels, all very fun, entertaining, energetic, exciting movies. Then you as you said with age, you've transitioned to mosaic and some of the projects you're working on now. You were you alluded to it, but let let me ask specifically, is it it sounds like it's easier, but how did you find it going from comedy to drama?

Ed Solomon: 46:33

Comedy, let there be no mistake comedy. Hard, it's actually harder, in a lot of ways, because in a comedy, you have to do everything you do in drama. And also be funny, and I think you were talking about transitions from TV to film, joke writing TV, for instance, you know, and that kind of thing earlier. The reason I think it was it's hard for people to transition from being stand up to sitcom is the sitcom requires a certain higher level of reality. But it's not as high level of reality as, as a certain film type, usually is. Sometimes people have tough time transitioning from to come to film, sometimes people have a tough time transitioning from comedy to drama, or from drama to comedy, or, you know, they, they don't bridge those two, well, for me, I just knew that I couldn't get to the level of comedy. As I was getting older, that I would have wanted to be able to get to, in order to do work that I was proud of, certainly not the levels of comedy that people I got to work with, could achieve. There are people um, you know, you they came to your club that you you know that some people that can just get to that joke or that idea in a way that seems like magic, you know, how do they do that, I just never had that good sense of humor, I couldn't get there. I also had a lot broader interests. And to be totally honest, I'm ambitious. And I didn't want to be in my 50s. And having to bake for work I have people throw me bone. So I knew that the economy rug would dry up or at least not be as fruitful. And I was going to have to really develop other skills in order to be able to continue working. And you were talking about failure as a stepping stone. I, I honestly would not have had any of this stuff they had had have not had some really brutal, painful failures. That taught me the bigger lesson that you learn so much more from failure than you do from something successful, you get a lot of accolades, but you never look back and go, ah, you know, what did I do that made that work? You? In fact, the mistake is often going, what did they do that made that work? Because then people try to repeat themselves in success. But with failure, if you if you are able to go where did I blow it? And if you're able to pull yourself up and keep going, which by the way is a lot harder than it might seem or, you know, it's really hard to do if you're able to truly learn from your mistakes. And then keep going those failures actually make them grow so much. One fact I can look at every success, I have point very clearly to a failure, that I wouldn't have had the success without either I changed the direction or I made a relationship or I learned a big lesson, or whatever it is. So back to your question about comedy and drama. It's a sliding scale to me, you know, I don't think humor ever hurt anything. But you know, what's important is if you're writing a thriller, it's thrilling a horror film. You know, it's called Terror are buying if you're writing a comedy, it's funny, if you're, you know, or you're writing some blend of those things, you have to be able to look at what the essential core is of the thing you're writing what the pretentious word, whatever the thickness of it is, what is it trying to tell you? It is? What is the best education of this idea? And then be of service to that. What is the idea trying to tell you it wants to be and how, what is your relationship with the idea that is both coming out of you, but also, you're paying attention to in the same way that you maybe look at a kid that you have a child and you, you know, like I had two kids, I had the first kid, I thought, Oh, this is what kids are. And then once I had a second kid, I was like, Oh, I was completely wrong. Each child is very different. And they require very different things that you, you know, to be a good parent to that child requires paying very close attention to what it is. How do you help the child become the best manifestation of themselves? And I think it's the same with writing, you know, what is the best version of this idea? How can this idea be cold? And how can I not have my own ego attached to it in a way that if someone rejects it or doesn't like it, but I don't feel like they're rejecting me, but rather, what I tried to make? And then how do I look at the thing I made, and make it better? And that's a really hard thing to do. So I don't think it's so much about comedy versus drama. I just think it's what's on the sliding scale. You know, what is the right place for this thing? And yeah, yeah, I

Scott Edwards: 51:49

mean, it obviously you're a tremendous artist, and tremendous gifted writer. And, and I'm asking simplistic questions to something that that may be difficult to explain, but I think you did a great job and I appreciate you doing that. Now, before I let you go. I'm going to do a little name dropping. I know that once you write a script, you have no idea who's going to be performing the material that you write. But just real quick, you know, you put words in the mouth of Sharon Stone counter Reeves, Paul Rubens, Beau Bridges, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Caine, Eddie Murphy, Holly Hunter, Billy Bob Thornton, Annette Bening, Will Smith, Tony Lee, Tommy Lee Jones, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and hundreds of others. It has to be I mean, I'm just thrilled thinking about it, you must just have a great sense of success or confidence from these people speaking your words.

Ed Solomon: 53:01

That's wild to hear that, you know, it's really wild to hear those names and think about that. It's I wouldn't say confidence. But I would say it is a never take it for granted. And it is always amazing to me, like always amazing. That moment we were talking about earlier about watching Jimmy Walker say a joke. I feel that every day when I'm on set with anything I ever do, I can't believe it. Like I can't believe that. I still stand there. thinking this is amazing. My girlfriend is a writer. She's a phenomenal writer. And she she got her a show going right now that just started yesterday. And we're having to seek that conversation today on text just like she's like, this job is amazing. Like, I'm while I'm standing next to somebody who's my good friend, and she thing lines that I wrote and I am you know, and I'm saying, I know he just, it's just remarkable. It makes no sense. There's nothing more thrilling than, by the way with having a great accuracy your words because two things happen. One, they make them sound better. And two, you grow because when when your words go through there, whatever you want to call it instrument there, there are there as you know them. First of all their questions are at a deeper level, their notes are at a deeper level. And what you realize you can accomplish with a look for a way of saying something by a really talented person just makes you for the next time. A little bit better. You can write in a more nuanced way a more a deeper way, a more complex way. So that it's weird to hear you say all those names. It's a trip for me. I can't believe it really. It still feels weird. It does Don't get me more confident. But it does make me feel more. kind of amazed that Yeah,

Scott Edwards: 55:07

and you, you stated exactly what I was thinking that if you had the thrill of hearing your jokes being told on TV, imagine the exhilarating feeling it would be to have people of this stature, these artists, taking your words, and making them their own, I think is quite an accomplishment. And I gotta tell you, Ed, it's been a real privilege to have you on this podcast, I've had a chance to work with some of the best in the business. But by far, you're the only featured act that ended up being a huge success in this way, and and I mean that with all joy that it was to get a chance to work with you share some of those early years with you, we had you back over and over at Lampson limited because we not only realized you're a gifted writer and performer, but you know, you're good guy. And that is proven again today by the fact that you took this time, while in London of all places to share this moment with me in the audience, I do want to share this, this podcast is all about Stand Up Comedy in the history of the business. And I am going to share some of your stand up material from when you were 2324 years old. So that'll be tacked on to the end of this. So ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned.

Ed Solomon: 56:40

But as long as I don't have to listen to it, knock yourself out.

Scott Edwards: 56:46

For you, sir, thank you for all the great work you've done. And sharing your mind and your writings through these various films and TV shows has been a real gift. Because what's amazing is long after we're gone, these will be around and you shouldn't be I'm proud of what you've accomplished. And I know you feel pride in what you've been able to give not only to the industry, but the accomplishments that you've achieved yourself. Congratulations.

Ed Solomon: 57:23

Hey, thank you so much. And thank you for having faith in me early on. I mean, it really, it really is a meaningful thing for me. And you know that that time there was huge for me, and I really appreciate it. And thanks for thanks for having me on today. And thanks for what you were saying and to whoever's listening. Thank you for that.

Scott Edwards: 57:44

Well, we appreciate you add, ladies and gentlemen, stay tuned. I'm going to share a little stand up comedy for Mr. Solomon, and keep an eye out. Oh, real quick before we go. 2023 We're at projects should we be looking for

Ed Solomon: 58:00

this thing called Full circle that this is another Soderbergh thing. I'll be on HBO Max. It's a limited series that was and then I've got a show. Right after that on Amazon. I think I will, I hope that is a little rock that, presumably will be out there. And that the next thing going is this thing called the full circle that I'm super hopeful. I'm really I just did a giant rewrite of it. And I feel really cool about it. I'm super excited. And

Scott Edwards: 58:41

All right, well, ladies and gentlemen. I was just gonna say ladies and gentlemen, keep an eye out for full circle and Little Rock. Right? I got those right.

Unknown: 58:51

You know, little rock a, you know, they haven't greenlit or anything yet. I'm still writing the pilot. So you know, if I do my job that'll be after that if I if I don't do my job? Well, you won't see it. And you'll it'll be because I didn't deliver it.

Scott Edwards: 59:06

Well, we'll just keep our fingers crossed and keep an eye out for Ed Solomon is the head writer, and producer and directed you've done all kinds of amazing things. Thank you so much for being here today. Ladies and gentlemen. Stay tuned for some stand up comedy by Ed Solomon. Ed, thanks for joining us.

Ed Solomon: 59:25

Thank you, Scott. Thanks for having me

Scott Edwards: 59:26

on. All right, ladies and gentlemen, here we go stand up comedy by Ed Solomon.

Ed Solomon: 59:33

Anyone get Trivial Pursuit? Oh, there's a good there's a good game. So I don't understand the concept of this game. It's like pay like 3995 to feel like an idiot. Like, because almost like every question you get is like geography. What is the exact latitude and longitude of Bengal? And then like your opponent always gets questions like geography. What planet are we on? They're gonna have a Christmas dinner at home and all that stuff. They're gonna have things same things like Thanksgiving dinner at home. It's always the same thing now is it? Just me? I don't think so. I'm 24 Now when I go home for like Thanksgiving dinner and stuff, they still stick me at the kiddie table. I'm talking about it's like the aluminum card table. I like throwing throw a sheet over it. You put your elbow on it everything like slides down. And every year they tell you when you grow up, you move up from the kiddie table to the when you grow up. Yeah, that's bullshit. Okay. Let's face it, folks. The only way you move up from the kiddie table to the adult table is if someone at the adult table dies sad but true. I'm sitting there going grandpa poo and my mom's there my mom's drinking like, you know people like to shoot like she won't drink from the same glass someone else uses but like she will French kiss the dog. And say right mom while the dog was in the house using the Waterpik okay. I was outside eating dog shit. Okay. So so we're at the table at the dinner table. Right? And, and like when I was a kid, it was like, the adults would drink like wine and champagne. They'd give the kid sparkling cider. jarhead sparkling cider like this is supposed to think we're really drinking wine right and have like, four or five glasses go out and drive our big wheel off a cliff. There's anyone who drinks and drives here anybody you do. Drinking and driving is a problem. I mean, it's not a problem if you're drunk because like if you're drunk hell, you know you can drive. The problem comes to the first semester basically convinced you that you're too drunk to drive yo isn't it wasn't like Dave. Dave, you're a little messed up right now. Maybe I should drive you home. There's no no I'm fine. I'm fine. Just let me adjust the seat. Dave, you're sitting on the fucking hood of the car. I actually have a solution for the drunk driving problem. They would eradicate it 100% from the freeway, and I don't know why they have an instigator yet why don't we simply do this? Why don't we simply put on the freeway a drunk Lane sort of a padded Lane sort of shaped like this cars is kind of new I want to read you and honestly God question from the California driver's test and I want you to tell me if you think this is not possibly one of the most difficult things you've ever seen. Question number one honest question. What does this sign mean? No right turn a no right turn be deer crossing See, turn left into the oncoming traffic I missed this one. I put none of the above I was some of these are incredible. Like what you think Okay, number two, but as a node that's three to driving under the influence of any drug which makes you drive unsafely is a fun be okay on weekends. But watch out for those roadblocks and of course see okay, but you must be willing to share it with everyone on the freeway. Yeah, okay, how about this one number three pedestrians using guide dogs are carrying white canes A should be ignored. They're just trying to attract attention. Be should be considered armed and extremely dangerous. And of course see our blind drive by and yo How many fingers am I holding up?

Scott Edwards: 1:04:14

Was at Salomon live on stage from back in 1984. And what's really interesting is we were recording that show for an album. That's right, a comedy album that we released, called assorted nuts live from laughs unlimited. That was launched in 1985. It featured Dana Carvey, John Foxx, Robert guaido and Ed Solomon along with others. It was a lot of fun to produce the album. It was great having Edie on our live stage back in those days, but just think about it. He went on to produce direct and most importantly be a major scriptwriter for some of the top films of our lifetime. And it's important to remember it all started from stand up comedy. And I think that's the takeaway that I have from all this is that stand up comedy offers so much enrichment in the arts that it can lead to so many amazing things. And of course, in the case of Ed Solomon, he's been truly successful. And it was just a real blessing to get them on this podcast. Hey, I really enjoyed doing this one. Next week, we have another great show, be sure to tell your family and friends and share the podcast. Thanks for listening. Bye.

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