What I learned from Neil Simon

Thomas Tucker posed a Friday Question asking what was so remarkable about Neil Simon? Yesterday, I gave an overall perspective. Today, I want to share my personal feelings.

I never took a course in comedy writing. I never read a book on how to write comedy. I may have skimmed a few while standing in a bookstore (historical note: At one time physical books were available in stores that sold them.) I learned by watching shows I admired like THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and by reading plays by my playwright idols.

George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart were particular favorites. Comedies they wrote in the ‘20’s and ‘30s still held up in the ‘60s and ‘70s. I was drawn to them because their comedy was very character-based. Smart interesting people were put in funny situations and reacted in surprising ways, and more than that, said really funny things as a result. I love verbal humor. Not “jokes.” Funny lines that stem from attitude.

And I discovered early on that no one did that better than Neil Simon. He has a couple of thick volumes of his collected plays. And those were my “graduate school.” I studied his construction, the types of jokes he went for. I tried to figure out his thought process. I studied his plays for rhythm, flow, for making every character seem real and yet endlessly funny.

What kind of joke goes where? When does a joke get in the way? How do you set up misunderstandings? How do you find humor in serious situations? He doesn’t just hit you with a string of jokes. He structures scenes and situations so that the comedy builds. He employs various tropes, like “call backs.” There’s tremendous craft in a Neil Simon play.

So a lot of what I know about comedy writing I learned directly from him, or more accurately, his example.

Once he moved out to California in the ‘80s he started writing his plays here and instead of taking them out of town before Broadway, he would mount them here. New Haven’s loss is LA’s gain. I used to go to the first or second preview and a few months later, fly to New York to see the finished Broadway version. I was fascinated by what changed, what he did to improve it – and improve it he always did. I would watch the previews and figure out what I’d do to improve it. Then I was always heartened to see the final product and in many cases the issues I saw as problematic he did too. But he addressed them better and funnier than I would have.

At the previews I used to see him in the last row with a pad and pen taking notes. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have one of those pads! Or even just read one.

So I’ve now spent two days hyping Neil Simon, and Thomas, all I can say is if you ever saw a really GOOD production of THE ODD COUPLE on stage, I guarantee you a light bulb would go on and you’d SEE what all the praise is about. He changed Broadway, and he changed comedy, and he changed me.