He talked about the difference between an amateur and a professional.
I’m paraphrasing but he said, “An amateur thinks everything he does is great. A professional always feels he can do better.”
In a nutshell that says it. There’s a reason Neil Simon, despite all his success, rewrote his plays like crazy. There’s a reason stand ups will record and analyze every set to fine tune it. I can give examples in any creative field.
But when you think everything you do is fantastic there’s no room for growth, no room to learn.
Another quote: This one from Kurt Vonnegut. He once said something to this effect: When you get a group of writers together usually they’ll all squawk about how hard it is to write. And there will be one writer who says it’s easy, he loves it, piece of cake. Vonnegut says invariably that will be the worst writer in the group.
Be tough on yourself. That’s how you get better, that’s how you become a professional.
38 comments :
So to succeed, be indecisive and hate your job.
And you still keep on writing... for free?
Dr. Robert Hartley will see you at 4.00.
(Dr. Bellows would have found you "fascinating")
W.C. Fields[paraphrase]: "Show me a comic that doesn't agonize over his material and I'll show you a starving comedian."
We also live in the time of the "empowered amateur". There is a great hue and cry about "Why can't I say ____?" [famous person] said such things and no one complained. The difference being that [famous person] was [famous person] when they did it. Having the ear of the world doesn't necessarily make you legit.
Says "the guy posting this" graduate of "the guy posting this" University.
This is true, no matter what it is that you're writing. I keep tightening up my news copy until the moment it gets on-air (and sometimes, on the fly) ... and then it gets re-tightened for each subsequent hour. There is always room for improvement.
HI Ken-
OMG! Words to live by.
I always figured that if you were good at what you were doing, you'd never rest on your laurels, just try to be even better. I also figured that if you weren't, "good enough" would be good enough for you.
Today's entry should be required reading for almost every adult and kid.
I think Bob Mankoff is generally right, with at least one exception: amatuers that are perfectionists. I used to write advertising copy and learned I had to stop at some deadline point, even though I felt it could be improved.
Yesterday you said:
“Nolan said she hopes to learn new things each week. Hey, this is a global broadcast, not on the job training. That’s what the minors are for.”
That must be why creative people often seem tortured.
I heard a quote from Julie Andrews that conveys a somewhat similiar thought. Andrews, while a child, had a voice teacher. The teacher told Andrews that 'the amateur practices until he gets it right while the professional practices until he can not get it wrong."
Though it's not quite on point, I feel compelled to pass along Groucho Marx's comparison of a professional comedian and an amateur comedian. I'm paraphrasing here:
An amateur comedian will dress a guy up as an old lady, sit him in a wheelchair, and push him down a flight of stairs. A professional comedian will use a real old lady.
Related, but not 100% on target: John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist, once said "The treasured note of spontaneity critics find in my writing comes in between the seventh and eighth draft". Professionals are always learning, always trying new things and always throwing out the less than perfect. They know they can do better.
John Lennon said he wished the Beatles could re-record all of their songs. That was impractical and unnecessary, but reflects the same sentiment.
Another take, one of my favorites. Dunno the source:
‘Amateurs practice until they can get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.”
Professionals have cultivated options.
I don’t have to be tough on myself, I’m counting on you for that.
On "M*A*S*H," Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers would reenact scenes they had already filmed just for their own benefit. Mike Farrell joked that in his first year on the show, Rogers would still came back to work on scenes from the previous year.
I've written one comedy screenplay. There is a Reddit forum on screenwriting where people constantly post how enjoyable it is to write and how fun it is. I can't relate to that. To me, it was a painful grind. To get into that mental focus and stay there takes effort, for me.
Red Barber, who mentored Young Scully, said he met a great violinist, Nathan Milstein, and was curious: Had he ever given a bad performance? Milstein replied that he could not give a bad performance--if he had properly prepared for it. One performance might be better than another, but none of them would be BAD. And Vin loves to quote Olivier's line that great acting requires the humility to prepare and the confidence to bring it off, and he would add, "I am loaded with the humility to prepare."
For what it’s worth, Ken my Dad built a recording studio in our home (by no means an insignificant investment in 1963.) While he spent many hours transferring his huge collection of LPs to reel-to-reel, he also regularly set one of the floor mounted reel-to-reels to record his show. He’d spend hours every week reviewing portions of his show, making note of what worked and what didn’t and most importantly how it could be better. He always saw opportunities to improve.
Dan,
Your dad was the greatest Top 40 disc jockey to ever crack a mic. I was always in complete awe of his talent and work ethic.
Friday question: not that you would have first-hand experience, but when the cast of a mediocre sitcom does their table read, do they actually acknowledge the jokes are lame or do they just barrel through it for the paycheck? This question came to mind watching The Conners the other night. Some of the "jokes" make me cringe and I can't imagine John Goodman isn't throwing the script across the room.
I do so love your blog, Ken. Both your posts, and the comments.
Here's my contribution:
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working." — Pablo Picasso
The world's foremost cellist, Pablo Casals, in his late 80’s,was asked one day why he continued to practice four and five hours a day. Casals answered, “Because I think I am making progress.”
Reworking is important but you have to know what you're doing in the first place. I can't remember where I read it: "The difference between an amateur and a professional artist is, a professional knows when to stop painting."
After every issue of my comic book, I always say to myself, “I’ll do better next time!”
REPORTER: Doctor Norton, where exactly do you practice medicine?
"DR. NORTON: " Well, I don't need to practice it, I know it!
As noted before I worked in radio [but never got to the Dan Ingram level of "good"]. Even though the stations were generally low-rated I did my best to do my best and try and bring the ratings up, at least for my show. But when you're surrounded by buffoons who have written off the station but still taking their money it begins to look hopeless no matter how good you are. I recorded my shows and listened to try and make them better but you had DJs that would bring a TV into the studio to watch shows and got so involved that the record ran out and you had minutes of dead air, others that just played stuff and ran down to the production room to make T&Rs to send off to other stations....a guy that had literally been hired started doing that his first day on the job. Another that was more interested in trying to become a big shot in politics, a GM that came in, snarled "Good morning" and went into his office, slamming the door, and no one ever seeing him come out except to leave at the end of the day. A PD who issued edicts from on high who in return got the finger from the DJs and his memos ignored. Lying station owners who promise to do one thing and 6 months later sell the station out from under you after promising not to do so. So how do you deal with crap like that? Writing, yeah, you can do that on your own or with a like minded partner but at some point you have to bounce your idea or jokes off someone. Nowadays you can do a one man operation of an internet station but that wasn't the case back then. In my book, radio has become the current shit show it is because somewhere along the line somebody let the beancounters [and politicians] take control. The first sign of that happening should have resulted in them being taken outside and have the living snot beat out of them.
That... was brilliant. I gotta go now, have some editing to do
Akiva Goldsman was happy with his script for Batman & Robin.
@Chris Bernard
Someone once said that while it is painful to write, it is a joy to have written.
@Dan Ingram
While the heyday of WABC was before my time, I enjoyed your father immensely on WCBS-FM, especially when I was in The Honor Group of the Day 😃
Did you know that Cousin Brucie is back on WABC on Saturday nights? The show is livestreamed, although WABC can be heard by most of the eastern half of the country at night. For those who are interested in this era of radio, Allan Sniffen's MusicRadio77.com is a treasure trove. The first photograph on the website is one of your dad with Ron Lundy from exactly 40 days ago yesterday, The Day the Music Died as WABC flipped from music to talk.
Shared to my Linkedin page with attribution and link to your blog. Blog post that really resonated with me, thanks.
(6 degrees of separation through Shelley Herman)
I'm not jumping on this bandwagon.
One of the most torturous aspects of being in radio was listening to my airchecks. You know you had to do it, yet seemingly everything about them made me cringe. People would tell me "Good show," but I would be thinking, what show were you listening to?!
I can't remember if it was in the "BASEBALL" documentary or somewhere else, but Ted Williams said that he would examine his bat to look for the marks where the ball made contact. He
would use that info to improve his swing. Some might call him obsessive, but he did hit .400.
Ken, this is why I have a stack of unfinished scripts and plays. They're better than a lot I've seen, but are they really good enough?
M.B.
I thought of both the Julie Andrews quote and the Pablo Casals quote. I am glad to see they have been contributed
I have read sketches I wrote 30 years ago and think "I could tighten that up about 20% at least." And for what?
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
OK, unrelated to ANYTHING... if I have to hear ANOTHER "character" from a streaming series SLURP their drink, I will go bonkers. Is this a "thing"? On the Hulu series, "Candy," EVERY TIME a character drinks something, they SLURP. Is this intentional? It is SO distracting. SLURP. Is this an "acting" technique? My mother raised me, to "sip" quietly. SSSSLLLLUUURRRPPPPP.
And speaking of "Candy," this FIVE HOUR "limited series" could easily have been a two-hour TV movie. GLACIAL pacing, and "cartoonish" performances. A woman was brutally murdered, and by all accounts, she was misrepresented.
Is anyone watching "Julia" on HBO? Sarah Lancashire is BRILLIANT. She "evokes" Julia Child, without a lame mimic. You absolutely fall in love with Julia Child, when watching the series. She deserves an Emmy, for this performance.
Sinatra once credited someone else with this definition of a professional. "A pro is someone who achives the impossible more than once."
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