ANNOUNCER: Please
welcome our moderator,
Todd Womack from
"Barely Political,"
and of course, BJ Novak.
TODD WOMACK: Hi, everybody.
How are you guys doing?
AUDIENCE: Great.
TODD WOMACK: How about another
hand for our friend who's
visiting us?
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: Look at that.
All right.
So, BJ.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: An
afternoon with BJ Novak.
Look at all these
dedicated Googlers
missing the Board of Directors
meeting just to see you.
BJ NOVAK: I understand you
have a choice in presentations
today, and I thank you
for choosing this one.
TODD WOMACK: You chose wisely.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: You actually
played a Google employee.
BJ NOVAK: What if this is
a trick, and everyone who
came to this is fired?
Be a great prank.
TODD WOMACK: For you.
So what've you got going on?
What are you doing in
New York, first of all.
BJ NOVAK: I came here to
visit the company Google.
TODD WOMACK: Massive
search engine.
BJ NOVAK: Massive search engine.
I don't know if you know,
I played a Google employee
in a movie.
TODD WOMACK: I was
about to say that.
Did you do any research?
BJ NOVAK: Yes, for years.
I used the search engine.
I used the email, the maps.
I got very deep into
it, so I could really
understand the
mindset of someone
for whom Google is an
essential part of their life.
TODD WOMACK: See, he cares.
He did the research,
did the work.
So tell us about the book.
BJ NOVAK: Well, this
book-- the reason I'm here
in general in New York this
week is for the paperback launch
of this book, "One More Thing--
Stories and Other Stories,"
which is a collection of
64 short stories of very
different lengths, and
topics, and sometimes tones,
and always themes
that really are meant
to be, in my opinion, a book
of fiction for the social media
age, in a way.
This is for a generation
that I include myself
in where we can click around,
and flip around, and find
different things that we're
in the mood for at any moment.
And I wanted a book
that felt like that too,
that you could flip through
it and visually see,
this looks short.
This looks sweet.
This looks involving.
This looks crazy.
This has a lot of swears in it.
This one is more innocent.
My mind was working in
a very jagged way when
I was-- I had just
left the office,
and my mind was flooded
with all these ideas.
And I thought it would be
great if I could pull it off,
to write a jagged book.
So they're all
comedic, but they're
expressive of different
feelings and moods, as well
as different topics.
TODD WOMACK: Right.
Yeah, there's some that
are just sweet and sad.
And they're all pretty
funny, the ones that I read.
I didn't have time to read
the whole book since Monday,
since I got the book.
But I'm going to read a couple
of these titles of the stories
in here, just because the titles
themselves are pretty funny.
"'The Something,'
by John Grisham."
I thought that was pretty good.
BJ NOVAK: That's a
story in which author
John Grisham wakes up and sees
a full-page ad in "The New York
Times" congratulating him from
his publisher, Random House,
on his book called,
"The Something."
And it turns out,
he had just mailed
in a manuscript with that
as a placeholder title.
And they had never checked it.
And it becomes a meditation
on perfectionism.
The book's number one.
Everyone loves it.
They think "The Something"
is a cool title.
And does he let it go, or do
heads roll at Random House?
Yeah, you tell me the title.
I'll tell you what it's about.
TODD WOMACK: His follow
up is "Working Title."
Right.
Here we go. "The Man Who Posted
Pictures of Everything He Ate."
That's quite good.
BJ NOVAK: That's so short,
I could even read it later
if you want.
That's one of those--
TODD WOMACK: That's
what I was going to say,
if you want to do a
little bit of that.
BJ NOVAK: Perfect for this room.
Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: All right.
Would you guys like
to hear that later?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: All right.
Then that shall be done.
They get their wishes here.
"Johnny Depp, Fate, and the
Double Decker Hollywood Tour
Bus."
BJ NOVAK: That's a story--
some of these stories have--
TODD WOMACK: These are fiction.
BJ NOVAK: These are all fiction.
I should have made
that more clear maybe.
TODD WOMACK: It
says on the back.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
That's one in which Johnny Depp
faces an existential crisis
while riding a motorcycle
alongside a Hollywood tour
bus that recognizes him.
And he feels more
and more compelled
to show off for the tour bus.
And it goes to a real
extreme of fate and legacy.
And it ends, as
many of the stories
do-- not many, as
several of the stories
do-- with a discussion question.
TODD WOMACK: Right, which you
have in the back, questions
for discussions.
BJ NOVAK: I have more discussion
questions in the back.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah,
discussion questions.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah, I figured
I'd just jump the gun
and make the academic version
of the book for when it's
a classic taught in schools.
I'd just save
everyone the trouble.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah.
That'll go well in this crowd.
"Wikipedia Brown and the
Case of the Missing Bicycle."
BJ NOVAK: Wikipedia
Brown is a detective.
A child detective.
He's not perfect.
He never said he was.
But he works fast,
and he works for free.
TODD WOMACK:
"Confucius at Home."
BJ NOVAK: "Confucius at Home"
is about the philosopher
Confucius, who has a scribe
with him at all times.
And everything that he says,
the scribe takes for wisdom.
And sometimes, that
annoys Confucius.
And sometimes, he thinks, well,
that does sound pretty good.
That's another one
I'd be happy to read.
It's a very short one.
TODD WOMACK: Great.
"Heyyyyy, Rabbits."
BJ NOVAK: "Heyyyyy,
Rabbits" is an abstract one.
TODD WOMACK: Did
I say that wrong?
BJ NOVAK: No, you
said it perfectly.
I said it wrong.
TODD WOMACK: There's
five Ys in there.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
"Heyyyyy, Rabbits" is a
very abstract and short one
about a man who-- sort of
a parable about commitment.
A man who lives alone,
and sees a rabbit hopping
through his yard,
and wishes there
were a way to
attract many rabbits.
But he doesn't want to keep
them cooped up or trap them.
He doesn't want any
commitment to the rabbits.
So he wonders how he can
just see more rabbits,
hang around with rabbits,
without having a rabbit.
TODD WOMACK: Very allegorical--
today's young dating scene.
This one, I really
like this one.
" 'Everyone was Singing the
Same Song.' " Wait, quote, "
'Everyone was Singing the
Same Song,' end quote,
the Duke of Earl Recalls
His Trip to America in June
of 1962."
BJ NOVAK: Are people here
familiar with the song,
"Duke of Earl"?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
BJ NOVAK: OK, good.
So I imagined that if there
were a real Duke of Earl who
visited America the year
that that song was a hit,
he would have had such
a beautiful experience.
And he might have
interpreted it as America
being this place full
of harmony and life
where everyone is singing
the same song whenever
they meet him.
And to me, that was
probably an extreme version
of how people remember
America right around then.
In the early '60s, when we
idealized this America, when
despite all the things
under the surface,
it seemed as though everyone
was singing the same song.
So that's his vision of America.
TODD WOMACK: They will a capella
a song about you, about anyone.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah, but they
never sing his part.
They're just kind of--
they can't help it.
If you met the Duke of Earl,
you'd be like, [HUMMING]
Everyone kind of hums.
And they're all so
happy to see him.
They're like, you're
really the Duke of Earl?
They're just so excited.
TODD WOMACK: So
I read that you--
these were the things that
you couldn't-- you had a bunch
of ideas in the writer's
room of "The Office"
that ended up as, not scraps,
but ideas that were different.
Did you have a central storage
place for all this stuff or--
BJ NOVAK: Well, I kept a lot
of pocket notebooks maintaining
all these different
scraps, ideas.
And when "The Office"
ended, I thought that, well,
time to look through
these notebooks.
I probably have four
or five screenplays
if you add all these
ideas together.
TODD WOMACK: Right.
So you actually just
pen in everything.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes, I had them in my
phone, my Android device.
TODD WOMACK: I saw
you before the show.
BJ NOVAK: Am I doing well?
TODD WOMACK: You had
an iPhone, I think.
BJ NOVAK: So I kept
them in my phone--
I don't remember what I was
using-- my phone, my notebooks.
And I thought, well, I'm sure
when "The Office" is over,
I've been writing
ideas for years.
There must be some
movies in there.
When I looked
through a bit, it was
more like I had 800
opening shots and no movie.
And so I started writing
them all out thinking,
well, let's see
what I have here.
And as I wrote them out,
many of them, I felt,
took their best
form as the story.
Some of them became like
a "New Yorker" length
comedy piece or
piece of fiction.
And others became
something you could really
fit even on Twitter or Tumblr.
But all of them were
in their best form,
I felt, as my summary.
TODD WOMACK: In
writing the book, being
a TV writer with a lot of
experience at this point,
how would you
differentiate writing
for TV purposefully as opposed
to writing stories for a book.
BJ NOVAK: Well, I
was very focused on
how they could be similar.
So for me, writing for an
audience was very important.
And I read the stories out
loud, and actually booked
a theater-- the UCB Theater
in LA-- and once a month,
would read.
I'd book a night
and read the stories
to a crowd of about 100 people,
and go up with a pen on stage,
and edit in front of people.
And that was my way of
keeping the work ethic
that I had from
television, where
I would write pages for the
cast, take them down to set,
think they were good,
and then figure out
if they were or not based on
how they played in front of me.
Sometimes, I was even in
them, and I could literally
feel if I was scoring or not.
And also, as a
stand up comedian,
I would write things,
think they were funny,
and then take them on stage.
And sometimes, I was right.
And sometimes, I was wrong.
But you never know
until you try it out.
So with these stories,
I tried to adapt that
into a model of workshopping
that I'd seen David Sedaris do
and tried to read
them and react live.
So I tried to make it like
TV in terms of my end goal
was always to entertain
and to connect.
So I would try to do that
viscerally and be honest with
myself about what was
working and what wasn't.
TODD WOMACK: That's sort of
like-- how did those go over
as a show, do you think?
BJ NOVAK: Great.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: Did you-- because
it kind of sounds like you--
BJ NOVAK: I can see
your skepticism, yeah.
See, I'm very attuned
to an audience.
TODD WOMACK: I'm
just imagining it
as sort of like, hey, come on
and watch me work for an hour
down at the UCB.
How did you actually--
BJ NOVAK: Well, I had done a
lot of shows as a stand up,
including at the UCB.
So I think people knew.
They weren't focused on
exactly what it would be.
They saw my name.
They had seen me there before.
It said I was doing, I called
it, "Uncollected Stories."
So they figured it
be something comedic.
It wasn't like I booked a
Broadway theater or something.
So by the time I
got there, I think
you could see that I was wearing
my heart on my sleeve in terms
of how much I cared
about the stories.
But the stories
are funny stories.
So I'm not a masochist.
I read the stories
that I thought
would be most entertaining.
So yeah.
But I'd seen Sedaris do
it so well that I really
wanted to make a live reading
an evening of entertainment,
and tell stories between
them, and really act out
the different roles.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, so do you
have a favorite story or two
in the book?
BJ NOVAK: They're
all my favorite.
Oh god, I sound like
such a lame parent.
I'm very relieved though,
because as I wrote the book,
I was constantly swapping
stories in and out.
And I would change my mind at
the last minute about what was
good and what wasn't.
So I was very happy, in the
end, that a year later, I really
do love each one.
And I, inadvertently,
whenever anyone tells me
their favorite story, I
say, that's my favorite.
And I mean it every time.
Because as I wrote that story,
I was in the mindset of,
this is my favorite thing
I've ever thought of.
If you don't do that, I
feel like you're not fully
believing in your work.
TODD WOMACK: Going back a little
bit, I found out-- let's see.
You wrote for the
"Harvard Lampoon."
Is that right?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: Can you tell
us what that was like?
Do we have some
Harvard grads in here?
One?
Just the one guy?
Two people?
Isn't this Google anymore?
What happened?
Over here?
Nobody?
All right.
Just three people?
BJ NOVAK: Eric
Schmidt's watching this.
He's like, we have a
Facebook problem again.
TODD WOMACK: Getting
killed by Schmidt, guys.
Come on.
Yeah, tell us about that.
Was that your first professional
writing sort of thing?
BJ NOVAK: Well, that was
probably the first time
that I was held up to very
high standards for comedy.
So it's a real advantage.
I don't think there's that
much advantage to having been
in the "Harvard Lampoon"
in terms of connections,
which people really
think there is because so
many of its graduates go on.
I think the real
advantages are twofold.
One is that first of all,
you leave with the confidence
that this could
be a real career.
I think many funny
people, most funny people,
never really think that
they can be a comedy writer.
And even if they do
wonder about it sometimes,
they certainly don't think
that after a year or two
of unemployment and failure in
trying to be a comedy writer.
But a "Harvard Lampoon"
graduate has seen it happen.
So they get out there, and
they write script after script,
and meeting after meeting.
And they're confident enough
to persevere to the point
where it actually
starts working.
So it's sort of a Dumbo's
feather in that way.
The other advantage is
that people are mercilessly
critiquing your comedy
at age 18, 19, 20.
And most people who
are just naturally
funny with their friends, their
friends never critique them.
They're never like, that
story started out great.
Then I knew where
you were going.
It ended strong, but I thought
the second to last joke
felt kind of flat because it
was the same as the first joke.
No friend ever says that.
So here, you're
actually, wow, you're
held up to that
kind of standard.
And you get trained
a little bit.
TODD WOMACK: Right on.
A lot of SNL writers do
come out of there, right?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: Like
a crazy proportion.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
I don't know about
the exact proportion,
but I know a lot do.
TODD WOMACK: It's 54%, actually.
BJ NOVAK: Oh, wow.
TODD WOMACK: I'm just kidding.
BJ NOVAK: You guys, everyone
on a laptop was like--
TODD WOMACK: I
just made that up.
I just made that up.
So take me through--
so you're writing
for the "Harvard Lampoon."
You got on "The
Office" very quickly.
But you had a writing
credit before that, right?
BJ NOVAK: I did
write for a show.
Does anyone remember a show on
the CW called-- actually, no.
Then, it was the WB.
Does anyone remember a
show called, "Raising Dad?"
AUDIENCE: [MURMURING]
BJ NOVAK: Some embarrassed,
anonymous murmurs.
Yeah, that's how I
feel about it too.
Yeah, I might've seen
that a couple times.
TODD WOMACK: That was a
polite murmur, I think.
BJ NOVAK: It was a show
starring Bob Saget.
TODD WOMACK: He's great.
BJ NOVAK: And his two
teenage daughters,
who now are quite successful--
Kat Dennings and Brie Larson,
both of whom have
great acting careers.
So I was 21.
I had put up a show at
Harvard called the BJ Show.
It was not-- yeah, anyway.
And I had invited-- I
traded on the Harvard
name pretty shamelessly.
I wrote a letter
called, "To Bob Saget."
And I said, the
"Harvard Lampoon"
would like to honor you,
give you some award.
Basically, they
let me give anyone
an award if you're on staff.
Yeah, sure, give him an award.
How much is a trophy?
I'll say you're Comedian of
the Century or something.
And would you like to come
and receive your honor?
And also, there's
this show called
the BJ Show, funny coincidence.
I'd love to have you in.
And so he was very
flattered and happy to have
Harvard on his resume.
So he said sure.
So he came out.
And the show-- I put
a lot into the show.
The show was really good.
We wrote a script called,
"The Lost Full House Episode,"
that I acted in with him.
I played Uncle Jesse, and he
played-- he played himself.
He played Danny Tanner.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, you've gotta
give yourself the Jesse part.
BJ NOVAK: It was an
R-rated "Full House"
episode in which Danny tries
to teach Michelle about sex.
And then Uncle Jesse overhears
and realizes that Danny
doesn't know what sex is.
And so then Uncle
Jesse explains sex
to Danny, who then becomes
a sex-crazed maniac.
It didn't really make sense, I
guess, if you thought about it.
But it definitely
worked on stage.
So on the strength of
that, he and the creator
of "Raising Dad"
offered to hire me
as the young writer who would
edge up their writer's room.
And I was happy to do it.
I wasn't looking for something
like that at the time,
but I knew not to say no.
So that became my
first writing job.
Then that was cancelled,
shockingly, after a year.
And then after that, I had
some money saved up now,
but I was back to square one.
And then I started
doing stand up comedy,
and that eventually led to
"The Office" about two years
after that.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, I heard you
say that Greg Daniels saw you
at the Ha Ha, which I've
done plenty of shows at.
I mean, it's a special place.
BJ NOVAK: Greg
Daniels, I'm sure,
has never been to the Ha Ha.
TODD WOMACK: That's
what I was thinking.
I wanted to talk
to you about that.
BJ NOVAK: I started
at the Ha Ha.
He saw me at the Improv.
TODD WOMACK: OK.
Great, great.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
Greg Daniels does
not go to the Ha Ha.
TODD WOMACK: That's what I
was going to actually ask you.
BJ NOVAK: That is the
world's saddest place.
TODD WOMACK: I know for a fact.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
They should have
that under the sign.
It would probably
get more business.
Ha Ha Comedy Club-- the
World's Saddest Place.
People would be like, that's
an interesting juxtaposition.
They have a sophisticated
sense of comedy over there.
TODD WOMACK: But no,
it's quite literal.
BJ NOVAK: No, no.
It's the saddest place on earth.
This is so you don't
sue us for expecting
a positive experience.
TODD WOMACK: A lot
of comedy clubs
though, there's just not
a lot of joy in the--
BJ NOVAK: Not a lot of
joy in a comedy club.
Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: But so Greg Daniels
sees you, and what happens?
BJ NOVAK: Greg saw me.
I had been unemployed
now for a couple of years
and had been doing stand
up just about every night,
and had built up now a
pretty good stand up act.
A pretty good brief act,
like 10 minutes-- 10 minutes
that was really good and about
20 that were not very good.
But on these
showcases, they have
you do the seven that are good.
So I was doing this
show, and Greg was there.
And he was putting together the
cast for the very early stages
of "The Office."
TODD WOMACK: So if you guys
don't know who Greg Daniels is,
he's a big-time TV
producer, showrunner.
And he was tasked
with Americanizing
the British "Office."
BJ NOVAK: He had been a
writer for "The Simpsons"
and "Saturday Night Live."
And then had created
"King of the Hill,"
and now was looking
for his next thing.
And "The Office," at that time,
was a very acclaimed but very
short-lived British show.
And the producers had
found him and asked him
if he would adapt
the American show.
So he was the one in
charge of figuring out
what this would be.
TODD WOMACK: Right.
So did you have that,
"I like you, kid,"
moment that so many
people yearn for?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
That's not-- he
doesn't talk like that.
TODD WOMACK: He's
not from the '30s?
BJ NOVAK: No.
No.
This happened in this century.
But it was that same vibe.
TODD WOMACK: Barely, though.
Three years into this century.
BJ NOVAK: That's true.
Early into this
century, just barely.
Because in the '90s, we
all talked like that.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, I remember.
BJ NOVAK: I was there.
So yeah, he saw me and
asked for a meeting.
And he saw me for
the role of The Temp,
as he called it,
someone who thought
he was better than this place.
Quiet and thought he was better
than this place, which is
sort of a vibe I had on stage.
I think I wore a suit back then.
I had very good one-liners, and
I paused a lot between them.
And I think that
was out of fear,
but I think people
interpreted that as cockiness.
TODD WOMACK: You're
just stretching.
You're just sweating
inside, stretching it.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
And he knew that he
would like, ideally,
to have writer-actors on shown.
And he knew that I
had written before.
So he talked to me
about potentially
being a writer-actor.
TODD WOMACK: To which you
replied, where do I sign?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
Where do I sign?
TODD WOMACK: Great.
And so that started very soon.
You went on for
eight years, right?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
It was a nine-year
show, actually.
I was on for eight years.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, right.
So I saw that you actually were
executive producing by the end,
directing, writing stories.
BJ NOVAK: Well, executive
producing really
means, in most
cases, that you have
been a writer for a long time.
And my least favorite
thing, by the way,
is when people try to give you
metaphors so you'll understand.
Like, it's like for you guys
when-- I hate that so much.
TODD WOMACK: Maybe not.
They don't work in TV.
BJ NOVAK: But it's like here
or in any other profession when
you might get a job title
increase every year,
but you've been doing the
same thing every year.
You've just been
doing it well, so you
keep getting a new title.
That's what the writers
on any show tend to be.
So I started as an
executive story editor,
that is really like-- did anyone
take swimming lessons in camp?
And it's like beginner,
advanced beginner, intermediate,
it's like those levels.
So the levels-- and I'll
go through them right now.
They're official levels in
comedy writing on a Writers
Guild sponsored show.
You start as a staff writer.
That's what I was
in "Raising Dad."
Then story editor.
Then executive story editor.
I'm not making this up.
Then co-producer.
Then producer.
There could be many
producers though.
And sometimes, there's only
one co-producer and several
producers.
I'm not making this up.
Staff writer.
Story editor.
Executive story editor.
Co-producer.
Producer.
Supervising producer.
Co-executive producer.
Executive producer.
TODD WOMACK:
Congratulations, you
made it all the way to the top.
BJ NOVAK: It just
means I made it
to the final level of
Scientology, basically.
Yeah.
I met L. Ron Hubbard.
TODD WOMACK: Congratulations.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: I could feel it
in your hand when you shake.
And there are two microphones.
If you all want to start.
If anyone has questions,
go ahead and step up.
And we'll grab you
when you come up.
But feel free to also do that.
Really quickly, so we we're
going to take some questions.
BJ NOVAK: Sure.
TODD WOMACK: You are going to
do a little signing afterward.
Would you like to read
some of the book now?
BJ NOVAK: Sure.
TODD WOMACK: What story
would you like to read?
BJ NOVAK: I can read maybe
the more internet age
ones because we're here.
TODD WOMACK: Whatever you want.
BJ NOVAK: I can read
"The Man Who Posted
Pictures of Everything He Ate."
Very brief story.
[THUMPING]
This sound effect is part
of the story, by the way.
TODD WOMACK:
Somebody's just going
to complete the drywall
back there as we go.
BJ NOVAK: So again, some
of these are 20 pages,
and some of them
are half a page.
This one is closer
to the latter.
This is called,
"The Man Who Posted
Pictures of Everything He Ate."
"Once, there was a man
who posted pictures online
of most of the things he ate.
He put up pictures
of most of his meals
and some of his snacks
with little captions.
'Yum!' 'I made this myself.'
'Hits the spot.' 'Salty.' 'I'm
going to regret this tomorrow.'
'Yum!' And plenty of times,
most of the time, he simply
let the pictures speak
for themselves.
The 16, then 15, then
16, then 14 people
who followed him made fun
of him for it mercilessly.
'Why do you post pictures of
your food?' 'We don't give
a [PAUSE] what you
ate.' " In the book,
the swears are not bleeped out,
but this person in the thread
bleeped it out.
Just explaining.
TODD WOMACK: I can verify that.
BJ NOVAK: "The more they
teased him, the more he did it.
And the more he did it,
the more they teased him.
'Why do you always post pics
of your food?' He did it
because it made him feel like he
was eating his meals with more
people.
It was the same reason
he liked the teasing."
TODD WOMACK: Sad, sweet, funny.
You said it yourself.
BJ NOVAK: I'll read the
other one I mentioned
too, "Wikipedia Brown."
Let's see if I can find it.
There we go.
TODD WOMACK: I read that one.
I enjoyed that one a bit.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
This is called "Wikipedia Brown
and the Case of the Missing
Bicycle." "It was
a quiet Sunday.
Wikipedia Brown was
sipping lemonade
with his friend, Sally,
when all of a sudden,
their classmate, Joey,
ran in, out of breath.
'Help,' said Joey.
'Someone stole my bike.
I left it outside the
library this morning.
Who stole it?'
'The modern day chain bicycle
was patented in Germany
in 1877,' said Wikipedia Brown.
'10-speed bikes became
popular in the United States
in the 1970s.
Carrot Top uses a bicycle as a
prop in his popular mainstream
comedy act.'
'Oh, Carrot Top,' said Joey.
'What ever happened
to that guy?'
'Carrot Top was born Scott
Thompson in Big Bear City,
California, in 1965,'
said Wikipedia Brown.
'Big Bear City?
What an odd name.
Is that a real
place?' asked Joey.
'Big Bear City is
an unincorporated
census-designated place in San
Bernardino County, California,
with a population of--'
'Wait, let's not get
distracted,' said Sally.
'Every time we talk to Wikipedia
Brown, we get distracted.
We spend hours and
hours with him,
and always forget what we
were supposed to investigate
in the first place.'
'Yes, good point,' said Joey.
'We have to find my bike.
Sally, do you have any ideas?'
'Sally is a bad detective
and a well-known slut,' said
Wikipedia Brown.
'Citation needed.'
'Is-- is that true?' asked
Joey, his intentions unclear.
'No,' said Sally,
fuming with anger.
'I don't know told him that.
It could've been anyone,
literally anyone.'
'The government caused 9/11,'
said Wikipedia Brown suddenly
for no reason.
Sally pulled
Wikipedia Brown aside.
'Are you sure you're
OK, Wikipedia?'
'I'm not perfect,'
said Wikipedia Brown.
'I never said I was.
But I work fast,
and I work for free.
And that's all anyone seems
to care about these days.
Plus, I'm getting
better by the second,
and it's all thanks to people
like you.' Sally smiled.
She liked being part
of Wikipedia's process.
'OK, Wikipedia,' said Sally.
'But I have a question
for you, Joey.
You say you left your
bike outside the library
this morning.
It's Sunday morning.
The library's closed.' Wikipedia
Brown stood up with a start.
'Barack Obama is the father of
Miley Cyrus' baby,' announced
Wikipedia Brown.
This story is under review."
Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: Very well done.
We have those in the back.
Don't be shy, guys.
Oh, you got one.
Go for it.
AUDIENCE: So you've
got this book
and your children's book,
"The Book with No Pictures."
Do you prefer heading
down this path
of being a book
writer versus sticking
with traditional
screen and TV writing?
If you could call
that traditional.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah, I think I
will be back next in what
I was doing before.
But I became a much
richer, I think,
entertainer and writer
from doing this.
Where I could really
go deep into who I was
and what I wanted to say.
And some of the other
stories are deeper than that.
You're like, well,
that's not that deep.
I could really go
deeper into ideas
and then really take
full responsibility
for bringing them
to an audience,
reading them out loud,
promoting them online, designing
the covers-- which obviously, I
put a lot of design work into.
TODD WOMACK: This one too.
BJ NOVAK: Which took
a surprising amount
of design work actually.
Simplicity can be difficult.
But I think I'm
much richer for it.
But I think probably
what I'll do
next is back on those fields,
because what my real love is
is connecting through
entertainment.
Making someone's
favorite something
is what I always say
is what I want to do.
So you can make a lot of
people's favorite something
more if you do it
for more people.
I hope no one ever
quotes me on that.
Really vague.
But you get what
I'm trying to say.
TODD WOMACK: While we're on this
topic of this book, real quick.
If you haven't seen this one,
"The Book with No Pictures,"
it's a kids' book.
And it's really fun.
There's a video
of you reading it
to a bunch of kids,
which is quite cool.
The kids love this book, yeah?
BJ NOVAK: It's a very
big hit with the kids.
TODD WOMACK: I've
heard this before.
I don't know.
Do you want to describe it?
Maybe I don't want
to butcher it.
BJ NOVAK: Sure.
This is a book with no pictures.
I'll start it out for you. "This
is a book with no pictures.
It might seem like
no fun for someone
to read you a book
with no pictures.
It probably seems
boring and serious.
Except--" I know
the book by heart.
"Here's how books work.
Everything the words say,
the person reading the book
has to say.
No matter what.
That's the deal.
That's the rule.
So that means even if
the words say-- Blork.
Wait, what?
That doesn't even mean anything.
Bluurf.
Wait a second.
What?
This isn't the kind of
book I wanted to read."
So that's the
premise of the book.
And then it makes you say
all kinds of silly things.
"Yes, I am a monkey."
"I'm a robot monkey."
You have to praise the kid.
"Best kid ever."
Eventually, they usually laugh
just at the sight of this page
because they know what things
like this are going to lead to.
They call that
the Mayhem Spread.
So the idea is
that the parent has
to be engaged in
this read aloud.
But really, the
secret message is
that words have
this great power,
and you can abuse this power.
That's how you know
it's a cool power.
TODD WOMACK: This is great.
I love the concept for this.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: How'd
you come up with that?
BJ NOVAK: Well, I was
reading-- my best friend,
Ches, from college had a
kid who was two at the time.
And I would read lots of books.
And he would always come up
to me holding a book for me
to read.
And at some point, I
thought, this is very funny.
He doesn't realize
how much power he has.
Because I'm used to being
a co-executive producer
or higher, and now,
I'm just an actor who
has to say whatever
lines he hands me.
That's what a book is.
It's a script.
When you're two and
handing it to an adult,
you're handing them a script
that they have to perform.
So I thought, well,
what's the funniest script
that a kid could hand you?
Well, it would be
things that they
know what it's going to say,
but you act so bewildered by.
So that was the
original idea for it.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, it's
a good, fun, little game.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
And I guess the lesson that I
learned well from "The Office"
is that, if something
crazy happens,
the real laughter is
on the reaction shot.
So that's why the parent has
all this dialog like, what?
I didn't want to say that.
What kind of book is this?
Excuse me?
That's where the kid laughs.
It's not when you say
the outrageous thing.
It's when you react
deadpan to it.
So that's a lesson I
took from the show.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah.
It's a great, great book.
How about a question?
AUDIENCE: Hi.
Thanks for coming.
I got "One More Thing"
right when it came out.
And it was one of those
books I couldn't put down.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: Very well crafted.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: And so I
loved the comedic parts.
But there were also some that
took a turn for the profound.
They could be read
almost as parables.
And I was curious as to how
much influence the fabulist
writers had over you?
Such as Italo Calvino with his
book, "Numbers in the Dark,"
and those types of
story collections.
BJ NOVAK: I don't
know that book.
I was a literature
student in school,
and read a lot of
magical realism,
and was drawn, in my
free time, to stuff
by George Saunders, Richard
Brautigan, Philip K. Dick
sometimes.
People that are--
the last name is
more cerebral in
terms of his concepts,
but they were actually
very emotional too.
So I was always really
drawn to fiction
that captures something,
as David Foster
Wallace liked to say.
That really used the
abstract to express something
that couldn't be
expressed in another way.
So I was very drawn to that.
And often, when I started
with these stories,
each one started with an
idea that made me laugh.
One of them, probably the most
emotional one in the book,
is called "Sophia."
And it started as a very
silly idea I had written down.
It said, "First AI to feel
love falls in love with man
who doesn't want commitment."
And then I wrote,
"Garry Shandling?"
I thought it's sort of like
his old-time style to do that.
But the story I
ended up writing,
"Sophia," I put so much
of my own observations,
and hypocrisies, and
heartbreaks into,
that it evolved into
something more that way.
I think that type of fiction
had always been in me.
I wouldn't have dared
to attempt it head on.
But I sort of
accidentally pursued it
in the service of trying
to make a comedic story.
That was also a
lesson that I learned
from "The Office" in that the
biggest comedic moments tend
to come when you're
emotionally invested.
So if I didn't
have a good joke, I
would just go deeper into truth
as far as I could until a joke
presented itself.
Thanks very much.
I'm really glad
you liked the book.
AUDIENCE: Thanks.
TODD WOMACK: Copies
for sale over there.
How about a question?
AUDIENCE: Hey, thanks so
much again for coming.
And I think I also owe you a
thank you for "Boo Boo Butt"
being a favorite word
of my two-year old's.
BJ NOVAK: Oh, great.
AUDIENCE: So it's clear
to me from listening
to the way you talk
about your process
and also just hearing
you read, that you really
have specific intonations for
the way things should be read,
or how quickly, and the voice
level and all that stuff.
So it's very interesting that
you ultimately put it in a book
where the speaker or the
reader really makes decisions
on what it sounds like.
So I was just wondering if
you could talk a little bit
about that and
why you ultimately
decided to go with
a book as opposed
to maybe a YouTube video.
BJ NOVAK: And you
mean specifically
the kids' book, right?
AUDIENCE: Either one.
Even just listening to the
way you read-- I'm sorry.
I haven't read "One
More Time" yet.
"One More Thing," sorry.
But you definitely
have a vision and a way
of hearing it in your head.
BJ NOVAK: Well, what I
did was, with this book,
I think a lot of parents don't
feel they know how to be funny.
I hear that a lot.
And they hear this is a
funny book, and they're like,
I'm not funny though.
And they are funny, but they
don't have the confidence,
or they don't know
how to be funny.
So again, I thought of
this book as a script.
And with the layout, it
was important to have
it seem like stage directions.
But I didn't want them to think
about it or feel intimidated.
So for example, "And
now, I'm reading
you this book with my monkey
mouth and my monkey voice.
That's not true.
I'm not a monkey."
I think you can tell
that this is meant
to be more colorful,
a little goofy,
and this is meant to
be straight and small.
But you don't have
to think about it.
And then I timed the page turns
to exactly where I thought
the pauses would naturally go.
I tried to make it
seamless so you wouldn't
have to think about it.
That said, there's a
little song in there.
And I was reading it for my
best friend's son, Bruce,
after it was done.
And Ches, my friend,
warned me, "by the way,
we do the song
differently in our house."
So that's great.
I love people having
their own traditions
and their own spin on it.
It's like when you write
a play, and actors do it
in all types of different ways.
But you make it clear
from the stage directions,
and the dynamics,
and the exclamation
points-- a thousand
little choices
dictate what you are picturing.
But then it's exciting when
people do different things.
AUDIENCE: Have you ever heard
someone read it in a way
that you were like, oh, no.
That's not right.
TODD WOMACK: Cut.
BJ NOVAK: No.
But I've seen people do it.
I've stolen from other
people, the way they read it.
My cousin's husband reads it to
their kid in a very deadpan way
that I hadn't thought
of until I saw
him do it and got huge laughs.
Because I thought you try
to be a little animated.
I'm not that animated
an actor, but I try
to amp it up for a kids' book.
But then he took it
get even further down.
And it was funny
because the contrast
of the dignity of,
"I didn't want to say
that," that cracked the kid up.
So yeah, I'm always learning.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: Let's
do another one.
AUDIENCE: Hi.
You talked a little bit
about hoping that you make
somebody's favorite something.
And you definitely made one
of my favorite somethings,
which is "The Office."
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: And this is a
pretty simple question,
but I would actually love to
know what your favorite episode
was in terms of either writing
or the way it panned out,
and how you felt
about playing Ryan.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
I'm somewhat-- like
the book of stories,
I'll ask you at the end what
your favorite episode is,
and I bet, instinctively,
I'll say, that's my favorite.
Because I'm taken back to
the moment when it was all
I thought about.
I would say, sort of
all-time, the one that
makes me smile the most, if I
was about to die and they said,
we're going to play one
"Office" episode for you
for old-time's sake, I'd
say, play "The Injury."
That was the one.
Mindy wrote that one.
It made me really happy.
It's opening monologue could
only have been our show.
It was Steve Carell grilled his
foot on a George Foreman Grill
because he liked to wake up to
the smell of crackling bacon.
So he kept a Foreman
Grill next to his bed.
And then he goes back to sleep.
He has like a snooze button
system where he closes it,
grills a little more.
Then he stepped on the
grill and punctuates it
by showing the grill
marks on his foot.
Then he thinks he's
handicapped, and comes in
and lectures everyone
on handicap awareness.
Only Steve Carell could do that
without you turning off the TV,
saying this show is
fucking ridiculous.
Because it was ridiculous,
but he grounded it
with so much passion and
belief that you were like,
I guess some people have to
work at a place like this.
And it just became funny.
I think that one is a
great example of the show.
It could have only been us, and
so it makes me really proud.
What's your favorite episode?
AUDIENCE: My favorite's
"Women's Appreciation"
when there's the flasher
in the beginning.
BJ NOVAK: Oh, OK.
AUDIENCE: That's
one of my favorites.
TODD WOMACK: "That's
my favorite too."
That's your line.
BJ NOVAK: I didn't
work on that one.
Yeah.
I didn't work on
that one that much.
AUDIENCE: Also "WUPHF."
I think that's amazing.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you. "WUPHF,"
I like that one a lot too.
I have a friend at
Google in Mountain View
that says that
sometimes, ideas come up,
and they compare
them to WUPFH.com.
So I'm honored to make
it into your lexicon.
TODD WOMACK: Go ahead.
AUDIENCE: So when
you're writing a book,
I guess it's more of
a solitary process.
You're not necessarily writing
with other writers in a writing
room.
You're not necessarily
writing for any actors.
Do you find it more challenging?
Or what differences do
you find in that process?
BJ NOVAK: In some ways,
it's much more challenging.
In some ways, it's
much-- I would
change the word "challenging"
to "frustrating"
as a better way to get at it.
In some ways, it's
much more frustrating
because when you hit a wall,
there's no coasting on a wave.
It's sort of like--
well, I was going
to compare it to [INAUDIBLE],
but I don't know enough.
But anyway, take that back.
When you're in a writer's
room, there's so many ideas
going all the time
and so many minds
going all the time,
that if you're stuck,
someone else is
going in a direction.
It could be their own idea.
It could be elaborating
on what you pitched.
You can zone out.
You can have a bad day.
Be in a bad mood.
Not have had enough coffee.
Be mentally stuck
on a certain idea.
And there's just all
these smart people that
are just moving it forward.
And you can coast on
what they're doing.
Or you can just be
leaning back, zoning out,
and then you have an-- someone
says something, you riff on it,
and you save the day.
And you weren't
stressed in the least.
So that form of
collaboration is incredible.
And it's very frustrating not to
have when you're working solo.
But the frustration that you
avoid when you work solo,
I found, is that you get to be
your own harshest critic, which
can be very liberating.
Because when you make a pass
at yourself, you're there.
So often, I would have an idea
that I loved on "The Office"
or I had written a
script that I loved,
and they didn't want to cast
it the way I envisioned it.
Or they did and now
we're editing it,
and they took out
the scene that was
the whole reason I wrote
the script because it
didn't fit for time.
And I was like, cut the rest
of the episode for time.
That's the best scene
we've ever done.
So those are so heartbreaking
as a writer and so frustrating.
And you also lose
so much energy.
And then sometimes,
you lose so much energy
arguing for something.
And you win.
And then you were wrong.
That happens too.
Then that scene is just dead.
So it's different
frustrations, I guess.
You trade one for the other.
And I think that's probably
why I would like to always keep
going back and forth.
Thanks.
TODD WOMACK: Right on.
AUDIENCE: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: Let's
take one more.
We might have to get into
autograph time after that.
AUDIENCE: BJ, thanks
for coming in.
Big fan of all your work.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
AUDIENCE: I just had a quick
random question for you.
What is your favorite
Google product,
and what would you
improve about it?
BJ NOVAK: Wow.
TODD WOMACK: So give
him a little list too,
just in case he doesn't
know them all like we do.
You've got-- [INAUDIBLE].
BJ NOVAK: My favorite
Google product is Search.
Too obvious.
But also, my favorite "Simpsons"
character is Homer Simpson.
My favorite "Sopranos"
character was Tony Soprano.
My favorite "Office"
character is Michael Scott.
I think people underrate
the number one thing.
So Google Search, it's the best.
AUDIENCE: What
would you improve?
BJ NOVAK: What's that?
AUDIENCE: What would
you improve about it?
BJ NOVAK: About that?
I think you should probably
have better pictures of me
show up when you google my name.
There are some that
aren't as good angles.
I'll tell you what
I wish you could do.
Google Earth, Google Maps,
these are incredible.
I want to be able to--
maybe sober, maybe not--
have on my screen
like its "Grand Theft
Auto" or something, point
of view of the environment.
I don't know.
Maps, Earth, you
figure that part out.
And I'd like to be able to take
a road trip across the country
or through the
air, and just like,
let's go to fucking
Austin right now.
What would it be like?
What streets would we take?
Let's go at 400 miles an hour.
Let's fly.
Let's go to Uzbekistan.
Let's just kind of-- and
just sort of virtual reality
using your Maps and Earth.
I would do that all night.
AUDIENCE: Thanks so much.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
TODD WOMACK: Get on that, bro.
You gotta get on that.
I would feel remiss if we didn't
get a real quick chance at just
asking you about-- what was
it-- "Inglourious Basterds"
or "Saving Mr. Banks."
Maybe you pick which one.
Do you have any wicked
stories from either
that would blow us away?
Working with Tarantino, or
Brad Pitt, or Tom Hanks,
or anything?
BJ NOVAK: Well, there's a moment
that it still gives me chills
when I think about it.
There's several in
"Inglourious Basterds."
"Pulp Fiction" was really what
made me want to be a writer.
I think a whole
generation was that way.
You see "Pulp Fiction,"
and you're like,
I have to get as close to
that as I can in my life.
There was a first
time, being a writer,
it felt sort of like
being a rockstar to me
when I saw this person, Quentin
Tarantino, had made this thing.
And it was so fucking cool.
So there was a moment
I'll always remember.
There was a close up on me
in the veterinary scene.
I don't think they used
it or most of that scene,
actually, in the end.
But I just remember
Quentin with,
like a viewfinder, just
lining it up on me.
Oh my god.
What a moment that was.
The big time.
God.
So that was pretty
profound, I would say.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah, acting.
You had a good scene
where you bound
with-- was that with Brad Pitt?
BJ NOVAK: Yeah.
TODD WOMACK: What's
he like to work with?
Because he just seems like
the coolest guy ever, I guess.
BJ NOVAK: Yeah, no,
he's really cool.
There was a scene, we both
had bags over our heads.
And then they pulled them off.
And we shot that.
And for some reason, you just
think weird things at times.
I was like, aw, Mindy
Kaling's gonna love this shot.
Like me and Brad Pitt
coming out of the bag.
I don't know.
Just like, this is
her kind of moment.
She just loves that like, fuck,
yeah, alpha movie star moment.
TODD WOMACK: Yeah.
It's just every day.
Guys, please give a
round of applause for BJ
for coming down.
BJ NOVAK: Thank you.
And to Todd, thank you.
