[this blog] Interview: Amir Blumenfeld

(This is the second in a series of interviews on [this blog] with unique and talented comedy writers, artists, and performers. It was conducted via e-mail in June 2006 and has been edited only slightly for clarity.)

Amir Blumenfeld is a humor writer living in New York. At 23, he already has a sizable body of work -- most notably his myriad articles at CollegeHumor.com and his work on that site's video program CHTV. Amir is also one of the co-writers of the CollegeHumor Guide to College. His personal website, BeingFamous.com, is updated often and houses even more jokes and pieces. What I'm saying is, when aliens discover the ruins of our human society, they will probably find something that was written by Amir. Then, looking at the destroyed world around them, they will laugh, assuming that their alien bodies have that ability.

Amir was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions for the second [this blog will be titled when inspiration strikes me] interview.


Jake Christie: How did you get started in comedy writing?

Amir Blumenfeld: I've always written humorously. Even in high school, my English teachers would be like "Amir, this is pretty good, but you shouldn't make this many jokes in an essay about Elie Weisel's 'Night' -- B+" One of my English teachers once told me that I would never get a really good grade in his English class because I don't take writing very seriously. I was a good writer, but never a great one. I was more funny than I was eloquent.

At college (UC Berkeley) I tried to find different ways for more people to read my writing (I figured high school English teachers just weren't my target audience). I started a blog, but even then, the readership was limited to my friends. There was a humor magazine on campus but my friends and I never really found it funny. I figured my best bet was to submit articles to CollegeHumor.com because at that time it was already the most popular website to feature writing done by college students.

My first article went up in June of 2003, and I’ve been writing for them ever since.


JC: How did you become one of the co-writers of the CollegeHumor Guide to College?

AB: It was really a case of great timing because I was writing for the site for a couple years while still in college. By the time I was ready to graduate and look for a real job, CollegeHumor had finalized its plans to write a college guidebook for Dutton Publishing (a subsection of Penguin Books). Since I was graduating and in need of a job, and they needed some full time writers to author the book, they offered me a full time position as a "Senior Writer" and I began work on "The CollegeHumor Guide to College" on June 15, 2005, less than a month after my graduation. I was one of six co-writers.


JC: What was it like working on the book? I assume you're going to use the phrase "crazy parties."

AB: You assume wrong. It was a lot of work, a lot of fun, and a lot of crazy parties. Shit.


JC: What do you think it is about college that makes it so ripe for comedy?

AB: You take thousands of 18-22 year olds who are living away from their family for the first time ever, combine that with the widespread availability for high speed internet connection, and mix both of those with the absolute ease of obtaining alcohol and social gatherings, taking all of that and adding it to a metaphorical bowl which already contains the complete and utter ubiquity of digital cameras practically begging to record all of those hilarious moments in photo and video form, and you have your allegorical comedy fruit, green as ever, ripe for the plucking.

(Another thing my English teachers hated was run-on sentences.)


JC: On your webpage, BeingFamous.com, you have a daily journal describing your life as a 23-year-old comedy writer in New York. Be honest: is it incredibly glamorous?

AB: It's fun. I definitely love what I do for a living, so in that respect its great. I wouldn't describe it as glamorous, (or incredibly glamorous). I mean, I know a lot of people who graduate college and go on to lead incredibly glamorous lifestyles -- Tim Duncan, Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld -- but I don't view myself as one of them.

I should also clarify that I know these people, but they don't know me.


JC: How much time did it take to make the video snippets that you post on your page? Was it liberating to be able to record a minute of whatever the hell you wanted every day?

AB: The snippets were something I created to make my personal site funnier. It was just me making the most out of my video camera and my funny friends. It seemed easy, in theory to create a funny short, 15-60 second video every day. And in the beginning it was funny, and relatively easy. I was uncensored by anything and it was pretty liberating to be able to record whatever I wanted. I remember the only time I censored myself was when I made a snippet of me pooping backwards. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome to watch poop going back into my butt, however I ultimately decided it may have been a little too embarrassing to put online.

After about a year and a half, I found myself using re-run snippets over and over, and the new ones were just following the same formula, so I decided to retire the snippets and sell them in CD form. I sold about 50 of them to people who liked watching them but couldn't anymore, and since then I've been re-introducing them to the internet slowly on their very own Vimeo page.


JC: What goals do you have with writing and performing? TV, movies, books, small branded countries (Amir Blumensylvania)?

AB: My goals are completely writing-related. Performing terrifies me. I get nervous when I think about performing. I get nervous when I see my friends performing. Stand up, or sketch comedy, or anything live in front of a crowd is not for me.

What makes writing so great, for me especially, is that I can sit down in a room by myself somewhere, late at night, and write something. Then others can read it whenever they want, wherever they want. I don't need to be in the same room as them. I can't even write with somebody staring over my shoulder, it makes me too nervous. Writing creates a middle man, a buffer, in between myself and "the audience." I never have to see them, but they can enjoy it all the same. It's the same with videos. I feel perfectly comfortable performing in front of a camera and then showing that video in front of an audience, but for some reason I could never perform live in front of an audience. I would be way too nervous and self-conscious to be as funny as I would like to be.

Perhaps a better example is CHTV - the online tv-show type thing that I help produce for CollegeHumor.com. I could write or perform in a skit for CHTV, and it could be seen by over 300,0000 people, and that doesn't make me nearly as nervous as I would performing one of those skits live in front of 20 anonymous strangers.

What was your question again? Oh right, my goal is to continue writing, both for the Internet and for other, more concrete, mediums (books, magazines, scripts, etc.)


JC: Do you ever feel yourself being crushed under the weight of your own genius?

AB: You know, I get asked that question a lot, and the answer I usually give is "rarely." Rarely, do I find myself being crushed under the weight of my own genius. But when it does happen its incredibly painful – moreso than it sounds.


JC: What projects are you working on now?

AB: Right now I'm primarily working on the early stages of a second CollegeHumor book that is due out in the Spring of '07, as well as CHTV. We're trying to create as much original video content as possible and so far it's been really fun. I'm also doing some freelance joke-making for ESPN the magazine, which is fun because it combines my two favorite things: writing funny sports jokes and getting paid.


JC: Do you have any advice for writers or performers who haven't landed a sweet deal with Penguin Books?

AB: My advice is to get hired by a company who CAN land sweet deals with Penguin Books, because I'm in the same boat as you guys.


JC: What do you think is the funniest thing in the world?

AB: Some combination of early Simpsons episodes, Seinfeld, The Office (UK edition), The Southpark Movie, Mr. Show, Reggie Watts, Army Man, Shutterbugs, early 90's SNL, Flight of the Conchords, The Lonely Island, Curb your Enthusiasm, Stephen Colbert, and Stella.


Thanks again to Amir for answering these questions. To view a list of his articles on CollegeHumor, click here. To go to Amir's website, click here. Finally, to see my favorite Snippet on Vimeo, click here.