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Anna Knoebel
Tess Knoebel

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Contributor Interviews: Eric Ledgin
September 11, 2009

What is the last book you finished and what did you enjoy about it?
I just finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. To start, I think it made me love my family more. It also feels like a week was spent crafting every page, maybe even every paragraph, ensuring each moment is true and textured and beautiful. I think that is the gayest sentence I have ever written. But I stand by it.

What lyric or stanza have you memorized? Please recite it.
I curse the last six months
I've been hiding behind a mustache,
And to the last ten years I've been
howling a paper moon: fuck you.

That line makes me feel a little bit of the adrenaline that runs through your body when you resolve yourself to make a change. It's from The Hollows by the band Why? "Alopecia" is one of my favorite albums from the last few years.

What's it like to write for PBS?
I think the challenge of age-appropriate TV has made me a better writer, because I'm forced to find things that are funny in interesting ways, instead of just "he laughs so hard he shits his pants!" (actually that's a funny idea, I'm gonna use that). The production company behind WordGirl made Home Movies and Dr. Katz, so we're encouraged to keep the voice of the show pretty alternative, and way more meta than the cartoons I watched as a kid. That being said, I think the potential danger of working with PBS is that the teaching goal can trump the comedy goal in a way that makes me no longer thrilled about what I'm writing. That's a danger for me though -- I'm sure it's beneficial for the kids watching PBS.

What do you need to know to do your job?
I think the most common question I ask is "How long should this be?" But if I'm writing or submitting for a specific show, I'll spend as much time as possible listening to the voice of the character(s) I'm writing for, or the voice and tone of similar shows. This explains why I have episodes of "The Fairly Odd Parents" on my iTunes.

Why did you move to LA?
I was in New York trying to get jobs on films. I found the community there was very tightly-knit, and I was not part of it. So my best friend and I wrote a script, hired a bunch of film students and some great actors for very little money, and made a movie on our own (called Puberty: The Movie). We were never thrilled with the finished product, but doing it sort of confirmed to me that I didn't want to go to law school, and a short while later I left for LA. It's weird, I don't think I've ever thought about and realized my reasons for coming here until you asked. I guess this is why people go to therapy.

What do you miss about New York?
I was living in the Lower East Side, and once, after this great night out, I walked around the corner from my apartment to get a slice of (incredible) pizza. While ordering, I met these girls that were really funny and cool and smart, and we were all just these strangers in New York laughing and being dumb at four in the morning. Remember? That was you guys! I miss stuff like that, but the weather here is a pretty good tradeoff. No offense.

Explain your process of collaboration with other writers.
You never know what's going to work for a specific project with a specific person. Generally, I would say like the writers' room process of conceiving and hashing out an idea together with one or more people, then going on my own and writing, then getting notes and taking most of them. I've written with a bunch of different people now, and I would say it's almost always good for getting things done faster, and almost never good for your friendship.

On a scale of one to 10, how lucky are you and why?
3.14159265. I've done the math, I am exactly pi lucky.

Have you ever done stand-up or thought about it?
I started doing it a few months ago. It was something I said I'd do by 30, so I asked someone to get me a gig in a booked show, and then I had this ticking time bomb that forced me to go out and practice so I didn't humiliate myself. It's been really fun so far, and I'm working on this new joke: What's the worst part of telling jokes during an interview that's conducted by email? (I'll have to wait for you to write back "What?" and then I can give you the punch line).

Why is art/writing important?
So people can deeply connect with uniquely human moments like "he laughs so hard he shits his pants."

Eric Ledgin is currently a writer on the Emmy award-winning PBS cartoon "WordGirl" and recently wrote/directed the feature film "The Funniest Movie Ever...Just Kidding." Eric writes the blog I Am Ledgin, makes videos at The B-Squad, and looks at pictures of ex-girlfriends at www.facebook.com.

Eric Ledgin

Interviews conducted by Anna Knoebel

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