As you probably are aware, we’ve kicked off our IndieGoGo Campaign – the fundraising platform for Comedy Writing Guru. I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, this whole process has been a learning experience. But a fun one.
As you can see, our ask—97,396—is quite a large one. This amount will allow us to make the film we want to make, but it is also symbolic. 97,396 is the number of one liners Gene wrote for Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller during his career.
I find that astounding. It doesn’t include his work on shows, speeches, or for other performers. It is simply one-liners for these two comedy legends.
Most beginning comedy writers find the task of writing just one joke daunting. The idea of creating 97,396 of ‘em is mind blowing. And it was for Gene too. When he started writing comedy, he set a daily quota. I don’t know the exact number but I believe it was 10 jokes. He said meeting that goal was tough. Day after day, though, he’d struggle to reach the number. He stuck with it and the task got easier and easier. Then he increased it. Eventually he landed paying jobs and the daily quota was replaced.
Gene amassed his collection of one-liners one joke at a time.
And that’s our approach to our IndieGoGo Campaign. We are hoping to reach our goal one dollar at a time.
I feel it’s important to stress that because we don’t want anyone to think that their contribution is too small. It’s not. One dollar helps us get closer to our goal…and it is appreciated. $1, $2, or $3 add up. It’s the same way a writer accumulates joke after joke after joke until he or she has a full routine.
Even if you can’t contribute monetarily, you can still be a part of this project. Spread the world. Post this article or others. Ask people to visit the IndieGoGo page. Or just offer us a word of encouragement. It all helps and we are extremely grateful that so many people want to see this film get made! And every bit of support helps to make 97,396 my new lucky number!
