New Yorker Profile of Brad Stine

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 30th, 2004

There’s a fascinating (and lengthy) profile of Brad Stine in an issue of the New Yorker from last month. Fascinating because it provides an overview of a career and gives a snapshot of a pivotal moment in that career. We only found out about it today. It’s still available online.

In his set, Stine hit some familiar notes. “I’m a conservative, I’m a Christian, and I think the United States is the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the earth!” he shouted, provoking one of four standing ovations. “And, because of those three belief systems, when I die, by law, I have to be stuffed and mounted and placed in the Smithsonian under the ‘Why He Didn’t Get a Sitcom’ display.”

As it turns out, Lou Weiss, the chairman emeritus of William Morris, watched Stine’s DVD not long ago and said that he’d “never seen anything as out-of-the-box as this young man.” Weiss, who started in the mailroom at William Morris in 1937, has handled Joey Bishop, Buddy Hackett, and Alan King, among others, and he helped launch Bill Cosby’s television career. Now he wants to build a sitcom around Stine, as a put-upon Everyman. The star’s Christianity, Weiss says, will not take center stage. “I respect everybody’s beliefs,” he told me recently. “But putting religion jokes on television is a good way not to be on television anymore.”

Read the whole thing here,

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