Modified On May 4, 2009
An article in the LAT on freelancing for late-night talk shows.
Many a comedian has “faxed in jokes” to the late-night shows and gotten a check or two for his labor. It’s a bit of a thrill and it looks great on the résumé and, in some rare cases, it leads to a writing gig!
The Halves of the Staff did it when they resided in Burbank (we faxed into Fox’s Comic Strip Live and continued the practice when they migrated back east (faxing into Politically Incorrect and Tonight). They actually sold some gags! It was a thrill! It looked great on the résumés! It actually led to other gigs!
We got $100 per gag back then.
If the Writers Guild of America had their way, no talk show would be able to solicit such material without paying the freelancer the union minimum of $3,215.
In other words, if the WGA had their way, the practice would cease instantly.
Why? It’s very simple if you’re Lowell Peterson, executive director of the WGA, East.
“It’s a question of really maintaining employment opportunities for guild writers,” he added. “Some people might say, ‘What’s a joke or two?’ But that’s what our folks do — they write a joke or two or six.”
Lowell expects everyone to believe that freelance joke-faxing is a threat to staff writers.
Fortunately, the WGA has never forced the issue. Until now… obviously they must be forcing the issue or planning to if we’re reading about it in the LAT.
In the past, the union has taken action against shows that used freelancers. The guild lodged a complaint with ABC in 2003 over the use of freelancers on “The Jimmy Kimmel Show.” The show’s producers agreed to stop the practice.
The union also warned Leno not to solicit freelance material on “The Tonight Show” after a staff writer lodged a complaint in 2001. At the time, Leno maintained he was buying freelance jokes to use in his stand-up act at a comedy club in Hermosa Beach, where he performs most Sunday nights.
Peterson said he believed none of the New York-based shows employ freelance writers. When informed that The Times had spoken to writers who freelance for several, including “Late Show” and “SNL,” he was taken aback. “Wow, that’s disturbing,” he said, vowing to “follow up on the matter.”
Oh, well. There goes that opportunity.
Particularly stomach-churning is this paragraph:
Indeed, few freelancers win the big prize: a late-night staff writer job. That troubles Dawna Kaufmann, a former stand-up comic and staff writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “Mad TV” who has worked as a freelancer for Leno. A self-described “fax person” in the late 1990s, Kaufmann said she sold hundreds of jokes to Leno and other late night show hosts, receiving $50 to $100 per joke. “To me, writing for Leno and others was a full-time job, and it bothered me that I and others like me weren’t put on staff and paid under a union contract.”
It bothered her that she was making thousands of dollars, paying her rent and setting her own hours? It bothered her, even though it undoubtedly led to a staff job for two network television shows (which, let’s face it, is why most people fax jokes in)?
This is the best they can come up with?
This is what bothers us, Dawna: The WGA threatening writers and show hosts. WGA officials saying that Conan O’Brien is “pure on this issue.” (Does that phrasing cause anyone else a chill?)
What also bothers us is the possible obliteration of a practice that has led to myriad opportunities (some union, some not) for dozens (hundreds?) of comics over the years because guild members want to protect their jobs and because Dawna Kaufmann felt exploited.