Episode 62 - Simon Rich

15 Minutes: a podcast about fame, with Jamie Berger

After finishing off his collegiate tenure as president of the Harvard Lampoon, Simon Rich became one of the youngest writers ever hired on Saturday Night Live and has written for Pixar and “The Simpsons.” He is the creator and showrunner of “Man Seeking Woman” (originally on FXX, now available on Hulu) and “Miracle Workers” (TBS), which he based on his books. His other collections include Spoiled Brats and Ant Farm. He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. “Hits and Misses” is, as his publisher puts it, his “new collection of stories about dreaming big and falling flat, about ordinary people desperate for stardom and the stars who are bored by having it all.” Inspired by Rich’s real experiences in Hollywood, Hits and Misses chronicles all the absurdity of fame and success alongside the heartbreaking humanity of failure. From a bitter tell-all by the horse Paul Revere rode to greatness to a gushing magazine profile of everyone’s favorite World War II dictator, these stories roam across time and space to skewer our obsession with making it big–from the days of ancient Babylon to the age of TMZ.

We talk about some of that stuff! Simon also reads two of his stories, (47:30) one of which includes a cameo of me as Death! Look out Hollywood, here I come!

At least today, July 24th, 2018, which is also the pub date for Hits and Misses, this is my new favorite episode. Hope you enjoy it!

-Jamie

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