Hello and welcome. My name is John August, and this is episode 733 of Script Notes. It's a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Over the years, we've talked about comedy a lot on the show, both for film and television. We've discussed jokes with guests like Mike Barbiclia and Patton Oswald, but we often treat being funny as an

inherent trait like height rather than a skill you can develop and improve. So today on the show, I want

to talk about a proper comedy education, and to do so, I'm excited to welcome on a very special guest.

Ali Barthwell is a writer known for her work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, for which

she has

five Emmy Awards. She's also written from Fulcher, the AV Club, and Cards Against Humanity.

She teaches at Second City and Columbia College in Chicago. Her new book, Reality TV for Snops,

is out this summer. Welcome, Allie. Thanks so much. Hi! I am so excited to be talking with you. And, of course, I got to talk with you a lot over the last couple weeks and months because you were on the negotiating committee for the Writers Guild of America and we're an absolute superstar. So I want to talk to you about that. But mostly, I just want to hang out with you more because I miss you. Oh, of course. Yeah. Oh, I mean, if we could be doing this in a conference room under fluorescent lighting, that would be ideal.

That's the dream.

But I'll take over Zoom.

And we actually referenced you in an earlier bonus segment because Drew and I were talking about how in the negotiating room, like, between sessions, you guys were talking me through sketch comedy writing

and like terms and things, the differences between, you know, Chicago styles and other styles.

I just love to learn new things about it. So I knew at that moment that I wanted to have you on the show.

Oh, thank you so much. So we're going to get into that. There's also some relevant listener

questions we'll try to answer. And in our

bonus segment members, I'd like to talk about making a career outside of New York and Los Angeles

because you live in Chicago. Yes. Yeah. It is absolutely doable to do, but probably different than

other people's paths would be. So I want to talk about that. Yeah, I think Chicago's the best city in the world.

So very happy to have more people move here and be creative in Chicago.

All right. Roll out the welcome wagon for Chicago. They are in our bonus segment of premium members.

But first, we have actual news. Allie, this thing that we've been working on for months and months and

months, the 2026 MBA, the contract to negotiate, we negotiate with our employers for all the writers

...