Hi, I'm Warren from Phoenix, Arizona.

The Sound of Young America is an independent production

supported by listeners like you and me.

If you'd like to donate, support the show,

visit maximumfun.org and click on donate.

Live on tape from my house in Los Angeles.

I'm Jesse Thorn, and this is the Sound of Young America

from MaximumFun.org.

MEXcemumFun

Rail sweetheart boy, detective,

It's the Sound of Young America.

It's the sound of Young America, I'm Jesse Thorn.

My guest on the program, Alan's Why Bell, is a legend of comedy writing having been

don't laugh at that, it's true. I just to be described as such is both an honor and a source of

humor to me. Okay, good. Well, if you are not only an original writer on Saturday Night Live

and co-creator of the groundbreaking medicine com, it's Gary Shandling's show, you've also won

Tony is a collaborator with Billy Crystal on Broadway, you won several Emmys, nominated for

several more, and you've written a novel of Book of Memoir, a number of plays, and now clothing

optional, and other ways to read these stories, a collection of short, humorous pieces, both non-fiction

fiction dialogues, and et cetera. Alan, welcome to The Sandy Young America. Thanks for having me here.

I want to talk a little bit about the beginning of your career first. You started out as a joke

writer, did you always imagine yourself as a comedy writer when you were a kid? It sounds like

...