I'm Alan Alder and this is Clear and Vivid. Conversations about connecting and communicating.

I was like about 12 years old when the Dick van Dyke show came on and he was this good

looking guy married to this very pretty Mary Tallahmour. They had a kid, Richie, so they

had a family, had a very nice house in New Rochelle and he spent his days at work lying on a couch

joking around with buddy and Sally. So I said to my parents, I want to do that. That seems like a good

way to spend your day, okay? And your life. That's multiple Emmy award-winning writer, Alan's White

Bell. Alan has made some of the funniest people you ever heard, even funnier. He contributed to

the creation of comedy classics like Saturday Night Live and Kirby Renthusiasm. I thought if anyone

could throw some light on that special form of communications that humans have of being funny,

it would be Alan. And in any case, the conversation would be fun. And it was.

Alan, this is so wonderful. I'm so glad to be talking to you.

So looking forward to this challenge. Isn't this great? I'm just so glad to be talking with you.

Same here. You've been well, Arlene. Everybody's good.

We're all doing well and I'm enjoying times like this where I get to talk with fascinating people.

And I want to talk about your book, this wonderful book called Lath Lines. My life helping funny

people be funnier. And you're funny, so you helped yourself.

Well, you know, something it's I think it's symbiotic, you know, I didn't know what to do with this

this sense of humor of mine. And I had a choice a long time ago.

He do I want to be funny by myself or do I just love writing so much? I love trying to figure out

what other people's voices are, what they sound like. What would be funny for them to say?

So that's the path that I chose a long, long time ago, starting with writing jokes for $7

and joke up in the Catskill Mountains. $7 and joke. That was the going rate, yeah.

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