By TAYLOR VAN ARSDALE Special to the Daily Press
Anthony Q. Farrell has a lot to smile about these days — a new baby girl, a hot new feature film property and oh, yeah, he’s a staff writer on one of NBC’s funniest shows, “The Office.”
I caught up with Farrell on the Sony lot where he had just finished a reading for his hilarious new feature “Hood Cat” — an off-the-wall comedy about a pimp who wants to go straight in order to better care for his young daughter. The reading featured veteran actors, Gary Anthony Williams and Cedric Yarbrough (in the titular role), and I have to admit, I laughed so hard I cried.
While Farrell has definitely paid his “comedy dues,” he makes his enviable rise to staff writer seem like an easy-to-reach dream. Originally from Toronto, he moved to L.A. in 2004, began writing for the theatre, and met manager, Sheree Guitar. Farrell tried his hand at dramatic writing, but of those works he said, “They’d always turn out funny.” Then joked, “It’s quite sad.”
Guitar helped Farrell get an agent, nudging him to apply for the Fox Diversity Program (a 12-week writer’s “Boot Camp” where seasoned executives help applicants hone and refine their scripts). Using the connections he made while at Fox, Farrell got a referral to Greg Daniels (showrunner for “The Office”) and was summarily hired. Farrell admitted to being, “In one of the most ideal writing situations,” and added, “I totally lucked out and count my blessings everyday.” Daniels, he explained, “Is one of the most powerful men in the industry and yet he is just this ridiculously humble and nice person. I truly aspire to be like him.”
It’s great to have good fortune on your side, but writing for “The Office” also requires experience, dedication and talent, which Farrell’s got in abundance. After completing his undergrad work, Farrell attended Humber College’s Comedy School, spending eight months taking classes in stand up, improv, screenwriting/sitcom, acting and clown. I can’t help but inquire as to the “clown classes” — based on the Commedia dell’arte form, conventional improv dealing with themes of jealously, adultery and love. Of his clown teacher, Farrell said, “If the scenes weren’t stupid enough, she’d yell, ‘Stop! Not stupid enough!’ It was very freeing.”
The biggest challenge for Farrell these days is not crafting new storylines or jokes, but finding moments to be with his family. “The strike hit at the right time because I got to spend a lot of time with my baby,” he said happily. “We pull in maybe 10 or 11 hour days, occasionally stretching to a 16.”
To prep for work on an existing show, Farrell watched all the episodes and was given four hours of deleted scenes and old drafts of scripts, “So that in the future I wouldn’t write something that had already been written.”
For Farrell, the best experience at “The Office” is being with his fellow writers, of whom he said, “They are the most down-to-earth, super-talented people in the world. Anytime I go into that [writer’s] room; it’s like comedy-lightning in a bottle … someone says something that ignites a flame … we all start jumping in on it, it’s like the most amazing thing to be a part of, [to] know that you’re creating something that is going to be watched very soon and will become part of the history of TV.”
Farrell and his sketch comedy troupe “The Audacity” are currently negotiating for space at the Westside Eclectic, until they officially hit the Westside, you can check out their free showcase at the MET in Hollywood, this weekend, March 21-22 at 8 p.m.
Taylor Van Arsdale is a writer/producer and movie reviewer for the Daily Press. She
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 21, 2008. Read the original PDF.