A Conversation with Satirist and Shaker Grad Andy Borowitz

It doesn't take long to realize why Andy Borowitz is one of the country's top political satirists: he's about as quick-witted as they come. The Cleveland-area expat, Shaker Heights High School grad and Harvard University phenom (he was president of the prominent humor magazine, the Harvard Lampoon) reasons that some of that has to do with growing up here in Northeast Ohio.

"There's definitely an underdog culture here," Borowitz told Cool Cleveland last week in an interview. "A sense of humor is a weapon, and a response to being downtrodden -- which is not to say that Cleveland is downtrodden by any means... but Cleveland's always been a little bit down on its luck. When you're the butt of a lot of peoples' jokes, it makes you a little bit more combative and want to fight back."

The screenwriter, television producer, blogger, author, National Press Club award-winner and all-around good-guy is seemingly inexhaustible. Borowitz created the Will Smith-led TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (winning an NAACP Image Award for it); produced the Oscar-nominated film Pleasantville; has written five books and has served as a commentator for NPR's Weekend Edition and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He has also contributed to The New Yorker, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and other publications -- when he's not sitting at the helm, so to speak, of his syndicated blog The Borowitz Report.

Borowitz and wife Olivia Gentile (pictured) pop in on Cleveland for a no-cost stand-up comedy show/book signing and Q&A this Saturday May 23 at 2PM at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. It seemed like the perfect time for a follow-up. The conversation covered a lot of territory:

Cool Cleveland: You’ve really done it all in your career: film, books, television, syndicated columns, stand-up, political commentary. You won the first-ever National Press Club award for humor and a half-dozen Dot-Comedy Awards for your website, BorowitzReport.com. With all the success, how on earth do you stay motivated?

Andy Borowitz: But I have never won an NBA championship! (laughs) Traditionally, I’ve been an Indians fan, or a Browns fan -- when that team actually existed. When I was a kid, the Cleveland Cavaliers were just an expansion team; like all Cleveland sports teams, they've had a very long drought -- it was hard to get into them. With LeBron James, it’s been a transformational thing. Everyone on the team is great. It's an astonishing spectacle. I was at a Cavs/Knicks game recently at Madison Square Garden and it was like watching Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals. The Knicks looked like hired stooges... ah, but enough publicity for LeBron. He has enough and doesn't need more for me. (laughs)

Seriously, that’s a really good question. I think I’ve been fortunate in my career to have the opportunity to try as many different things as I have. When I went to Hollywood, I thought I would be a sitcom writer and punch the clock for 40 years just doing that. But along the way, I found out I was interested in other things and ended up headed down some strange and really interesting side streets. What motivates me is the excitement and fun of what I’m doing, and trying to judge the next move based on what’s cool to do... and what might lead me somewhere else, even in terms of geography.

I'd say I'm less interested in repeating myself, because often you don't do a better job the second time around. You don't want to chase your own tail in life by doing the same thing over and over. Right now I'm involved in a storytelling group called The Moth and we're going to be a part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, which is great. I'm just trying to stay open and loose and hope that interesting things come my way and just do them. I guess you could say I'm very improvisational at this point in my career. But I like the big question mark with no master plan to follow.

Your book The Republican Playbook from a couple years back was brilliant. So, if you had to write a Democrat Playbook today, what would be in it?

The problem is that the Democrats now are so golden right now, it’s a bit like the Cavaliers -- I can’t believe my team is winning! (laughs) In a way, there are some parallels: they both have a great superstar in the middle of the team hitting all these three pointers and amazing shots and the opposing team is having a hard time dealing with everything that seems to break their way... even their ability to defeat pirates seems to be there (laughs).

Barack Obama seems to be golden, but that's not just pure luck -- even though he does benefit from good luck throughout his political career. I think that Obama's been really skillful. He's had the right moments in the spotlight and when he’s given opportunity to hit that three point shot when he needs it, he does. It's really remarkable. If I wrote a Democrat Playbook, it would look a lot like the Cavaliers playbook -- pass it to LeBron! Get the ball in Obama's hands and let's see what happens. And play Joe Biden in the last quarter... if you’re already up by 20 points.

Even though that whole pirates thing sounds silly, it could have been a really big disaster for the administration from publicity standpoint if it hadn’t worked out exactly the way it did. What [Obama] did was so shrewd -- he didn't say anything until it was resolved. Then we all learned exactly how intimately involved he and his administration were, timeline and all. That's masterful. Our generation was used to the Iranian hostage crisis under Jimmy Carter, which was handled almost completely opposite. Carter tried too hard to show how intimately he was involved [in negotiating their release] and that made it look like he was unable to really get anything done. The quiet and the appearance of nothing happening really hurt him... I think we all can learn from that. Wait for things to turn out well, then take the credit after you’re done. No sweating in public during the crisis; just learn to take credit for things in the aftermath. That's the coolest playbook going.

Talk about the challenge of creating political humor and satire when your team wins, so to speak?

I think that I’m actually one of these comedians who welcomes Obama -- and not just because I voted for him. Let's face it, the Bush jokes were getting so old; he was screwing up so much and was such a laughable figure, it was like an eight-year YouTube clip... I'd say the media coverage of Obama is often funny. I guess I’m not as scared of talking about race as other people are. There’s this assumption that Barack Obama is a very cool guy and he is -- no question about it.

But for some white people, he’s sort of become "the black best friend" on a sitcom. He’s their acceptable cool black friend. And that’s actually really positive -- it's been a great opportunity to bridge the gap and bring people together to some degree. But those awkward first steps taken with their first black friend are actually pretty funny. It's always good to have a challenge. I would trade a president who’s hilarious for a president who is competent and harder to make fun of anyway. I still think the coolest president was John Adams, because he won those Emmys a couple years ago. How many presidents have done that?

As a “fake journalist,” how satisfying is it to see your influence on real journalists?

It’s certainly not why I set out to do it. It was done for a cheap laugh, for cracking up my friends. I really had no idea that the Borowitz Report would take off the way it did -- I thought it would be a lot like how some people blog about their cats. Ironically, and a little sadly, cable, newspapers and the rest of the old media lost a lot of credibility in the last few years. I think the run up to the Iraq war and giving the previous administration a free pass really opened the door for people like Jon Stewart to become -- and be seen as -- truth tellers in a way. Fake news, which was originally intended to be funny and an entertainment alternative wound up taking on a role never expected of it.

I still must say I don’t take it all that seriously. I do think that Jon Stewart has taken things into new territory, especially with the Jim Cramer thing, which I personally thought went a little over a top. I want to be clear: I’m part of the problem, not part of the solution. If I’m a part of the solution then I think we’re all dead (laughs).

What I’m good at is blowing things up, and then walking away. That's my role in society. I’m comfortable on the side of where fake news is supposed to be entertaining -- but it's really not my first priority. I find it funny when my fake news stories are picked up by the mainstream media as real news. I remember when the Boston Herald picked up my "Clinton as Annie Oakley" story -- when she was trying to create a wedge against Obama [during a campaign stop] in West Virginia. The Herald is not in the fake news biz, but they picked up my story as a real story and reported it as fact. That was sweet. When I can infiltrate old media like that, even unintentionally, I'm stoked.

Do you think “real journalists” are going to regain their traction as investigators and public watchdogs, or is it all tantamount to putting the toothpaste back in the tube?

One of the problems I seen as a big watcher of MSNBC... and I should say I'm not sure I should be proud of that, but my wife and I are addicted to it. It's like having Nickelodeon on in the background with kids--

(laughs) Classic!

It's funny, because they're sort of nursing the popularity of fake news with a lot of what they do. They have demographic envy of the fake news -- the Stewarts and [Stephen] Colberts and so on -- so they’re constantly trying to be funny with their delivery of the news... the news today really has a snarky tone to it and a level of hype that's actually kind of embarrassing. All of the news channels have reinvented themselves, and in exactly the wrong ways. MSNBC is using that wisecracking, ESPN-like quality, while Wolf Blitzer is still Wolf Blitzer and CNN is just hopelessly square. And then there's Fox!

All of them need to offer good coverage that people can believe in again. I suppose it's the Obama principle -- being straight-forward, honest and smart is the best way to appeal. America really wants competence. And yet, some of the cable news networks are asking the public to write the news for them through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace... have you seen CNN's iReporters--?

The citizen journalism thing--

Yeah, it's sad because they're really abdicating their profession to the amateurs. Can you imagine a brain surgeon asking the peanut gallery for ideas during surgery? If you think about it, Jon Stewart would never give the public an opportunity to write his show because it would suck. User-generated content from people who are really plugged-in and participating is an interesting concept, but they’re getting [content] from people with a lot of time on their hands. Poorly written, idiotic emails. It reminds me of the line, if you had a hundred monkeys working on typewriters at the same time, eventually they’ll come up with Shakespeare. Traditional media is really lost right now and they're making things worse by trying to be hip when they should be trying to be square.

You’re a native of this area. Does Cleveland still feel like magnetic north to you, despite your travels?

Yeah, there’s so much I still love about it... when we're in town, we'll be celebrating my mom's 80th birthday! I have so many great memories of Cleveland. I still have really warm feelings about [growing up] on Coventry Road and being a "proud product" of Shaker schools. I remember the run the Cleveland Indians had in the 90s, when Jacobs Field was a magnet for people and downtown was just swarming with people. It was like the city just sort of exploded... I’ve always felt like Cleveland has a genuine capacity for excitement. There’s such a hunger for people to experience success and victory, or even just something cool. I was there to do a fundraiser for Obama during his presidential campaign. The show we did at Pickwick & Frolic [on East 4th Street] was packed. It’s a cool club, and it just felt like to me if there’s something cool, Clevelanders will turn out. It’s only a question of giving the people what they want.

What do you bring from your experience here to your work? And how, if at all, does that manifest itself?

One thing that’s true about comedy is that it helps to have outsider’s point of view. If you’ve always been on the “winning team,” you’re really much less likely to develop a sense of humor about anything. A sense of humor is a weapon, and a response to being downtrodden -- which is not to say that Cleveland is downtrodden by any means, but anyone who grew up in Cleveland knows the city has always had an underdog feeling about itself. We always feel that way, because of the things that have happened here. The Cuyahoga River catching on fire, the whole "Mistake on the Lake" thing, the sports teams, the city going into default. These events were not hilarious at the time, but conceptually it’s still a funny and defining thing.

Cleveland’s always been a little bit down on its luck; when you’re the butt of a lot of peoples’ jokes, it makes you a little bit more combative and want to fight back a little bit. I think that informs my work to some degree in conscious and subconscious ways. I’ve never really seen myself as being on the celebrity “A-list” and I tend to be suspicious of those who are to some degree. I guess I like taking shots at the people who are famous, and growing up in Cleveland had a big influence on that.

And you know, I’ve always been a bit suspicious of the people on the winning team. I think that’s why, at least for me, there’s this weird disconnect in seeing LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers look so superhuman -- because [Clevelanders] don’t experience that much. In Los Angeles and New York, the response to sports teams is so different; they’re so used to winners and being the center of attention with Hollywood and Broadway, that the expectation is always that they’ll always be “number one.” And when they’re not, the fans desert them en masse. If you’re not winning the Super Bowls and World Series, nobody gives a crap about you there, whereas in Cleveland we’ve been frustrated by sports for so long, it effects us differently.

John Adams -- the guy who bangs drum in the outfield at Cleveland Indians games, not the Emmy-winning president -- he’s the perfect emblem of Cleveland. He's the metaphor of a man willing to keep beating the drums, regardless of how the team is doing, and that says a lot about the hard-bitten devotion that Clevelanders have.

What does the success of popular culture figures from Northeast Ohio say about the region as a whole?

I think that depends on what field they're in. Compared to some other Midwestern cities, maybe with the exception of Chicago, there has been so much success for comedians and writers and musicians over the last 40 years. A lot of that is owed to the city’s attitude, struggles and underdog/outsider status we were talking about. That, to me, seems like the perfect crucible or Petri dish to create a good comedian. And Cleveland in the 70s seemed to be the vanguard of rock and roll music. Bowie and Springsteen really came into their own because of the blue collar personality of the city which responds to rock music.

You’ll be here in town with your wife, award-winning journalist Olivia Gentile [who can be found online at OliviaGentile.com]. How fun is it to have a collaborative event like the one at Joseph-Beth?

I guess we'll know after the event; this is the first time we’ve done an event like this. I guess this is what happens when a fake journalist marries a real one -- it's a mixed marriage! (laughs) Seriously, I think we’re very well-suited and there’s enough overlap with us being writers, and being interested in language. And yet, there’s such a divide: I’m trying crack people up and she’s trying to get at something deeper. But that can be complementary and I think this will be a really fun event for people. I'm going to do some stand-up, then I'll interview Olivia about her book Life List, then we'll take questions from the audience. It might be a $25 value for free... we won’t know until we do it, but at least there won't be a waitress bugging you to buy drinks. (laughs) I figure we’ll take questions of all kinds from audience -- on politics, pop culture, anything, even personal ones -- as long as they're tasteful (laughs). Sometimes people think bookstore events are boring; we’re going to try and make it fun.

Have you talked about collaborating on a project in the future?

When Olivia's book came out, there was tremendous interest in her appearing places. We thought that in Cleveland, because the audience might know me a little better, there might be something value-added to us doing [an appearance] together. We’re going to Washington DC where she is from, and we'll be doing similar show there, too. This is just something we’ve been playing with -- and we may end up in Austin, Texas and the Miami book festival in a joint appearance as well. I guess this is what we in the media business call "synergy across all media platforms." (laughs) It didn't seem to be a natural overlap at first, but people who like political satire seem to like a really good read as well.

Who knows. Maybe we’ll end up being the Sonny and Cher of the bookstore circuit. And we'll keep working as a couple until people don’t want to see us anymore.

Andy Borowitz & Olivia Gentile will be discussing & signing The Borowitz Report and Life List: A Woman's Quest For the World's Most Amazing Birds respectively this Saturday May 23 at 2PM at Joseph-Beth Booksellers, 24519 Cedar Rd., Lyndhurst. Details can be found at http://www.JosephBeth.com. You can follow Borowitz and Gentile at http://www.BorowitzReport.com and http://www.OliviaGentile.com, respectively.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com
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