to a halt— just keep up and swim alongside them.”
You’ ve written three bestselling books and co-written a fourth with Michael McDonald. You’ ve also penned multiple screenplays. When you ' re writing for yourself— specifically standup— you have the benefit of controlling a line’ s delivery and timing. But when you’ re putting it to the page, it’ s a little different. Do you change your process at all based on the medium? Oh, you’ ve got to. I remember that exact transition when I worked on the first book. I went,“ Oh, I’ m not going to be there to say this.” They’ re going to have to read it in their bedroom or in the bathroom. So, how do I change the wording? How do I change punctuation? Is there a dash? And what I really appreciate is when people say,“ Oh, I could really hear you as I was reading it.” I thought,“ Oh, good. So, it worked.” The first book was really about taking a lot of what my standup was and changing it to be reader friendly. I likened it to when you change currency in a foreign country— you lose a little bit each time. Then I did the audiobook. I thought,“ Well, now it’ s just going to be 30 percent less funny.” By the time I did the third one, Familyhood, it was very different— almost like essays. They were standalones. Some of them were very funny, but some of them were not funny at all, by design. They were just truthful. And it was also a more reflective period of my life. I was a parent and married for a long time, and so it was an interesting process to try and write that and not aim for funny. Working with Michael McDonald was a great experience. It was very informative for me, because it was the first time that I’ d ever written something that I wasn’ t involved in. I mean, I’ ve written things that I wasn’ t starring in, but I was still producing them. This was, like— this is your story. I’ m just helping you. Whatever I can do to help you get your story out, I’ ll throw you my two cents. But every decision is yours. So, it was really an education in collaborating. And he’ s collaborated with so many artists, so he has this very open-hearted,“ say yes” mentality about collaborating, which I had to absorb. It took me a while to realize don’ t fight for that joke. If it doesn’ t feel right to him, take it out— because it’ s his book. It’ s got to be him. It’ s his life story.
You’ re a musician, as well; a trained pianist, and you studied composition at SUNY Binghamton. You even co-wrote the Mad About You theme song. Let’ s talk about music. How does it still factor into your life? It’ s always been hugely important to me, but it’ s never been a big part of my career, or even artistically. It’ s just very separate. I’ ve been playing piano since I was a kid, and I’ ve been playing more and more over the last couple of years. I’ ve been going back— sometimes picking up classical pieces that I always wanted to study. There’ s no test. There’ s no teacher. There’ s no curriculum. You can do what you want. Sometimes I only want to learn a specific 32 bars of a piece. The pretty part. In our old house, I had a little studio with padded walls, and I could play at any time. We moved recently, and we don’ t have that anymore. So, when I play, other people are forced to listen. One day, my wife said,“ Why is everything you play sad?” And I said,“ It’ s not sad— it’ s evocative. It’ s emotional.” I just lean toward that stuff. I did an album with this wonderful singer, Julia Fordham, who I was a fan of. We became friends,
10 // BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE July 2025