"A sperm bank is just like a regular bank, except after you make a deposit at a sperm bank, you lose interest," cracked Alan Zweibel, former "Saturday Night Live" comedy writer and producer in an interview prior to his April 1 performance at the CFA screening room.
Zweibel came to UB as part of the Department of Media Study's "Visiting Celebrity Scholar Series." It's the kind of gag Zweibel made $7 for when he was starting out as a joke writer after graduating from UB in 1972. But things got better for Zweibel - a lot better.
After scoring a job as one of the first writers for "Saturday Night Live," Zweibel was on a roll. His credits include writing and producing for "It's Garry Shandling's Show" and "Great Performances," the PBS comedy specials starring other SNL alumni, including Steve Martin. Currently, Zweibel is a consulting producer for the 2002 Emmy-nominated HBO comedy, "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
Zweibel's success is not unique to television alone. His Broadway work includes his original plays, such as "Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner - A Sort of Romantic Comedy," which was based on the late SNL comedian. Zweibel has also written scripts for the films "North" and "The Story of Us." In his career, Zweibel has racked up five Emmys, three Writers Guild Awards and six Cable Ace Awards.
But Zweibel doesn't care so much about the awards as he does about the pride he personally takes in his work.
"For me, it's not which award is the best, it's what work have you done that you are most proud of. If that happens to get an award, great," he said.
But before he ever gave an acceptance speech at the Emmys, once upon a time, Zweibel was in a situation many students are facing today: wondering what to do after graduation.
"I knew I had an instinct for writing," Zweibel said. "I don't know if you noticed, but the winters are long and snowy in Buffalo, so I would write jokes in my dorm room and then mail them into shows like 'The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson' and pretty soon, they started stealing them."
But for Zweibel, getting ripped off by the networks was encouraging. It was an affirmation that he had something to offer and was thinking like a professional writer.
Breaking in the business was a matter of luck, but some painstaking preparation also paid off, according to Zweibel.
"You can want to be a writer, but you have to show it. Be ruthless, this way you will be prepared when an opportunity presents itself," said Zweibel. "When I had my interview with 'Saturday Night Live,' I stayed up for two days straight preparing jokes, sketches, sample episodes, anything that they might like. And it worked."
Zweibel reminisced about his UB days with a smile.
"The students that are here now think certain things are lousy, but whatever is lousy after a period of time, passes. This makes lousy things nostalgic. I made friendships here I still have," he said.
The comedian also joked about how "different" things were in his college days.
"It was a different time back then, there was a Republican president, everyone was stoned all the time and there was an unpopular war going on," Zweibel said.
But life wasn't all gags. Zweibel also remembered that it was painful to attend UB.
"It was a four-year charade. I felt isolated a lot, there was a lot of hostility back then between the university and the town hooligans (the students), I even felt scared to be here sometimes," he said.
But he did not fail to impart some optimism to those aspiring for a career in the entertainment industry.
"If there is any message I can convey to you, it is that it can be done," he said.
For his part, Zweibel is hardly putting on the brakes to his career any time soon. He is currently involved with writing two pilots for NBC and he just published a children's book, "A Tree Named Steve."
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
