Working on a Toilet

I was listening to Marc Maron's WTF podcast. He was interviewing comedian and comedy writer, Brian Kiley. Kiley has been a writer for Conan O'Brien for more than 20 years. He is a tremendously successful comedy writer, but it wasn't always that way. 

He explained to Maron how he used to go out of his way to visit a local library to watch old footage of his favorite comedians. This was way before YouTube and this whole internet thing. In order to master his craft, he had to make a point to study the greats.

Kiley described how he once shared a small apartment. In order to stay up late writing jokes, he would go to the bathroom and sit on the toilet lid. It was the only source of light he could use without waking up his roommate. Sometimes his roomie would knock on the door to actually use the bathroom. 

It cracked me up how Kiley said he now does the same thing when he is with his family in a hotel room. He uses the toilet as his chair and the bathroom light for reading and writing, so he won't wake anybody up. 

Sometimes you need to take the extra steps to get the work done and to become the best at what you do. Even if it means working from a toilet in the middle of the night. 

Check out the full episode of the podcast. Maron also interviews Brian Posehn, who I love!