NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE: AMY SOLOMON INTERVIEW
Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women was a groundbreaking collection of essays, comics, and ephemera by the leading female comedians of the 1970s that included the likes of Gilda Radner, Candice Bergen, and Phyllis Diller.
It pains us to report that there hasn’t been a similar collection of contemporary funny women published since Titters – until now!
In NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE: Humor, Art, and Low-grade Panic from 150 of the Funniest Women in Comedy (Harper Design, March 16, 2021 Hardcover, eBook), editor and producer Amy Solomon has amassed all-new material from, without a doubt, the funniest womxn in comedy today—award-winning writers, stand-up comedians, actresses, cartoonists, and more.
Brilliant women have always, and will continue to, push the boundaries of just how funny—and edgy—they can be in a field that has long been dominated by men and NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE is a testament to – and 250-page explosion of – their limitless talent.
We are super excited to share this interview with AMY SOLOMON, the incredible editor of NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE.
First and foremost, I’d love to know, where did the idea start?
I grew up obsessed with Gilda Radner, who was this amazing woman who was most famous for Saturday Night Live: she was in the original cast. I tried to track down anything she ever did and I found this book on eBay called Titters. Basically, she and a ton of brilliant women at the time, Phillys Diller, Candice Bergen, Laraine Newman, collected all this stuff, their essays and fiction, comics, photography, really anything and everything — and I got obsessed with it.
And then I realized that there was never anything else like that, a contemporary version of it.
That was so crazy to me, especially because there have always been great women in comedy. Most would argue that since 1976 the women in comedy scene has exploded, probably exponentially. And I decided we have to get all these girls in one place.
What was so cool about Titters was, because it had all these pieces together, it’s almost like a time capsule. You get a real sense of what they were worried about and what they were talking about and laughing about and I love that.
I am so lucky to have this job where I meet amazing funny women all day and every day and I thought let’s give them the opportunity to write or draw or create about whatever is on their minds. That’s how it happened.
How did you go about it next? Did you know who you wanted in there?
First of all, I met up with my best girlfriends, and asked them, is this insane or crazy if I try this, which is what I always do, and they agreed it was cool. I had a few well-ish known women I know through work and I put together a proposal; if I’d do this kind of thing, would they want to be a part of it, and I used example essays.
One of my best friends, Catherine Cohen, is an amazing comedian who writes funny poems so I included some of her poems and I had some illustrations done to give an idea what it would be like. That was really fun. I found an agent who helped me pitch it out. One person wanted it, which is all you need.
Then I just started asking women I knew and asked who were their friends they loved.
That’s always clever!
Yeah! I would just ask someone, for instance, Anna Konkle who is amazing. She created Pen 15 and I asked her, who do you love, and she said Anna Greenfield who I had never heard of. She did this piece where she took her diary of when she was 11 and annotated it and she wrote a letter back to her 11-year-old self. It’s so funny and touching and cool. So I was introduced that way.
I created this web of all these amazing women, and I’m such a true fan of each of them so any time someone said yes, it was so exciting.
Did anyone say no?
So many people—I mean so many..
You must have contacted so many too!
Luckily I really like spreadsheets… I love keeping track of all of it. A ton of people said no. I would be a little bit sad but so many people are so busy so I never took it personally.
It also felt, the way it came together, it felt these were the people that were meant to be in it. Truly lovely great people. It’s a group of sweeties.
How long did it take you?
Three years.
That’s not even that long considering the work that must have gone into it…
No, especially compared with some of the stuff you try to develop in film and tv, people kept apologizing, saying sorry this is slow and I said compared to Hollywood stuff this is not that slow.
But yeah 3 years, start to finish. Probably 1.5 million emails. I wish I could count (laughs)
To be perfectly honest I’m sad to be done with it. It was so nice collaborating with all these women. I sent them prompts and themes and questions I would like them to touch on. But a lot of the time, it was the case where people have a good idea they have always ruminated on but never had space for it.
In a few cases, I’d contact them and say I’m a fan of yours and I loved it when you talked about this, would you like to write along those lines.
Sometimes saying write whatever you want, freaks people out, they want guidance, everyone is different with their creative process.
I did ask them though if they could give me an idea of what they were thinking of writing so there wouldn’t be any overlap.
And when I started receiving a first draft, that was so exciting! It was a blast.
Do you have a favorite piece in there?
They are all my babies! I can’t pick! I don’t know…there are some really beautiful pieces, the book is first and foremost funny but people wrote really personal beautiful things- Let me try to think…
Something that touched you personally I mean, sometimes when watching comedy you can think oh wow I recognise that, or I think, always thought that but never dared to say it, that kind of thing.
Emily V. Gordon wrote this amazing piece with her long time illustrator Esme Blegvad. It is an illustrated comic piece on all the things she obsessed over instead of sleeping, the stuff that kept her up at night. Some of them I identified with and some of them I’d never thought of and that was terrifying. One of them is every time you paint a room it gets slightly smaller. That is horrifying. (laughs)
(laughs) Oh my god, yes!
And the other one is, what does CVS stand for? I’ve always wondered that. Or: I don’t go to enough museums, we have to go to more museums.
Have you always been a comedy fan?
Yes. I grew up in Chicago near Second City where so many of my favorite comedians came out of, it is an amazing comedy theatre in Chicago and I used to go to shows there all the time.
And my dad is a comedy fan and hugely funny. Both my parents are. In another life my dad would have liked to have done standup or something like that. He does software. But funny software. He introduced me to comedy. And my grandma was really funny, it’s dedicated to her and Gilda Radner.
So yes, I always loved comedy.
I actually wonder how many of the women I feature in the book I knew beforehand. I should count that, how many women I actually knew beforehand to get to collaborate and to get to know them.
It seems that women in the creative world are more willing to help each other somehow, oh I know that person too, and I should connect you with that person.
Totally. That excitement in recommending people. And then also they can’t wait to read each other’s pieces. I think women so often get this reputation for catfighting and competition and that is the opposite of my experience.
I had that experience in other businesses I’ve been in but I never have experienced that in the writing world. l was surprised by how women are willing to support and help each order. I have this in our FB group too, they always respond and help each other.
That’s my experience too. In Hollywood, if you get hired that’s amazing, that’s more people you get to meet through them I think we just all lift each other up.
And that was also why I wanted to do the book. Women are clearly publishing things individually that are amazing but I think ultimately we are stronger and funnier together. You get to read all of this back to back and it elevates it to a new plane.
Are you writing anything yourself at the moment, are you script writing?
Yes, through my job I write a lot, a pitch for a movie or sometimes I help rewrite a whole draft, those kinds of things.
I came to LA thinking I wanted to be a full-on comedy tv writer and then I fell in love with the producing aspect. I love finding people I love and giving them the opportunity and connecting them… I just got so into that and I love the editing too, getting the pieces in, getting notes, what if we move this here, I love helping people make it stronger and fresh eyes, you just have a whole new perspective on it.
What I write personally the most is poetry. I think at some point I’ll take on something bigger.
But at the moment I find it easier to concentrate on reading. Because when you’re reading you can’t concentrate on something else.
What are you reading currently?
I’ve just read Milk Fed by Melisa Broder, it’s basically about a young woman with clearly an eating disorder trying to figure out how to rid herself of that she meets another girl who changes that for her. I love that.
Has anyone asked you if it is a suitable time currently for your book- I’d not ask that obviously- but has anyone said it’s not the right time with covid?
I think the consensus, in general, has been Thank god. I think it’s the same reason why you do comedy month because we need things to laugh about.
Clearly, I would prefer not to release a book into a pandemic, I would have loved going to bookstore events etc but… I can say it’s what people are wanting right now. I hope it connects people.
I definitely know so!
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Amy Solomon is a film and TV producer, most recently on HBO’s Barry and Silicon Valley. She runs Alec Berg’s production company where she develops movies and TV that you’ll hopefully see someday. She’s originally from Chicago but now lives in Los Angeles with her dogs, Nan and Goose, who are perfect. She’s a graduate of Princeton University. She loves baseball and her friends’ kids.
Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/amybethsol
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/amybethsol/
Website https://www.notesfromthebathroomline.com/
NOTES FROM THE BATHROOM LINE
A collection of never-before-seen humor pieces—essays, satire, short stories, poetry, cartoons, artwork, and more—from more than 150 of the biggest female comedians today, curated by Amy Solomon, a producer of the hit HBO shows Silicon Valley and Barry.
With contributions from:
Lolly Adefope • Maria Bamford • Aisling Bea • Lake Bell • Rachel Bloom • Rhea Butcher • Nicole Byer • D’Arcy Carden • Aya Cash • Karen Chee • Margaret Cho • Mary H.K. Choi • Amanda Crew • Rachel Dratch • Beanie Feldstein • Jo Firestone • Briga Heelan • Samantha Irby • Emily V. Gordon • Patti Harrison • Mary Holland • Jen Kirkman • Lauren Lapkus • Riki Lindhome • Kate Micucci • Natalie Morales • Aparna Nancherla • Yvonne Orji • Lennon Parham • Chelsea Peretti • Alexandra Petri • Natasha Rothwell • Amber Ruffin • Andrea Savage • Kristen Schaal • Megan Stalter • Beth Stelling • Cecily Strong • Sunita Mani • Geraldine Viswanathan • Michaela Watkins • Mo Welch • Sasheer Zamata • and many more.
More than four decades ago, the groundbreaking book Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women showcased the work of some of the leading female comedians of the 1970s like Gilda Radner, Candice Bergen, and Phyllis Diller. The book became an essential time capsule of an era, the first of its kind, that opened doors for many more funny women to smash the comedy glass-ceiling.
Today, brilliant women continue to push the boundaries of just how funny—and edgy—they can be in a field that has long been dominated by men. In Notes from the Bathroom Line, Amy Solomon brings together all-new material from some of the funniest women in show business today—award-winning writers, stand-up comedians, actresses, cartoonists, and more.
Notes from the Bathroom Line proves there are no limits to how funny, bad-ass, and revolutionary women can—and continue—to be.
https://www.notesfromthebathroomline.com/
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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