Owen Dennis (Among Us)

And some very exciting live shows

Live Again

It’s been a minute since I posted here, but I promise I have a good reason. I’ve spent the first half of the year, and the past three months especially, making good on my goal for this year, which was to make stuff.

Some if it is in the works and I’ll post about it soon. But I do have a related question down at the bottom of this message for you! Please answer it, as it would be very helpful to something I’m working on!

Last month was the Spectacular staged read, based on a pilot that my writing partner and I wrote, and it was a tremendous success and enormous fun. Thanks to all of you who came out to see us at the sold-out show and to those of you who streamed it at home. I’ll let you know soon where you’ll be able to watch it, if you missed it.

Spectacular was the “pilot” episode of this new series I’m producing called No Notes, in which professional writers adapt their best TV pilots for the stage, we add some production value, and we cast brilliant actors you love from TV, movies, and comedy.

You get to see exactly how good the show can be.

Continuing the series on Sunday, July 19, 7pm, at the Dynasty Typewriter Theater in LA and streaming everywhere, with two great comedy scripts:

The Survivalists is by Kashana Cauley (The Great North; The Daily Show), based on her novel about a Brooklyn lawyer who falls in love with a coffee roaster/survivalist.

Suckers by Eden Dranger (Beavis & Butthead) & Daley Haggar (The Big Bang Theory) is about 20-something vampires.

Art by the excellent Dyna Moe

The casts are coming together and will be as strong as the one we had for Spectacular.

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But that’s not all!

The week before that show, on Sunday, July 12, 3pm, at the Elyisan Theater in LA and on demand everywhere, is another live Dead Pilots Society, and this one is wild.

For those who are unfamiliar, in Dead Pilots Society, scripts that were developed by studios and networks but were never produced are given the table reads they deserve.

The July 12 show features Weekly World News by Michael Colton & John Aboud (Home Economics) and Fangirl by Claudia Lonow (How to Live with Your Parents).

And the cast is for the fans of Dropout, the only good comedy on television! (Look, it’s actually on an app, which can be on your television, and if you don’t already know what Dropout is, just imagine an entire network inspired by Taskmaster and British panel shows, with the funniest comedy people LA has to offer).

The cast of the July 12 show heavily features Dropout talent, including Brennan Lee Mulligan (Dimension 20), Isabella Roland (Dimension 20; Sex Lives of College Girls), Rekha Shankar (Dimension 20; Star Trek: Starfleet Academy), Zac Oyama (Dimension 20), and Courtney Pauroso (Jackass Forever).

We’ve also got some non-Dropout talent like Alex Moffat (SNL; Bad Monkey), Rich Sommer (Mad Men), Jackie Tohn (Nobody Wants This), Fred Melamed (Barry), Jessica Lowe (Minx), and James Adomian (Krapopolis).

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Teamwork and Betrayal

Today’s Writers Panel guest is Owen Dennis (creator of Among Us and Infinity Train). Owen discusses conveying tone, discovering theme, deconstructing tropes, dueling arcs, the line from Star Wars that unlocked everything, and more.

Get the podcast via Apple or Spotify or Acast or your favorite podcast app.

And here’s the question I mentioned at the top of this newsletter:

What is your favorite canceled-too-soon series? What show ended on a cliffhanger and then was unceremoniously canned by the network/streamer, leaving you frustrated and alone in a new world? What’s your favorite one-and-done series that should have had more seasons? Sound off in the comments!