Don't Go Rogue
Let's Fight! The Best Man's Ghostwriter, Episode 6.
In this episode, Nate and Ash get into a fight, Tyson and Lulanola’s rehearsal dinner definitely really features Amanda Gorman, the guys from Please Don’t Destroy all split their pants, and Dan takes off at a dead sprint.
The wedding speech advice here is to write a speech and then actually read that speech. I feel like that’s pretty straightforward, but that won’t stop me from talking about it a little. One of our best men of the week in this episode, played by Martin Herlihy, demonstrates what happens when you try to “speak from the heart.” Nothing kills a wedding faster than a best man saying “I’m just going to see how I feel when I get up there” and then being handed a microphone.
True, the speech you wrote might have some slow moments in it. It might not be perfect, but it has a definite ending. Knowing that you are reading prepared remarks puts the audience at ease. They know that even if your jokes are terrible, this moment will pass. When you get on stage and just start talking, every single person in that room will be thinking, “Oh god, this could technically go on forever.”
Write a speech. Read that speech. It’s simple.
Let’s talk about writing fights. This is definitely my Midwestern sensibilities coming through, but I’m always amazed at how quickly people fight in shows. Sometimes the fighting is motivated by the fractured relationships of the characters. In season 1 of Six Feet Under, the Fisher family is grieving the untimely death of Richard Jenkins’ character. The family is not close. They do not depend on each other. It makes sense that at the beginning of the season, they fight a lot. I really love that as they spend more time together, they learn to communicate better. They fight less. It feels realistic. Most of the time though, fights feel contrived to me, or at least narratively unproductive. Watch any episode of Vanderpump Rules. I’m not saying that there isn’t something fun about watching it, but if you ask yourself “What are they fighting about?”, usually you’ll think, “That’s crazy.” That’s why the Scandoval thing was such a big deal, right? Because they finally had something real to fight about? I digress...
I would do anything to not get into a fight. That being said, fights happen in my life all the time. The fight in this episode was based on a real-life fight Kate and I had while planning our wedding. We had planned a staycation weekend where we had agreed to basically be tourists in our own town. On that same weekend, I forgot I had agreed to host a comedy show. Now, I’m a smart enough to know: comedy show less important than relationship. But, instead of just making the choice, I put it on Kate to see if she wanted me to drop out of the show. I thought I was being communicative. I wasn’t. I was putting the decision on her when she was already overwhelmed from having to make choices. Obvious to everyone but me at the time, putting her in that position is even worse than scheduling the comedy show in the first place. So naturally, we got in a completely avoidable fight. It’s an awful feeling. I would do anything to avoid the fight, but if the fight is going to happen, the fight is going to happen.
For Nate and Ash’s fight, it was important to me that they both display the emotional intelligence that I feel like adults can and do have. We discussed just how smart Nate should be with Ash at length in the writer’s room. Glen and I discussed it even more. The consensus was the same throughout: Nate’s allowed to be smart, but not smart enough to avoid the fight. He may be Mr. Cool with the clients, but when it comes to his relationship, he’s just like you and me. Glen and Ashley Park both do such amazing jobs of playing the levels in this episode. The fight starts way before they start shouting at each other at the bar. They both are just trying to get through this stressful time, and their communication is failing them.
I want to take a moment to write a defense of Ash. Ash is the one character people have felt comfortable criticizing in the reviews. I think a little bit of it is people who are jealous of this fictional character because she is marrying Glen Powell. I get that. The majority of it though strikes me as people who are judging a female character for not being mindful/demure enough before her wedding. I am hardly an authority on the difficulties of being a woman getting married in regard to the pressures placed on her by society. Narratively though, I think something that goes unscrutinized is how often women are *expected* to do the emotional labor for the male characters in stories. I love the movie I Love You, Man. Jason Segel and Paul Rudd are both so charming and funny, they capture exactly what it’s like to just hang with a guy friend, and that movie was absolutely an inspiration for our show. I’ve always been bothered by how Rashida Jones’s character fixes everything at the end of the film though. It’s her wedding day! She’s got so much on her plate! And we are celebrating her for calling Jason Segel and telling him that he has to be at her wedding? Every single one of her bridesmaids has got to be like, “Paul Rudd can’t pick up the fucking phone? You’re busy!” I feel like people get upset at Ash for setting boundaries and holding Nate responsible for dealing with his emotions. Ash is overall a very good partner who is also her own person. True, her not checking her phone in episode 7 is annoying, but we’re not talking about that right now.
In the fight in this episode, neither character is acting out of malice. They’re two people who love each other who are going through a stressful time. Maybe Nate’s emotional intelligence is unrealistic. Maybe we’re just not asking enough of the men in our stories/lives.
The cold open of this episode features two actors who have been unsung so far. Tyson and Lulanola are played by Lukas Gage and Gracie Lawrence, respectively.
If you haven’t seen Lukas’s performance in How To Blow Up A Pipeline, stop reading this right now and go watch it. That film is one of the best I’ve seen in recent years. Lukas’s recording session was a highlight because he’s so down as an actor to try different reads. “Influencer” can be a difficult character to heighten comedically. Lukas was able to bring that huge energy without losing specificity.
Gracie Lawrence plays Lulanola, Tyson’s pop sensation fiancee. I honestly wish Lulanola was in the show more, but there just wasn’t time/space/budget for it. If (when!) we get to make this a TV show, I would love to commission and license an original song for Lulanola, and if there is any justice, we’ll get Gracie to sing it too. Gracie is both a talented actor and an honest-to-god pop star. Gracie’s band Lawrence has completely taken over all of my playlists and they just put on one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. Gracie and her brother Clyde have crafted every part of their live show with such care, definitely check if they’re coming to your town and go see them!
One person who is conspicuously absent from the show is the amazing and talented Amanda Gorman. One thing I learned from this experience is don’t write a celebrity into your script unless you are 100% sure they are available and willing to do your project. Did I think we would actually get Amanda Gorman to be in our show? I knew it was a long shot. The idea of getting to feature one of her poems in the show was really exciting to me...which I also learned we couldn’t do because of licensing issues. I probably should’ve just created a fake, Amanda Gorman-type character for the rehearsal dinner. I can see how that would be interesting, but that also implies that there’s something about Amanda Gorman that I was trying to make fun of, and there isn’t. Saying the real Amanda Gorman is there makes this fake event feel more realistic to me. Ultimately, the moment is there to make Dan freak out. If we have to do all of this work to establish Miranda Borman or whatever as being an amazing, poetry sensation, it just has less punch to me. Also, doing that would require me to write actual poetry and I won’t say that I didn’t try to do it, but I will promise I will never show it.
Last but not least, our Best Men of the Week are Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy, better known as Please Don’t Destroy. The three of them together are a comedic force and I truly enjoy all of their performances. It was a special joy to me that Ben agreed to be in the show. A few years ago, we both worked as writer/performers at Above Average, the digital arm of Broadway Video and it was one of my favorite jobs ever. Ben deserves all of the success. That we both got to work together again because of Broadway Video just felt great.
Next post is about Episode 7. We’ve finally arrived at the wedding of Tyson and Lulanola. Gonna have a lot of thoughts. See you next week!