Meet Mike
Mike’s storytelling skills have taken him to the highest levels of entertainment, politics, academia and business.
Mike will tell you it all came from one skill: Joke Writing
He started as a stand up comedian in his home town of San Francisco
This was before moving to Washington DC after college, hoping to get a job with his poli sci degree. While there, he did a few open mics, and within a year was travelling the country as an opening act.
Budd Friedman, comedy kingmaker and owner of the legendary Hollywood Improv, saw Mike in Atlanta and told him to “get your ass to LA.” Mike did, becoming a regular at the Improv, and a few years later made his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
Mike's writing career took off when he was hired to write for Grace Under Fire, a hit show on ABC.
Over the next 20 years, he wrote for many successful sitcoms, including The Drew Carey Show, Whoopi, and 2 Guys & a Girl, received an Emmy nomination for HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, and sold a dozen original pilots and screenplays. (Mike’s full credits on IMDB)
Meanwhile, Mike led a secret double life as a political speechwriter.
When a friend and client was elected to Congress in 2008, he took a break from television writing and went with her to Washington. He returned to Hollywood a few years later when Real Time with Bill Maher came knocking.
In 2017, Mike and his family moved to Ohio, where Mike rededicated himself to stand up comedy, and began accepting some of the speechwriting requests he’d been getting.
Identify what you do well and work everyday to get better at it
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Identify what you do well and work everyday to get better at it 〰️
Mike continues to learn and teach
Identify what you do well, work everyday to get better at it, and trust that your skills are transferable.
Mike leads joke writing workshops in comedy clubs, colleges, libraries and corporate retreats. He coaches comedians, ghostwrites op-eds, and consults on fiction and nonfiction projects. His most rewarding experience was mentoring incarcerated writers at San Quentin State Prison, and hopes someday to find something equally fulfilling.
