(Originally Posted May 2010)
To prove last week’s fiasco at the New York MET Opera can’t STOP ME, I’m thrilled to have a seasoned TV writer/producer with the BBC and ITV, turned novelist, as today’s Guest Star– a COMEDY writer, no less!! He’s written for shows such as the highly popular political satire Spitting Image, Smith and Jones, Hale and Pace, Jo Brand, et al. He’s also won a Best Author Microblog award, 2nd only to Neil Gaiman himself!
This must be his house. I brought my best jokes – they’re gonna kill him!
Kristi: (rings bell, giggling already) Richard Jay Parker? Nice to meet you, I’m Kristi.
Richard Jay Parker: (shakes Kristi’s hand) OUCH! What the–!?
Kristi: (bent over laughing) The old palmed buzzer trick! Works every time – a comedy classic, right? Am I right?
Richard Jay Parker: (considers slamming door, but Kristi’s walking in…reconsiders slamming door)
Kristi: Just wanted to get off on the LEFT foot! (snort) Great stuff, I’m slaying you – right?
Richard Jay Parker: (blank stare) Only if you let me return the favour.
Kristi: Good times, tossing jokes around like this. But seriously, I don’t want to steal your thunder. Please tell the readers how you became a writer?
Richard Jay Parker: OK… (looks askance at Kristi) I started in TV by submitting comedy sketches on spec to BBC and anyone who would read them. I’d soon built up an impressively chubby folder of rejections.
Kristi: Ooooh – that had to hurt!
Richard Jay Parker: Finally I had something used by BBC when I was eighteen.
Kristi: You were paid for your work by the age of 18? Wow.
Richard Jay Parker: This led to small commissions, larger ones and inevitable gate crashing of studio recordings. I was offered a job as a script associate at LWT, writing for shows as well as picking out promising ideas from the massive non-commissioned pile. This led to becoming script editor on a number of series for ITV, BBC etc.
Kristi: How exciting! What did you like most about it?
Richard Jay Parker: The legendary lunches. Sometimes I never knew what filling I’d have in my sandwich. For instance, one week it was pastrami slices coated with cheese. Have you ever heard of that before?
Kristi: Never! So what do you think made you particularly suited to writing for television?
Richard Jay Parker: My adventurous approach to cured meat and cheese combinations. I’ve always enjoyed both, although mature cheddar is too glassy for me.
Kristi: (note to self) Locate deli counter…no glassy cheddar…
Richard Jay Parker: I enjoyed script editing but didn’t enjoy being a TV producer. The actual writing process was always my favourite part of the deal.
Kristi: Really?
Richard Jay Parker: When I was asked to become a producer there was less time to spend scribbling and going down the pub to blow hospitality budgets with the other writers. Wiping the noses of ‘personalities’ didn’t really pop my corn either.
Kristi: (scribbles) …buy Kleenex…popcorn…
Richard Jay Parker: I didn’t learn, though, and did it a number of times – reminding myself why I was loathe to do it as I reached the end of each run.
Kristi: And your first novel—what’s it called?
Richard Jay Parker: STOP ME 
Kristi: Well you are going on and on, but…
Richard Jay Parker: No… (breath intake) That’s the title. STOP ME.
Kristi: Oh – ha! I get it – that sounds hilarious! What’s it about?
Richard Jay Parker: A global murderer called The Vacation Killer. He sends a spam email to a multitude of recipients describing a girl, tells them to forward it to 10 friends. If the e-mail ends up back in his inbox he won’t slit her throat.
Kristi: (drops smile) So… it’s not a comedy.
Richard Jay Parker: Not in any sense of the word.
Kristi: How does a comedy writer turn thriller?
Richard Jay Parker: A writer has all kinds of characters running loose in their head – good and bad. For instance, my readers have said they like my main character, Leo, whose wife has gone missing, and they’re repulsed by Bookwalter, the pseudo serial killer. Leo reacts to events in the way that I would and Bookwalter…well, he only comes out to play when I’m sitting at a keyboard.
Kristi: I see. Where are you going?
Richard Jay Parker: (smiles) To my keyboard…to sit at it. You mind if I turn it on during your last questions?
Kristi: Not at all – be my guest!
Richard Jay Parker: (boots up computer)
Kristi: Did your TV career help with writing thrillers?
Richard Jay Parker: Nothing you write is a waste of time so I guess I wouldn’t have written STOP ME if I hadn’t written everything before.
Kristi: (refers to stock questions) If so, how? If not, how did you end up where you are?
Richard Jay Parker: (pulls up e-mail) Honestly, it’s like you’re reading these questions off a list and not listening to my replies.
Kristi: Well duh, I am. You can’t expect me to think of entirely new questions for like everyone? Geez!
Richard Jay Parker: (eyes glinting) Now what was your husband’s e-mail address?
Kristi: (writes it on paper) Here you go. Why?
To: Richard Jay Parker
From: Kristi
Dear Richard,
Did you ever hear back from my husband? It’s been days, and this gag is giving me awful cotton mouth. Not that I’m complaining…it’s a fun game…really…
Thank you for playing!! Kristi
Richard Jay Parker is currently working on thriller # 3, and reports that the few people who have read thriller #2 so far think it’s even better than STOP ME, which already has TV interest!
© Kristi Thompson 2010
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Hi Kristi, As usual, a fantastic interview. I really enjoyed it. Maria x
Thanks Maria,
It was particularly fun because initially, when set up the interview I had no idea that this hot new thriller writer was also a king of comedy!! So you can imagine how excited I was to have the opportunity of working with him.
I’d say most of us strive to be successful in one genre, but Richard’s tackled two. Comedy and thriller are about as different as it gets.
You just never know what’s under the surface, which of course, is why I so love these interviews.
Thanks for commenting! Kristi
Brilliant!!!
My comments here are so boring…it’s always “Hilarious” “Brilliant” or “Funny as usual”….I think I’ll just sign my name and leave the message blank in future!
Thanks – I doubt reading “Brilliant” is boring to anyone, certainly not me
And it certainly applies to a guy paid for his scripts by the age of 18!
Always love hearing from you and adore your amazing blog, too
Kristi
Great interview Kristi!
Is your throat better? Your husband is a cool man to have rescued you so swiftly! heh
Whew – I wonder if Oprah’s ever gone that far for an interview?!
The ‘stop me’ ‘Well you do go on and on’ line reminded me of that ad on the radio, do you remember it? What time do they close, Englander? Nine. Tell me, Englander! Niyan. I’m telling ya, they close at Niyan!
No – I don’t think I ever saw that, but have you ever seen the classic Abbott and Costello baseball sketch, “Who’s on 1st” ?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfmvkO5x6Ng&feature=fvw
Here it is on You-Tube – Enjoy!
STOP ME. Well, you are going on and on-
Love it!
You are unstoppable, Madame Interviewer.
Like ChickNamedHermia, I am sick of telling you how funny you are so will tell you how utterly unfunny you are and how I always read your blog with a straight face and not a flicker of life.
Hahaha – Poor Richard put up with a lot, but he definitely got me back. It was a thrill to work with him.
You really made my day, thanks! I think your last piece on Jane Austen will go down in history as a classic … bar room brawl, that is.
It takes someone both as courageous and complimentary as yourself to get so many people to join in, scream their different opinions and still go home laughing – my only suggestion is to have it in an actual bar next time? Well done, it was great fun!