An interview with
Scott K. Namanny & Jason Adair
Tell us a little about your creative process.
SKN: It’s very collaborative; it’s rare that one of us is funny without the other. When we do the first read-through of a script, the biggest laughs consistently come from jokes one of us has put into the other’s script.
JA: A lot of that comes from the fact that we both have trouble ending skits in a legitimate way. A sketch in this show, Dinner With Fatty, is a perfect example. Once Scott handed it in, we had to re-write the ending probably four or five times until we came up with one that worked. The great thing about writing with Scott is that, over the last 10 years of working together, we’ve been able to detach personally from the work to the point where we honestly don’t remember who wrote what.
SKN: So, we both take credit for everything.
JA: Let me say for the record, if it ever came down to it, I could beat Scott in a fight.
SKN: Not a fair fight.
JA: There’s no such thing as a fair fight.
Why sketch comedy?
SKN: As for the sketch part, our process and Jason’s attention span, favor short bursts of comedy.
JA: Explosions actually.
SKN: And I was almost fired at one point for the prolixity of my log entries
at Placer County Mental Health.
JA: We are working on all kinds of stuff right now including a musical
called “Undertaker,” a collection of one-act plays in the tradition of the
Grand Guignol, called La Petite Mort, and some other stuff.
What’s the Grand Guignol?
SKN: Let’s not put the cart before the horse, we must first enslave
the masses, only then may we get all artsy on them.
So Grand Guignol is a more artsy kind of show?
JA: Let’s just say it’s a French theatre tradition that’s been around
for over a hundred years, and skip the gory details for now.
Where did the concept for Love & Math come from?
SKN: Years ago I picked up a hitchhiker who said, out of nowhere,
“mathematics is the unspoken language of the universe.”
So, would you say he was your muse for this show?
SKN: Actually it was a she, and no, she had nothing to do with it.
I thought of that just now.
JA: The idea came from a phone conversation I had with a friend
of mine. He was living with this girl who got accepted into a masters
program in a college across the Bay. He sat down and had a talk
with her to explain that while he really did love her, he wasn’t sure if
he’d be able to visit her much since he would have to go over
two bridges to get to her. That got me thinking about how
every personal decision we make is based on some sort of math.
SKN: And anyway, the show does not distill anything. Period.
JA: We work on the Larry David principal: no hugging; no learning.
No hugging? In a show about love?
SKN: Well, there is a lot of making out.
JA: But no learning
SKN: And a healthy dose of bawdy sexual innuendo.
So, this is not a family friendly show.
JA: Scott seems to think it is, but his family is a mess. It’s more
of a PG-13 kind of show.
SKN: Which, according to Hollywood math, means five and over.
I see. Any final thoughts?
JA: Yes. We do not advocate the use of
Hollywood math.
SKN: We use love and math.
JA: (groan)
