In this episode, I get to chat with the very funny John Levenstein. John is an Emmy-winning comedy writer whose credits include: Kroll Show, Arrested Development, Portlandia, The John Larroquette Show and The Life And Times Of Tim. He also plays a judge on Kroll Show and voices John the Rat on Portlandia. We talk about everything from how an economics major gets into comedy to Emmy parties to writing for Michael Cera.
John Levenstein graduated from Yale in 1981 and has been a professional comedy writer since then. In the 1980s, he wrote screenplays for Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers and other studios, along with sketch comedy and music videos for Michael Nesmith. His work with Nesmith culminated in the NBC show “Television Parts,” featuring Jerry Seinfeld, Garry Shandling, Whoopi Goldberg, Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, Bobcat Goldthwaite and many more.
Starting in the 1990s, he mainly wrote half-hour comedies, including "The John Larroquette Show," "The Secret Lives of Men," and "Arrested Development," for which he won an Emmy as a writer and co-executive producer.
More recently, he has returned to sketch comedy, including "The Life and Times of Tim," "Portlandia," and "Kroll Show," on which he serves as an executive producer.
John is a regular reader in the Los Angeles first-person narrative forum Sit ‘n Spin. He plays Judge Levenstein on the upcoming season of "Kroll Show." On "Portlandia," he can be heard as the voice of John the Rat in a series of stop-motion cartoons.