Finding the Funny - by Madeleine Smithberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Madeleine Smithberg, co-creator and original executive producer of The Daily Show, takes readers on a VIP backstage tour as she relives some of the most seminal moments in late-night comedy.

For more than four decades, Madeleine Smithberg helped shape the world of late-night comedy from behind the scenes. A three-time Peabody Award winner and Emmy-winning producer, she was instrumental in some of television's most influential late-night comedy programs. From producing outrageous segments for Late Night with David Letterman to helping create and build the original Daily Show, she shares the triumphs, disasters, and unexpected lessons behind some of television's most memorable moments.

Warm, candid, and laugh-out-loud funny, Finding the Funny is both a backstage pass to the evolution of modern comedy and the story of a trailblazing woman who built a remarkable career. Part memoir, part comedy history, and part master class in creative risk-taking, it is an entertaining and inspiring look at what it really takes to find the funny.

About the Author

Madeleine Smithberg just might be the most influential woman in late-night comedy you've never heard of. She earned three Peabody's and an Emmy Award for Comedy Central's The Daily Show, which she co-created and ran as executive producer for seven years. During her time at TDS she hired Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, and Mo Rocca based on her legendary gut for talent, and was instrumental in bringing onboard Jon Stewart, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, and Lewis Black, among others. The format that she and her team built more than 30 years ago helped change the way college students get their news and is still as relevant today as it has ever been.

Before that, she spent six years as a talent coordinator, then producer, for NBC's original Late Night with David Letterman, which she considers her "comedy graduate school." The segment featuring a rhesus monkey in a blue satin dress attacking David Letterman may be the high point of her career.

As a producer, Madeleine has spent the past four decades making other people funny. Now it is time for her to tell us how she's done it.