Q/A w/ Mark Feigenbutz

Posted by Nick Martinez in Creative Writing

As a part of an ongoing Q&A session with the Creative Writing and Literature Department’s Senior Reading class, Jackalope Magazine sat down with screenwriter Mark Feigenbutz. Feigenbutz discussed bad poetry, bears and dead comedians.

Creative Writing student Mark Feigenbutz keeping it comedic. Photo by Ash Haywood

Jackalope Magazine: How dare you?

Mark Feigenbutz: How dare I? How dare I not?

JM: How did you get into writing?

MF: I started writing poetry when I was, like, 6^th grade. I was not 6^th grade, I was 13.

JM: What genre do you work in and why?

MF: Pretty much exclusively comedy at this point. If I don’t have funny elements in something, it just doesn’t ring true. After poetry, I got into stand-up comedy, and started writing bits. When I was in L.A. I had to sell my motorcycle, and I couldn’t do comedy anymore, so I started screenwriting.

JM: What three words would you use to describe your writing?

MF: My writing in three words? Bear. (laughs)

JM: Like B-A-R-E?

MF: No, like a grizzly. Bear. Machine. Uhh, squeek.

JM: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever written?

MF: Probably my early poetry, when I first started writing. I didn’t know anything about poetry, so I thought everything had to rhyme. It was pretty embarassing, very morose and melodramatic.

JM: Do you have a piece in mind?

MF: (long pause) Yeah. Yes, I do.

JM: How do you balance work and family?

MF: I try to work as little as possible, and it’s going really good.

JM: OK, now it’s time for the dead stand-up edition of Marry, Fuck, Kill. Bill Hicks, George Carlin and Mitch Hedburg.

MF: Marry George Carlin, Fuck Bill Hicks and Kill Mitch Hedburg, as difficult as that was. Bill Hicks is fucking Jesus, and I would want to have sex with Jesus, obviously. I’d want to spend as much time with George Carlin and I like Mitch Hedburg, but, (tongue click) he’s got to go. I only had three choices.