I was going to name this site “My Charmed Life,” except that’s a bit chirpy and only applies to those opportunities I’ve had rather than what I did with them. I’ll use this place to tuck away deeply personal stories, shocking revelations, fun photos, and a few videos.
Although born in Selma, Alabama, I grew up in Oak Park, Illinois (okay, here’s the traditional opener), the home of Ernest Hemingway and Frank Lloyd Wright. I took the writer’s path throughout school, wrote for Trapeze, the same school paper as Ernie, roamed around the campus of Southern Illinois University more than attended actual classes, and made my way to Los Angeles where I started my checkered past with gusto. Well, I did have a healthy head start on it, but you’ll see.
A few years of naughty stuff later, I settled into a comfortable and combustible relationship with Russell and began my career, with Russell’s help, in the business of entertainment. Sure, it was just a mailroom job at one of the largest agencies in the world, but heck! I delivered scripts and films to movie stars, as well as small unmarked packages to their rock star clients. Sometimes I was met at their doors with shotguns or an indecent proposal or once, a young Nick Nolte in his underpants.
An even bigger agency, the biggest really, poached me because they read and liked my script synopses, so I was assigned to a partner’s desk. Not just any partner, though, but one named among the toughest bosses by Los Angeles Magazine. Martin Baum, head of their motion picture department, screamed at me every day, always in front of people, and that daily humiliation felt as familiar as my favorite bathrobe. Gosh, I miss Marty.
From there, I landed a position as a personal manager and out of the gate, I signed Howie Mandel early in his career. And Sandra Bernhard off of “King of Comedy.” And a number of other superstars. Fun times. I had a lot of, um, energy back then. I produced a few Howie Mandel HBO specials, but my most lasting accomplishment was nurturing Sandra’s “Without You, I’m Nothing” onto a hit off-Broadway stage then the deconstruction of it on film, a piece of work that holds up to this day.
I’m going to skip ahead so I don’t wear out whatever welcome is left, right past my bodybuilding years and the drizzly years of unemployment until Comedy World (more on that in stories). After the tech bubble bust in the early 2000s, I worked for Sirius Satellite Radio, pre-Howard Stern, programming all three comedy channels.
I took a hard left turn to work at Discovery where, over thirteen years, I would dance with every channel in the portfolio, including the Oprah Winfrey Network. In 2015, two great friends from my Discovery days invited me to join them at NatGeo and I couldn’t be happier here.
You’ll also hear a lot about Bill Ledbetter whose influence on me cannot be overstated. He will forever be my Guyster.