Entertainment
Can this LA comic's seminar help stand-ups rewrite the rules to their success?
On Dec. 23, the day the comedy community learned 34-year-old L.A. performer Neel Nanda had died, Mike Lawrence took to social media. “There’s more opportunities to succeed in comedy which means there’s more opportunities to fail,” he wrote. “Rejected packets, videos with low counts, struggling podcasts … be kind to yourself. Celebrate the wins and personal milestones. Chase real happiness, not algorithms.”
It was the moment the veteran performer on “Conan” decided to offer comedians without insurance free Zoom seminars in scriptwriting and packet submissions. Following a pair of two-hour sessions in early January, a third is slated for Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. (with attendance capped at 150), the same night Lawrence appears in the Pasadena Ice House’s 8 p.m. show in the Legendary Room.
“What people charge and what they promise is criminal,” he posted after the initial session on Jan. 4. “I charge nothing, but that’s also what I promise!” He planned more, refusing to charge a fee or collect donations.
Lawrence reappeared onscreen Jan. 9 in a black X-Men tee, burgeoning Letterman beard and thick albeit stylish glasses. Advice to “have a plan” and “know who you are” were right up top. “Follow the rules” was another biggie. “Except when you need to break them!” References included Jo Koy’s Golden Globes bomb and Marvel movies.
“The impetus of why I wanted to do this,” Lawrence says of his Zoom sessions, “is the amount of comedians that are passing away, dealing with health issues, all kinds of things. You can be touring the country and still not be covered. It’s a rough existence. It sucks that it’s a luxury.”
Lawrence’s parents divorced early. He lived with his dad in the Paradise Village trailer park in Davie, Fla. His mother, Alice Colin, had been a SoFlo comedian at Uncle Funny’s and Coconuts alongside Todd Barry and Dan “Larry the Cable Guy” Whitney.
“No one wants to do what their mom does when they’re 15,” Lawrence says, “but I still needed attention and validation from strangers.”
At first, he went with slam poetry. His parents supported his hobby, driving him around South Florida for seven years to the library’s teen readings (until he got kicked out at 18), Borders Books’ senior-citizen audiences, and the Chocolate Moose cafe. In 2005, the first time he tried comedy at the latter, Lawrence says, “It was like Dylan going electric.”
Fourteen months later, he moved to New York City with $2,000 and nothing but McDonald’s on his resume. There, Lawrence worked at Pinkberry, hit the alt open mics on the Lower East Side and slowly found his community at Long Island City’s the Creek and the Cave.
Socializing wasn’t easy. Lawrence was quick and hard-hitting, yet had trouble connecting onstage. He was perceived as unfriendly, with difficulty maintaining relationships. Comic books and wrestling were all-consuming. There was his lifelong difficulty with math but uncanny aptitude for memorizing details; constant anxiety — a fear of being watched or judged. It still feels impossible to shop if he’s the only customer. Returning professional emails gives him panic attacks. He doesn’t drive to this day.
In 2008, as Barack Obama was elected president, Lawrence was bedridden with Crohn’s disease. It caused a severe rectal abscess. There was the chronic depression, too, and feeling like something else was different mentally. With no health insurance, he said, “I literally couldn’t take care of any of it.”
Mike Lawrence, far left, performs at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal in 2016.
(Troy Conrad)
A writing job on a 2012 pilot for comedian and radio host Tom Papa and two for E! came and went. Lawrence recorded his 2013 Comedy Central Records album, “Sadamantium,” at Sunset Boulevard’s now-razed Meltdown Comics. It wasn’t until becoming a writer on “Inside Amy Schumer” in 2015 — when he was in his mid 30s — that he became eligible to join the Writers Guild, complete with insurance.
“I could finally afford to have all this stuff addressed,” he remembers. “I basically bought my diagnoses.”
After 10 years in New York City and several high-profile appearances on Comedy Central’s original “@Midnight,” in 2017, Lawrence moved to Los Angeles. @Midnight was canceled six months later, but Comedy Central brought him aboard “The Comedy Jam” and kept him in rotation as a writer for roast specials. Recurring gigs included “Drop the Mic” on TBS, Jimmy Carr’s “The Fix,” co-producing on “Crashing,” the Independent Spirit Awards, reality fare and more. He has won a Writers Guild Award for “Triumph’s Election Watch” and earned three Primetime Emmy nominations.
Lawrence and producer Adina Pliskin (“Sesame Street,” “Mission Unstoppable With Miranda Cosgrove”) married in 2014. He started antidepressants in 2019 and began appreciating the importance of self-care. Lawrence’s low sperm count initiated the process of adoption in the summer of 2020.
“It was really, really important to me to get a handle on exactly who I was,” he says of the time.
As Lawrence and Pliskin made colorful profiles containing photos and letters, took parenting and CPR classes, and passed a home study from Child Protective Services, his therapist recommended a specialist. A lengthy, three-part process diagnosed him with autism, bringing with it a transformative clarity.
Giving Pliskin the results “was like RuPaul telling his friends he’s gay: ‘Well, I’m glad “you” can say it now!’ She always knew. And she said, ‘I love you for who you are.’ Watching ‘Love on the Spectrum’ together was eye-opening.”
Their adoption process took two years and three months, with two matches falling through. Son Logan — named for Lawrence’s favorite superhero — arrived in November 2022. Lawrence’s father died three months later.
“He could have just told me he didn’t want to be a grandfather,” Lawrence began joking onstage. It bothered him that his dad worked full-time to the end.
“It’s a testimony to my parents that they really supported whatever dumb thing I did,” he says of their influence. “It’s the template of how I want to be with Logan. Even if we think he’s wrong, whatever he’s into is fine.”
During the 2023 strikes, Lawrence heard from Pete Davidson, who originally sought his comic-book expertise for a DC project. He opened for Davidson’s theater dates for six months, entertaining the former “Saturday Night Live” cast member with stories of uneasy fatherhood. Lawrence was an “SNL” guest writer the October week Davidson returned to host.
It was the delayed season premiere following the strikes. No new writers were aboard. The Gaza Strip bombings had begun two days before. Lawrence was intimidated.
“It’s an institution. Can I hang? Am I good enough?” he asked himself. Though discouraged when a pitched sketch failed, his punch-up jokes successfully made it to air.
“I don’t have to feel like a fraud,” Lawrence realized. “Having imposter syndrome — the ‘Am I worthy? Can I say I’m a dad in the same way that person says they’re a dad?’ — it’s the stuff that gets into your head.”
Lawrence left Twitter in 2020. His professional focus rests on series writing, though he’s continued performing live “a few times a month.” Recent spots include at Blind Barber as well as evenings at Largo comedy club with Sarah Silverman, Pete Holmes and comedy hero Patton Oswalt.
“Because I don’t drive,” he insists, “it’s still that New York mentality that it costs me 60 to 80 bucks to do a show!”
Along with the writing seminar on Jan. 20 and the Ice House set, Lawrence returned to work this week on Season 2 of Davidson’s Peacock series, “Bupkis.”
“I’m still horribly depressed a lot of the time,” he admits. “But now I have a kid, so I can’t think about killing myself anymore.”
With a revitalized career and fatherhood on his plate, Lawrence’s perspective on success has notably shifted.
“The key to success is lowering your expectations of it,” he said. “It’s healthier to do [your passion] because you like it, and not be obsessed to the point of letting it define you,” Lawrence says. “I’ve never felt the fulfillment that I have in this.”
Pizza Movie (2026) Director: Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, Star: Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone
Somehow, I got through an hour of this movie. I was seconds away from turning off in the first fifteen minutes because of the juvenile humor. Pizza Movie is too silly, repetitive, and the characters are annoying. Stranger Things Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone star as college friends, Jack and Montgomery. College angles are rarely seen in films right now, and that’s the one saving grace of the film. Similar to high school, people are also trying to fit in. The story and visuals were too corny. You can only watch someone’s head exploding for so long without letting yours.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Stars: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy
I never saw the first Super Mario Brothers Movie when it was out, but I heard it got positive reviews. My brother always loved playing Super Mario video games as a kid, and I’d watch him. I tagged along with my friends to see Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and it’s a cute and fun film. I like it when movies explore the video game world. The animation creates unique worlds and characters. The characters are split into their own storylines, and for me, I felt like it worked. It adds more action, especially for kids who are seeing the films.
Emily in Paris Season 5 (2025) Creator: Darren Star, Stars: Lily Collins and Ashley Park
After a bright spot in season 4, I thought season 5 of Emily in Paris would continue its growth in the story and its protagonist, but no, it’s all drained out in the usual Emily (Lily Collins) mishaps. Ashley Park (Mindy) has become too good for this show. Emily and Mindy waste several opportunities because of their love lives. The whole relationship angle is ruining it. I don’t understand why Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) is still in the show. I thought writers learned their lesson, but by the last episode, they’re continuing to bring the past into an apparent season 6.
Sarah’s Oil (2025) Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh, Stars: Naya Desir-Johnson and Zachary Levi
There’s always history lurking right beneath our noses. Sarah’s Oil (2025) tells the true story of Sarah Rector, an Oklahoma-born African American girl who became the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Naya Desir-Johnson is fierce and driven as Sarah. Zachary Levi is also along for the ride as Bert, a man who helps Sarah. Kate (Bridget Regan) was another favorite character as an intelligent woman. Cyrus Nowrasteh was drawn to the subject for its story and its themes. Nowrasteh’s direction is compelling as he unearths a hidden story from history. The film is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Jack Goes Boating (2014) Director and Star: Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan
Jack Goes Boating (2014) didn’t quite work for me, largely because of its slow pace and uneven storytelling. The film stars the late Seymour Hoffman as Jack, who also directed the film. This was Hoffman’s first and only time in the directing chair. Amy Ryan also stars in the film, giving a solid performance. This was also based on a play that Hoffman starred in. Jack wants to participate in a swim championship. That’s hardly what the film is about, tracking other characters’ stories. While the film aims for quiet intimacy, it ultimately drags, making it an underwhelming viewing experience.
You Kill Me (2016), Director: John Dahl, Stars: Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson
Meet You Kill Me (2016), yet another film that I found in the museum of underrated gems. The concept revolves around Frank (Ben Kingsley), a hitman, who is sent to an A.A. meeting to get his mind focused again. A different story happens, where Frank falls in love with Laurel (Tea Leoni). Leoni is one of my favorite actresses. It also stars the funny Luke Wilson. I liked the trio’s dynamics. You Kill Me is a mental health movie. It’s okay to make changes if you’re not happy. I recommended that you keep an eye out for this movie.
Entertainment
Review: Trigger warning? ‘For Want of a Horse’ gives new meaning to the term ‘animal lover’
“For Want of a Horse,” a play by Olivia Dufault receiving its world premiere in an Echo Theater Company production at Atwater Village Theatre, wants to have a rational conversation about a taboo topic that can provoke instant outrage.
The subject is zoophilia, not to be confused with bestiality, though for many of us it will be a distinction without much of a difference.
Calvin (Joey Stromberg), a good-looking, mild-mannered married accountant, has harbored a secret for much of his life. He has a thing for horses. His erotic interest began at an early age, and all his efforts to lead a normal life have left him depressed and contemplating suicide.
His wife, Bonnie (Jenny Soo), is a permissive kindergarten teacher who’s having difficulty restraining a girl in her class who has discovered the joys of masturbation. Worried about her husband, she discovers through his browsing history that he’s once again visiting strange animal sites.
She suggests he keep a horse, explaining that she doesn’t want to end up a widow or divorcée. Calvin is taken aback by her generosity but has come to recognize that his preference is more than a kink. It’s part of his identity — and maybe the only part that makes his life seem worth living.
Joey Stromberg and Jenny Soo in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
A horse named Q-Tip (Griffin Kelly) enters the couple’s lives. A stable is secured, and the mare, who senses that something strange is going on, is indulged with apples and caresses.
Kelly, a statuesque presence in a dress, harness and boots, brings the horse to life with wild, unpredictable movements. The sheer size of the animal poses a threat to humans. One kick, as Q-Tip herself explains in one of her thought-bubble monologues, is capable of penetrating a steel wall. But controlling an animal’s food supply is an effective way of winning over its trust.
Calvin has found support in the online zoophilia community. PJ (Steven Culp), a man whose current inamorata is a bichon frise, is considering moving to a country where zoophilia isn’t illegal. He’s tired of the shame and the secrecy. He’s proud of his attachment to pooch, even if his thing for dogs has cost him contact with his daughter and ex-wife.
Dufault doesn’t shy away from sexual details. For PJ, intimacy depends on peanut butter. Calvin describes the physical signals that reveal Q-Tip’s erotic satisfaction. The play occasionally descends into sitcom humor. (PJ says he’s considering creating a human-dog dating app called Rin Tin Tinder.) But mostly the subdued tone steers clear of sensationalism.
The production, directed by Elana Luo, is scrupulously well-acted by the four-person cast. Stromberg makes Calvin seem not only reasonable but surprisingly sensitive. Soo’s Bonnie sweetly embodies the excesses of a kind of progressive piety. As PJ, Culp gruffly embraces his role as the play’s polemical fire-starter. And Kelly’s Q-Tip, in the production’s most physically demanding performance, straddles the human-animal divide with theatrical aplomb.
Steven Culp, left, and Joey Stromberg in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
The open-mindedness that Dufault, a trans playwright, brings to the play creates some dramatic slack. Possibly the same fear of making value judgments that has inhibited Bonnie from imposing common-sense discipline in her classroom has robbed “For Want of a Horse” of a propulsive point of view.
The play moves monotonously between Calvin and Bonnie’s bedroom and the stable. Scenic designer Alex Mollo has worked out an efficient way of shifting between these realms by employing the same set of wooden trunks. But the argument of the play doesn’t so much build as elapse.
Time takes its toll, and Calvin eventually has to make a decision. But the character who interested me most was Bonnie, whose reality is only glimpsed. The play tacitly uses her husband’s threat of suicide as a trump card. Zoophilia isn’t merely a fetish for Calvin but a nonnegotiable part of his identity.
This questionable assumption can be psychologically scrutinized not only from Calvin’s point of view but also from his wife’s. The play wants to have an intelligent debate, but it doesn’t want to interrogate certain political positions too skeptically.
At one point, Bonnie objects when Calvin compares his situation to that of homosexuality, but the conversation ends there. The reality is that the right wing has been making a similar claim, arguing that same-sex marriage opens the door to bestiality, polygamy and incest. “For Want of a Horse” inadvertently lends legitimacy to this line of reasoning.
Griffin Kelly in “For Want of a Horse” at the Echo Theater Company.
(Cooper Bates)
Not that extremist positions should be off limits, but they ought to be more rigorously addressed. Similarly, Bonnie’s concern about the issue of consent — how can a horse say yes to intercourse with a human — is introduced only to be dismissed in a shrug of mild-mannered bothsidesism.
While watching “For Want of a Horse,” I recalled a program on PBS called “My Wild Affair” that wasn’t about zoophilia but about the problematic nature of human bonds with untamed animals. Relationships with a seal, an elephant and a rhino, for example — obsessive, protective, loving friendships — all seemed to end if not in outright tragedy, then in shattering heartbreak.
Q-Tip is rightfully given the play’s last word, and Kelly, an actor (HBO’s “The Book of Queer”), writer and comedian, is the production’s driving force. We can never know what’s inside this mare’s mind because Q-Tip’s brain has evolved so differently from our own. Kelly plays the anthropomorphic game while retaining some of the inscrutability of a four-legged creature.
It is through language that we, as humans, traverse the chasm separating us from one another. That’s not possible with animals, even with our closest domestic companions. (Try explaining a necessary medical procedure to a cat.)
“For Want of a Horse” sets out to speak about the unspeakable, but its construction may be too tame for such a wild subject.
‘For Want of a Horse’
Where: Echo Theater Company, Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A.
When: 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays, Mondays; 4 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 25
Tickets: $15-$42.75
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission)
Info: echotheatercompany.com
Desert Warrior, 2026.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley, Ghassan Massoud, Sharlto Copley, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Numan Acar, Nabil Elouahabi, Hakeem Jomah, Ramsey Faragallah, Saïd Boumazoughe, and Soheil Bostani.
SYNOPSIS:
An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.
With aspirations of being a historical epic harkening back to the sword and sandal blockbusters of yesteryear, Rupert Wyatt’s seventeenth-century Arabia tale is about as generic and epically dull as one would expect from a film plainly titled Desert Warrior. Yes, there appear to be real locations here, and there are some admittedly sweeping shots of various tribes storming into battle on horseback and camels, but it’s all in service of a mess that is both miscast and questionable as the work of a filmmaking team of mostly white creatives.
The story of Emperor Kisraa (Ben Kingsley, a distracting presence even with only one or two scenes) rounding up women from other tribes to be his concubines, which inevitably became the catalyst for a revolution led by Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), uniting all the divided clans and strategizing battle plans for flanking and poisoning, is undeniably ripe for cinematic treatment. The problem is that what’s here from Rupert Wyatt (and screenwriters Erica Beeney, Gary Ross, and David Self) is less than nothing in the primary creative process; no one seems to have a connection to Arabic heritage or culture, but they have made a flat-out boring film that is often narratively incoherent.
Following the death of her father and escaping the clutches of oppression, the honorable Princess Hind joins forces with a troubled, nameless bandit played by Anthony Mackie (he totally belongs here…), who seems to be here solely to give the movie some star power boost without running the risk of white savior accusations. Whatever the case may be, it’s jarring, but not quite as disorienting as how little screen time he has despite being billed as the lead and how little characterization he has. It is, however, equally disorienting as some of the other names that show up along the way.
As for the other factions, Princess Hind talks to them one by one, giving the film an adventure feel that fails to capitalize on using beautiful scenery in striking or visually poignant ways at almost every turn; the leaders of these tribes also often have no character. There also isn’t much of an understanding of why these tribes are at odds with one another. This movie is filled with dialogue that consistently and shockingly amounts to vague nothingness. Nevertheless, each tribe doesn’t take much convincing to begin with, meaning that not only is the film repetitive, but it’s also lifeless when characters are in conversation.
That Desert Warrior does occasionally spring to life, and a bloated 2+ running time is a small miracle. This is typically accomplished through the occasional fight scene between factions that also serves to demonstrate Princess Hind coming into her own as a warrior. When the tribes are united in a massive-scale battle, and that plan is unfolding step by step, one certainly sees why someone would want to tell this story and pull it off with such spectacle. However, this film is as dry as the desert itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
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