Susie Donkin, author of 'Zeus is a Dick' - Comedy writer on reimagining ancient myths, learning from screenplays, and keeping keen to be lean.
Episode description
Susie Donkin has been a writer on the award-winning show, 'Horrible Histories', since it debuted on TV in 2009. She has now used that experience of hilariously retelling history for her new book, 'Zeus is a Dick'. It uses influences from Comedy Central's 'Drunk History' and Stephen Fry's 'Mythos' to reimagine ancient myths in a modern, edgy and fantastic way.
Susie has also written on Channel 4's award-winning, 'Smack the Donkey', and plenty of radio. As Artistic Director of Spitz & Co she has created three successful rural touring comedy shows all of which have toured extensively throughout the UK.
We discuss what she's learned from writing comedy which helped her work on the book, why she's keen to be lean, and how she worked on this with her daughter during lockdown.
You can also hear what it's like to work with a commission, writing to someone else's tone, narrative and even chapter titles. We chat about why pace was so important to her, and about the radio producer that taught her what she knows about comedy writing.
You can get a copy of Susie's brilliant book here - https://amzn.to/2NkcbdN
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