[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: What does writer’s voice mean to you?
Tony DuShane, Writer/Podcaster/Teacher: Writer’s voice takes I guess a long time to hone the voice.
I found something interesting.
I can’t remember who said this in standup comedy, but they said when you do your first open mic night and you totally bomb, that’s kind of your true voice.
Then it takes about seven years to get to craft and then to get back to that authentic voice.
There’s something about the true authentic voice.
I think maybe the child within us that kind of wants to come out and tell these stories.
We get scared that these stories could be shameful or we have to go through all these different things of putting things on a page and then all of a sudden it’s just like Oh there’s a through line.
Even my therapist says if you really read books or watch all the films on certain people you can kind of vibe what their trauma was like, what they’re dealing with.
I’m working on this completely different thing and then by the time I get to the end of it and I’ve been authentic with my voice I get really mad because I’m like
Oh my therapist is right, this is about love. I hate myself for this.
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Film Courage: If instead of a stand-up comic, you take a writer and people say, “You need to change this or whatever.” This is really their original voice, when they started?
Tony: It’s something that you need to come back to.
As we talk about this, I remember 25 years ago writing some of my first short stories which were just…I was trying to be transgressive.
I was trying to be something but I was also kind of shouting to the world in a way to almost offend.
I was very into trying to offend and to make a mark.
When I did my open mic storytelling or whatever, I was there to shake the room up.
There just comes a point where it’s just like No, just tell a good story, man.
But the original impulse was a little more me trying to use a certain type of aggression to pretend like I know what I’m doing.
Then later, the old voice comes back and you’re like,
Oh, no. I’m still this wounded human and this is my fingerprint on life at this moment in time with my experiences and where I’ve come from and everything I’ve done and just let that wounded human find the way to say what they need to say through telling stories.
Film Courage: What’s the famous quote to “Disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed?”…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk by Tony DuShane –
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BIO:
Tony DuShane is the author of the semi-autobiographical novel Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. He adapted the screenplay for director Eric Stoltz, and the film is now available on Amazon Prime. His journalism and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Penthouse, The Believer, and other media outlets. DuShane has hosted the author interview show Drinks with Tony since 2002.
He teaches novel and screenwriting at UCLA Extension.
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