Blogs

EBWW faculty member Nancy Berk spends her days interviewing celebrities - everyone from James Earl Jones and Dolly Parton to Buzz Aldrin, Deepak Chopra and Cheech and Chong - all for Parade.com and her popular podcast Whine at 9.

This month she added two more EBWW keynoters to her lengthy list of big-name interviews - Roy Blount Jr. and Kathy Kinney, who played the iconic and unforgettable Mimi on the Drew Carey Show.

"I love that within Kathy Kinney is the vulnerability that allowed us to embrace the headstrong, lovable Mimi, and that Mimi Bobeck's sassy attitude gave Kathy Kinney a big shot of strength to shoot for her dreams and help others reach theirs, Berk wrote in a March 24 piece.

"I don't think that everybody has to go to full warpaint, which is what Mimi wore you know, but for me, it certainly helped balance who I am," responded Kinney, who became "the queen of her own life." Listen to the podcast and read the interview.

With Roy Blount Jr., who has two dozen books under his belt, Berk chatted about chickens, tambourines and writer's block.

"I would say about every second minute I'm at a loss for words," conceded Blount who described his writing and rewriting to Berk as a "tortured process of striking words, revising and replacing." Read the interview here and listen to the podcast.

What advice does the prolific writer have for those trying to express their creativity? "You have to find those little details," Blount said, and "realize the comic potential."

In 2015, Berk interviewed comic Wendy Liebman, a semi-finalist on America's Got Talent (Season 9) who's performed on Leno, Letterman, Fallon and Kimmel. This week, Liebman is traveling to Dayton, Ohio, to teach a stand-up comedy boot camp and emcee a stand-up comedy night at #2016EBWW.

Liebman's advice to future contestants also will work for EBWW attendees trying their hand at performing comedy: "Be yourself, have fun and hydrate!" Read the interview and listen to the podcast.

In 2012, best-selling author, screenwriter and essayist Amy Ephron joined Berk on her podcast to discuss the paperback release of Loose Diamonds…and Other Things I've Lost (and Found) Along the Way. She'll talk about her life as a writer in a keynote address at this week's EBWW.

And for those heading to the Erma workshop this week, you can catch up with the Bombeck family in person - and you can listen to them share their memories of Erma in a podcast and Parade.com feature story.

In Berk's Parade.com piece, Matt Bombeck, a screenwriter in Los Angeles, concedes, as a child, he was clueless about his famous mother's profession. "Someone asked what she did," he remembered, "and I said she was a syndicated communist."

- Teri Rizvi

Teri Rizvi is the founder of the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop and executive director of strategic communications at the University of Dayton.