The Incredible Burt Wonderstone Screenwriters Interview

They penned the hilarious hit Horrible Bosses and this March they’re latest film features comedy titans like Steve Carell and Jim Carrey. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone focuses on a magician who must regain his pride and passion after another street magician steals his thunder. Daley and Goldstein discuss their own childhood fascination with magic, what it was like working with the kings of comedy and how the only way Daley can write is in a turtleneck and tie.

ATW: First, I have to go back to the beginning.  Where did you guys meet? How did the writing partnership begin?

G: We met when John was an actor, and I was a writer on the The Geena Davis Show. We were totally kindred spirits when it came to comedy. Some years later, we had an idea for a television pilot that John could play the lead in. We wrote it, and it didn’t go anywhere ultimately.

D: We decided to write a spec together after that for a feature called The $40,000 Man. It was totally silly, and I don’t think we had very high hopes for it. But our agents called; there was this bidding war, and New Line ended up buying it.

ATW: You guys have said you were both magic geeks as kids. How did you take experiences from your childhoods and morph them into an entirely new story? Initially New Line just wanted you to do a film about Vegas magicians.

D: When I was eight, I had a magic kit with a VHS tape of instructional tricks that you could do from magician Mark Wilson who was big in the 70s. That directly inspired Burt’s magic tape.

G: On a story level, we knew why certain kids turn to magic. You’re not the most athletic or popular kid. You’re this little kid that’s bullied and you find your best friend who’s a magician.

D: What’s interesting about magic in itself is it’s a visage of power and supernatural ability. A lot of geeky kids hope for that power.

ATW: When you all were kids, did you guys ever use magic to gain this power?

G: I always did it to get girls. You have to be really good at that for it to work. There’s nothing less attractive than a guy wooing a girl with magic who isn’t good at it.

ATW: You both really immersed yourself in the world of magic for research. Tell me some unexpected things you learned or experiences you had.

G: There’s a lot of competitiveness in the top magicians. There are real rivalries there. Everyone’s accusing the other guy of stealing their tricks.

D: There are only a few real secrets behind how tricks work. It’s all variation on those same secrets. In this new dark magic, that [Jim Carrey’s character] Steve Gray is doing, it’s all is the same secret. We don’t know very many of them, and the ones they were willing to let us know were ones that everyone knows.

ATW: Tell me about some of the new tricks you devised for the film. You’ve said you wanted them not to rely solely on visual effects.

G: There’s a hangman illusion where we wanted it to be as practically done as possible. We had David Copperfield consult on that trick.

D: The highest praise we got was when Copperfield said, ‘It’s a pretty good trick!’ But he came up with a way it could be performed. He worked with Steve Buscemi and Steve Carell on it.

ATW: What was it like working with comedy kings like Carell and Carrey? Did they bring their own ideas to the characters and script? How much did it evolve after their casting?

J: Those guys bring a lot to the table, and they want to make the character their own as much as they can. It’s a real collaborative process. We went to Jim’s house and spent a day with him pitching ideas. It evolved a lot.

D: We were such huge fans of all these guys. I was a #1 Jim Carrey fan when I was a kid. A lot of guys in my generation would say the same thing. It was such a dream come true.

ATW: Were you guys involved a lot on set? I know some directors kick the writers off once production starts.

G: We were on set most of the time actually. Because it’s a comedy, it evolved a lot so you have to keep figuring out new ways to make it fresh and relevant to the way they’re portraying the characters. In this case, our director welcomed the writer on set, and it was very pleasant.

ATW: Jonathan, you graduated with a law degree from Harvard and also worked a lot producing TV shows. What made you make the transition into writing? Was there a moment you said Fuck this, I’m just going to be a writer?

G: Yes! There was that moment, but prior to that I had always dabbled at writing. Even at Harvard I wrote a column with a friend called “Food-O-Rama.” It was a restaurant column. We would eat for free all around Boston. I think it was late 97’ or 98’. I gave notice to my firm and moved to LA and was fortunate – within 6 months I wound up writing for a show; Fast Food Films.

ATW: John, you still act, working on the TV show Bones and other film projects. How do you juggle so many artistic hats?

D: It’s about as hard as juggling is. It’s a constant scheduling nightmare, but I’ve managed to make it work. Writing is something I’m as passionate about as acting and directing. I’ve had to give up a lot of sleep and a social life.

ATW: Do you feel like your mindset changes when you’re occupying these different creative roles? How do they differ for you?

D: Acting is more outward and requires less studying I would say. With the exception of the lines, or if you’re playing a role that’s very different than you, it comes more naturally and the best acting comes if you’re not thinking too much about it. With writing you have to analyze the structure of the story. And you wear less makeup.

G: He has his writer make up too. He has a make up lady.

D: I also have a writing wardrobe.

ATW: Is it a robe with a pipe in hand?

G: It’s more a turtleneck and a tie.

ATW: This is a question from one of our readers: John, what things did you learn about writing or filmmaking from Paul Feig while working on Freaks & Geeks?

D: Paul and Judd really both encouraged me to be myself. I was at an age where I looked 9 years old, and I was 13. Everything I was auditioning for was Nickelodeon and Disney, and they wanted a cookie cutter Arian kid. [Freaks and Geeks] was a nice departure from putting on this visage of a cool-everyday-kid. I think that that helps to translate in my work after the fact, being true to yourself.

ATW: I was raised on Vacation. I’ve probably seen it over 500 times. You guys are doing the re-boot. Tell me about what that process has been like. How much of Wally World do you want to re-imagine?

G: It’s very much a sequel. We don’t’ want to tread on the territory of the first movie. It’s about catching up on the Griswolds today. Rusty, played by Ed Helms, is having a minor crisis and decides to take his family to Wally World. That’s the story we’re telling. Hopefully, we’ll create a character in Rusty that wasn’t in the first movie. The family story will be the heart of it, in the spirit of what John Hughes did so well.

D: It’s really driven by its characters. Chevy did such an amazing job. People can relate to [Clark Griswold] because that’s what their dad was like. We want to relay the whole “every family” feel.

ATW: This is a question I ask all my writers: do you have a particular writing nest or place you go to work? What’s your writing environment like?

G: We tend to work at my place or John’s place.

D: We each sit in a throne facing each other.

ATW: A part of me thinks you’re not kidding…

J: I just moved, and I’m converting my garage into an office. But it’s hard to work at my place.

D: I have a computer set hooked up to my TV so we’re just watching TV and not writing. [laughing] But I do find that desks can be constricting sometimes. Creative anchors if you will.

G: We do have an office on the WB lot for Vacation.

D: It’s a lot of thumbtacks and bare walls. If we were writing Saw, we’d be inspired by our environment. It looks like there was a murder in the building where we’re working….many murders have occurred there.

It’s easy to believe these guys are comedy writers. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone premieres this weekend March 8^th at SXSW Film Festival and opens in wide release March 15^th.