Hello from just off the 118 here in Los Angeles. I am out in LA this week on a sort of vacation. So, this email is going to be a bit shorter than usual. We’ll be back to my usual antics next Wednesday.

I’m not going to lie to you. I was also high when I wrote this newsletter.

The weed in California is amazing. The medical marijuana that I get when I’m in New York? Not so much.

I’m actually reading “Scientific Advertising”. A book that was written by Claude Hopkins. The book is about 100 years old, so I didn’t want to use a picture above of the cover. Why? Because the book is free. I made it available here as a PDF. But … If you’re like me and want to buy the print edition, you can still do so here.

You can tell right away the book is from the 1920s, so… Just be prepared for hilariously dated references to such modern conveniences at the time as wagons. (This is not a joke. I know it sounds like I’m fucking with you, but dude is hyped about the wagon business in this book.)

If you can get past early 20th-century optimism, the actual material of the book is pretty much word for word what you’d find in any marketing book written today.

Do you know what the difference is?

You can read this one is free.

Well, over on the behind-the-scenes blog, you can see I’m coming to terms with my ignorance about my new (part-time) home city of Los Angeles.

But the big thing I’m working on this week is a one-sheet for the “Drunk History but for Comic Books” podcast. A one-sheet is exactly what you think it is: A one-page summary of the entire project.

Why am I doing it?

Because a company asked for one. But also …

-To help clarify in my head how exactly this show is going to operate. For radio/streaming, you obviously can’t do the stuff that they do in the TV show. The joke of having actors play out the drunk dialogue is entirely visual.

So my solution is to make the show sound more like This American Life than Drunk History.

Intrigued?

You still would have the guest, stoned or drunk, telling you about their favorite superhero, and that character’s origin.

Where things change, because we’re talking about a podcast here, is the way the inebriated guest’s story is then assembled.

THAT is where we’d follow the This American Life format, complete with funny narration, in presenting the interview to you.

I mean…

Unless you want to hear two hours of someone, stoned off their ass, talking about Batman?

(Obligatory joke or reference to Kevin Smith here.)

I’ll have more to share on this soon. When I’m in LA it’s hard to do anything that resembles work because the weather is beautiful.

If you grew up where it’s cold in the Winter, you’ll remember that feeling in school when the first day of warm, sunny weather hit.

All you wanted to do was be outside.

That’s what being in LA is like for me. I just want to be outside.

But outside doesn’t pay the bills.

Enjoyed this week’s edition of the newsletter? Buy me a coffee.

I give a lot of my jokes and content away for free because I want to. I hope to do that for as long as I’m alive. Your support allows me to do that.

And as always, feel free to write and tell me what you’re up to: BJ@BJMendelson.com

I’ll see you next week.