WOODY ALLEN took the rare step of allowing an aspiring young comedy writer to meet with him backstage on Broadway, many years ago, when he was starring in “Play It Again, Sam.” Allen was impressed enough with the young writer to invite him to bring more of his work the next evening, and encouraged the young man to pursue his dream of writing comedy. That young man was Jeffrey Gurian.
Allen was the first to tell Gurian that his comedy was “very visual”, and urged him to think about adapting it to film. However it wasn’t until years later that Emmy award winning writer/producer ALAN ZWEIBEL, (Sat. Night Live, Gary Shandling, The Story of Us), got Gurian started writing professionally. ZWEIBEL introduced him to his manager at the time, David Jonas, best known for having catapulted the late Freddie Prinze to stardom in “Chico and The Man.”
RODNEY DANGERFIELD began using some of Gurian’s material on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. One night, after his standard, “I’m all right now, but last week was rough” introduction, he opened with Gurian’s line: “Just last week, I bought one of those whirlpools for my bathtub. The first night I used it, I lost three of my best ships,” and that started the ball rolling for Gurian. Later on, he used more of Gurian’s material on his album, “No Respect”.
Since that time, Gurian can lay claim to having heard his lines uttered by literally some of the biggest names in the entertainment world, among them: JOAN RIVERS, PHIL HARTMAN, RICHARD BELZER, GILBERT GOTTFRIED, ROBIN WILLIAMS, MILTON BERLE (who is also his sponsor in The Friars Club), RICH LITTLE, DICK SHAWN, PAT COOPER, JAN MURRAY, FRANK GORSHIN, JIM MORRIS, HENNY YOUNGMAN, JERRY LEWIS…and those are only the comics!
Gurian has also written special material for appearances by such non-comic notables as BRUCE WILLIS, WILLIE NELSON, KRIS KRISTOFFERSON, CHAD EVERETT, FRANKIE AVALON, ENGELBERT HUMPERDINCK, TONY LO BIANCO, MARTY INGELS, SHIRLEY JONES, DONALD O’CONNOR, news anchor CHUCK SCARBOROUGH, news anchor ERNIE ANASTOS, celebrity attorney JAY GOLDBERG, DAVID N. DINKINS, the ex-Mayor of New York City, and the father of comedy clubs, BUDD FRIEDMAN of the Improv. – and many of those projects took place while Gurian was still a nationally known Cosmetic Dentist , lecturer, and consultant to several major dental companies. .
Impressing heavyweights in the entertainment industry with his comedic talent, has been Gurian’s “M.O.”. This has brought Gurian encouragement, and guidance along the way from industry legends like JACK ROLLINS, HERB SARGENT, and BILL PERSKY, who personally chose Gurian as the sole comedy writer, to work with him on a project he directed for television. Judy McGrath, current President of MTV, hired Gurian for a stint writing scripts for MTV. It also brought Gurian a cover story in the “Style” section of the “newspaper of record”, The New York Times, as well as many appearances on radio and television, to discuss how he managed to combine two such diverse, yet successful full time careers.
He has written three films that got made. The first was a Sony project that he wrote with Michael Ian Black of “Ed” fame, and Ben ( Reno 911) Garant, both of MTV’s “The State.” It was called “I’m Your Man”, and was the first interactive film ever made, which debuted at the specially equipped Sony theatre on Broadway and 19th Street, in Manhattan.
His second film, “Face to Face” was written with famed actor Scott Baio, and starred Dean Stockwell, Alex Rocco, Joe Viterelli, Meatloaf, and of course, Scott Baio.
It was honored by being chosen the opening night film at the Taos, New Mexico Film Festival, and won for Best Comedy Feature at the Marco Island Film Festival, and the Valley Film Festival in Hollywood,CA. It has also been seen at festivals in Oregon, Palm Springs, Reno, and Sonoma, CA.
His latest film, “ I Am Woody”, is about a mob boss who’s obsessed with Woody Allen. He survives a mob hit, comes out of it with amnesia, and now actually thinks he’s Woody Allen. Only he’s 6’3” and weighs over 300 pounds. He’s a huge Woody Allen, trying to function in the world of organized crime, which thanks to him, quickly becomes “dis-organized crime.”
“Woody” won for Best Short Film at the NY International Film Festival, and featured the late Victor Argo, and Vince ( Johnny Sack) Curatola, star of HBO’s The Sopranos.
Having written for the N.Y. Friars Club Roasts for more than 25 years, has made Gurian not only an authority on “Roast humor”, but also one of the best known Roast writers on the East Coast.
As a result, he wrote the book for Kensington/Citadel Press called “Filthy, Funny, and Totally Offensive – Jokes So Dirty, Comedians and Entertainers Only Tell Them To Each Other” released in April of ’07.
The book is a compilation of jokes from more than 250 major celebrities including Drew Carey, Jason Alexander, Richard Belzer, Joan Rivers, Gilbert Gottfried, Jackie Mason, Chris Elliott, Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, Ice-T, Lisa Lampanelli, Greg Giraldo, Colin Quinn, Pat Cooper, Goumba Johnny, and Tony ( Paulie Walnuts) Sirico, Vince (Johnny Sack) Curatola, and Vinny ( Big Pussy) Pastore all of the HBO mega-hit, The Sopranos.
Gurian’s co-writer was journalist Tripp Whetsell, and Paul Provenza who directed the hit film “The Arisotcrats” penned the introduction.
From his work for The Friars Club, Gurian developed an association with Saks/Lipsky Entertainment Productions Ltd. Jeff had a direct working relationship with Bob Saks over the 11 years that Saks was considered the most successful producer of the Friar’s Roasts in the history of the club.
Saks knew who to call when he was looking for a head writer, and co-developer, for the television and film projects, he and his partner Mark Lipsky, (Eddie Murphy’s long time manager, and producer), intended to produce.
Finally heeding Woody Allen’s sage advice from years before, Gurian wrote, and directed several short comedy films for the Toyota Comedy Festival, called The “Men Who” Series, that coincidentally caught the attention of Allen’s longtime manager Jack Rollins. Those films are currently being distributed by Frank Chindamo’s company Fun Little Movies and can be seen on Sprint and Microsoft mobile phones, and Smart Technology devices. Gurian also wrote a one hour NBC after school special called “De La Salle” based on a real school in New York City for gifted children who come from disadvantaged neighborhoods.
He also wrote and directed a play dedicated to the legendary Chuck Zito, star of HBO’s hit show “OZ”, entitled “A Punch In The Face” which examined the question of whether man is inherently violent. He was a “reporter” for Weekly World News, where he wrote stories like “Tap Dancing For The Criminally Insane”, “Smithsonian Claims George Washington Wore Wooden Pants”, and “High Roller Wears Moustache Made Out Of Gold.” Gurian also writes his own celeb-based entertainment column called “Comedy Matters” for an online magazine at www.newyorkcool.com and will appear in Donald Trump’s new magazine, Trump Magazine, during the summer of 2007.
No longer in general practice, Gurian has maintained his connection to dentistry as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Oral Medicine/Oro-Facial Pain Department at N.Y.U. College Of Dentistry. Having been involved for many years in the esoteric art of healing through touch,using his own technique he calls “STAR” Therapy, an acronym for Spiritual, Transformational, Affirmative, Resonance Therapy, using a combination of modalities like Shiatsu, Reiki, Applied Kinesiology, Chakra Balancing,and Intuitive Healing, he treats stress -related illness and Depression, with a TMJ causation.
His other interests lie in developing a program for teaching young doctors to treat their patients in a more caring way. He is also the only non-clasically trained psychotherapist on the Board of The Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, and he writes a weekly online column on Stress Tips for the Slim Fast company at http://www.slimfast.com , listed under Success Tips > Stress Relief.
Because of his work in “owning your own power”, and using that power, and positive energy, to manifest the things in your life that you really want to achieve, Gurian will be teaching a series of classes at The Learning Annex. The first class will be “How to Stop Stuttering Now”, where he’ll be sharing his personal cure for stuttering, (an affliction he suffered with until he was in college), to follow with a class on comedy writing.
It seems that no matter what happens, Gurian’s life continues to be split between at least two careers. He says, “I want my life to be about service, healing, spirituality, and comedy, and somehow, I found a way to make them all go together. What nicer thing can you do for people than to make them laugh, and take away their pain?”
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A happy ‘hello!’ to you all, and I hope you’re enjoying the Summer weather! This is the first edition of a quarterly newsletter I am beginning in order to provide an easy way to update everyone I know about the professional goings-on in my life. I hope you enjoy what you read, as most of you are a very large part of why I am finally able to do this. In advance, I’d like to thank you for being my friends Here it goes…..
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It’s celebration time cruising along the famous RMS Queen Mary ship in Long Beach, CA with other like-minded friends who are effecting positive change in the world. Party on with us and be honored by celebrities who are also hero’s at our Revolution YES Youth Award Ceremony. Do you want a chance to win a seat on the Revolution YES Youth Advisory Board? Well, we’re looking for you and we know you are out there.
