There’s very little to say about @DavidMamet that hasn’t already been said. His accomplishments as a writer are voluminous, as are his awards and accolades. As for the conversation you’re about to watch, it will leave you utterly convinced that David Mamet is a man content to share his worldview without any fear of consequence. In Hollywood, that makes him unusual, to say the least. The only thing I can tell you about him that I’m sure you didn’t already know, is the fact that he rewrote the talent release everyone signs who appears on my YouTube Channel.
That’s right.
David Mamet, one of our greatest living playwrights and screenwriters, rewrote my talent release.
Like all talent releases, the one for The Way I Heard It is a broad and obnoxious document, drafted by lawyers who seek to protect my options for future distribution in a media landscape that’s evolving very quickly. Thus, it’s filled with sweeping permissions and lots of impersonal legalese that allows me to exploit our conversation on programs not yet produced and platforms not yet created, with technologies not yet in existence, in universes not yet discovered. And so forth. It also allows me to use and/or alter my guests name and likeness to promote our conversation to the largest possible audience, without limitation or expiration.
Well, David objected.
“Your language,” he told me, “Would allow you to replace my head with the head of a beagle, and my words with a series of barks.”
The man had a point. At some level, these releases all require the signee to trust that I will use their name and likeness in a respectful matter. But David Mamet doesn’t know me, and he and has no reason to trust me. And, unlike all my other guests, he reads every word of every document and takes the language very, very seriously. This is why every actor knows not to ad lib or improvise with a David Mamet script. It simply isn’t done. Every word matters. Every syllable is a deliberate choice.
Consequently, I accepted his revisions. And then, after our conversation (and over my lawyer’s objections,) I was inspired to rewrite the talent release myself, in the friendliest fashion I could, minus all the legal mumbo-jumbo. It still gives me the rights I need to promote The Way I Heard It to the broadest possible audience, (on platforms and universes not yet discovered,) and it still gives me the right to use my guests name and likeness to promote our conversation. But it also makes it clear that I will NOT turn my guests into a beagle, or any other canine, through the unnecessary or irresponsible altering of their image.
This promise shall be henceforth known as “The Mamet Clause,” inspired by the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright whose work I’ve admired for over 40 years.
Having said all that, if you haven’t already, meet my new friend, David Mamet. https://bit.ly/TWIHI440DavidMamet
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