“You’re on ten on your guitar… where can you go from there? Where?”
You probably know what I’m talking about. It’s a famous historical record:
Documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi is interviewing rock guitarist Nigel Tufnel.
Nigel is showing off his equipment room. His most prized guitars, and his special amplifier. It doesn’t go up to 10, like most amplifiers. It goes up to 11. One louder than 10.
“Why don’t you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number,” Marty asks, “and make that a little louder?”
Nigel stares at his prized up-to-11 amp. The only thing moving is his jaw as he works on his chewing gum. The cigarette in his hand is slowly burning down.
“These go to 11,” he finally says.
Like I said, you probably know this scene, or at least the catch phrase, “These go to 11.” It first appeared in 1984’s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, and become an undying cultural meme.
One thing I did not know until today is that all the dialogue in This is Spinal Tap was improvised. This includes the “up to 11 line” above.
But it makes sense. Because one thing I did know, even before today, is that Christopher Guest is one of the most talented and naturally funny actors in all of entertainmentdom.
Guest acted, sang, and played guitar as Nigel Tufnel in This Is Spinal Tap. He also directed and wrote Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman. He even played the soft-spoken but sadistic Count Rugen in The Princess Bride.
But all of that is nothing. Not compared to how Christopher Guest sounds in real life. Because the man is naturally funny.
For example, he was interviewed on Charlie Rose some 15 years ago.
He was sparkling and subtle in almost every second of the live interview.
Charlie Rose: You go back to the same actors frequently?
Christopher Guest: I have to. [pause] It’s a tax thing.
That’s rare.
Because most comedians, even the ones I love the best, are a big disappointment when they have to improvise.
They don’t have the same delivery.
They don’t have good punchlines.
They are simply not very funny, especially when compared to their stage or movie persona.
And this is yet another connection between the world of comedy and the world of sales copywriting. Because one of the biggest and most sacred sales copy commandments is:
“Write like you talk!”
Sure, this is good advice for people who are terrified of writing.
Or for those who are used to writing in a nonsense, corporate tone (“Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion…”)
But “write like you talk” is not something that top copywriters actually do themselves.
Don’t believe me?
Go on YouTube and find some video of Gary Halbert speaking. See how slow and ponderous the man was. It’s nothing like the crisp, funny, energetic writing in his newsletter.
And that’s not a coincidence.
Top copywriters make their copy more than “just how they talk.”
I won’t give away the secrets of the trade here.
Suffice to say that most copywriters, just like most comedians, simply aren’t that persuasive or funny in real life.
We’re not all Christopher Guest, unfortunately.
Fortunately, there is a simple fix. It’s called hard work and unrelenting toil.
In other words, if you’re not naturally an incredible storyteller or an irresistible salesman, you can still write top-level copy. Something that reads well… even though it’s not true to life. In the words of Christopher Guest himself:
“In real life, people fumble their words. They repeat themselves and stare blankly off into space and don’t listen properly to what other people are saying. I find that kind of speech fascinating but screenwriters never write dialogue like that because it doesn’t look good on the page.”
If you’d like to read more about the connections between copywriting and comedy, check out my daily newsletter. It’s a topic I write about on occasion. You can sign up here.