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UCLA screenwriting alumnus aces comedies

By Paul Mendoza

May 17, 2003 9:00 p.m.

Director Tom Shadyac has only one demand: the long, curly hair
stays, or he goes.

“I’m like an old Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
album cover,” said Shadyac of his signature mane. “When
I was about ten years old, my dad wanted me to cut my hair, and I
begged him not to. I wrote him a poem: “˜The summer would be
so much better / If you would take heed to this letter.’ Ever
since then, I’ve just had long hair.”

Filmgoers may be unfamiliar with Shadyac’s puli ‘do,
but they certainly know his work: from “Ace Ventura: Pet
Detective” to the upcoming “Bruce Almighty,” Jim
Carrey’s high-profile return to comedy. Shadyac, a UCLA
screenwriting alumnus, has worked with some of the greatest
comedians in the business, meeting those musing minds with his own
edgy wit and style.

The laughter started in a not-so-edgy place: Falls Church,
Virginia, his idyllic hometown. Shadyac’s knack for funny
business emerged early on, as he constantly cracked and wrote
jokes, especially for the legendary Bob Hope.

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Shadyac moved
to Los Angeles to pursue acting and writing. He also worked the
stand-up circuit, appearing at the Improv regularly, but found
little satisfaction.

“I never really found a voice,” Shadyac said.
“I’m Irish and Lebanese, so I would do a lot of the
drunk terrorist kind of jokes on stage. But I never really,
thankfully, found my voice. I was always thinking about doing
something else.”

That “something else” was UCLA film school. When
Shadyac entered the screenwriting program, he had two goals: to
write scripts, and to make a student film. With inspiration from
“Repairs,” directed by fellow student and longhair Brad
Silberling (“Moonlight Mile”), Shadyac’s dream of
directing came true with his short, “Tom Dick &
Harry.”

“That opened a lot of doors for me,” said Shadyac.
“But those doors have a caveat ““ they want to know what
you have for them now. I knew I had to either write a script or
take the scripts that they have and reinvent them. So I took a
script, called “˜Ace Ventura.'”

That script would soon change his life, as well as that of a
certain Jim Carrey. Shadyac first met Carrey over lunch at the Ivy
in Beverly Hills.

“Let me tell you, the guy scared me,” he said.
“I had seen him at the comedy clubs, so I knew he was
insanely funny and insanely gifted. He just wanted to throw
everything out and he said, “˜Let’s just get
crazy.’ That scared me in a really good way. I went home, did
a little therapy, called him back, and I hired him.”

After the insanely successful “Ace,” Carrey and
Shadyac reunited for “Liar, Liar” and now for
“Bruce.” Carrey’s unpredictable antics may seem
nightmarish for a director, but the experienced Shadyac knows how
to tame the beast.

“You’ve got to direct him,” said Shadyac.
“You can’t just say, “˜OK, Jim. Be funny!’ I
just direct that genius. Jim will go all over the place, and you
pitch your own ideas. You focus the energy.”

Shadyac’s focusing abilities led to other
hard-to-control-comedian projects, like Eddie Murphy in “The
Nutty Professor” and Robin Williams in “Patch
Adams.” But he never helms the same thing twice; his
directing resume is noticeably sequel-free while Hollywood clamors
for numeric suffixes.

“It’s not necessarily a matter of principle,”
he said. “I always like to be challenged, and a sequel,
especially right after you do the first one, may not have
challenged me enough. I want to take steps, so each movie you see,
I’m taking some kind of a step.”

His career is full of those steps, from a talking ass to
“Tank Ass” to a man kicking his own ass, and toward the
spiritual themes of “Patch Adams,”
“Dragonfly” and even “Bruce.”

“I want to always be out there on the ledge myself, taking
risks,” Shadyac said. “I think that’s where a lot
of funny stuff can come from, living on the edge. You’re
either gonna fall or you’re gonna soar.”

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