Farts & Trailers for XXX parodies inside. An Interview with Vince Mancini

Takeaways

One of the great advantages of blogging is that you’re expected to be honest and to have personality. If you’re not blogging in that way. “If you’re not forcing yourself to be completely honest, you’re not playing to the strengths of your medium.” Mary Shyne of Lies About My Friends asked if blogging requires different skills than demands a different skill set from writers than print journalism. “It’s inherently different.”  Another huge advantage to blogging is that you’re expecting to have personality, a background, a life, and opinions. It’s a shame if you don’t take advantage of that.

For people wondering how much google analytics plays into content choices, Vince doesn’t stress over it too much. “I’m sure if I had some middle management jackass looking over my shoulder, every week it’d be a meeting where we’d be like,”You know, headlines with “Fart” in them seem to do really well; could we do more of those?” Other than that, he tries to write about things he’d want to read about, if he wasn’t the writer.

Blogging Success

“I think the only way something is good — comedy, writing, music, movies — is if the person creating it is doing it because they themselves are honestly interested in it and passionate about it.”

Career Success

Vince credits getting his job to luck, but really he’s one of those people that made his own luck, he was being modest. His story proves it’s important to network and stay active within the field you are in. For instance, he had friends who got jobs as bloggers from being consistently funny commenters on other blogs, like Deadspin. Who would have thought?!

One thing he’d want someone to tell him if he were my age knowing what he knows now:

In the words of NoFX, “So come on, dance like a retard. Life’s an endless party not a punch card.”

This question caught him off guard, so this was his second, more legit answer:

Hold on hold on, I think my advice would be that no matter what you do, at least attempt to do something that cuts through bullshit, rather than adds to it. Ugh, that sounded paternal.

Read the full interview after the jump (seriously, DO IT!)

Emily: So how much if at all do you use Google Analytics to help you decide what type of content to put out there?

Vince:  You can only learn so much from the numbers. I’m sure if I had some middle management jackass looking over my shoulder, every week it’d be a meeting where we’d be like, “You know, headlines with “Fart” in them seem to do really well; could we do more of those?” Like it was when I was a corporate copywriter. Since it’s me making the calls, I pay attention to the numbers, and if certain things always do solid numbers — trailers for XXX parodies, for instance — I might be more likely to post something like that. Overall, as with anything, I think the only way something is good — comedy, writing, music, movies — is if the person creating it is doing it because they themselves are honestly interested in it and passionate about it. So the golden rule for me is, “If I didn’t have this job and I was sitting at my desk wanting to read something, would I want to read about this?” I use myself as a barometer for taste and interest.

Emily:  Hah Ok nice. So you are the typical Filmdrunk reader?

Vince: I don’t know, to be honest. I would hope I would read FilmDrunk if I wasn’t me, if that makes any sense.

Emily:  Totally. Unlike Jerry Springer who once said he’d never watch his show if he wasn’t the host.

Vince: I understand people getting stuck in situations like that, but yeah, that would suck. I don’t have much respect for people who say “Oh, it’s just for kids!” as if they’re some kind of personality-less public servant. It’s a total excuse for not caring or having any personal stake in what they’re doing.

Emily:  Right on. Ok, so FilmDrunk seems to hold no bars content wise. Was there anything you ever wrote that got a significant amount of angry emails? If so, how did you deal with it..if you did anything besides chuckle and delete.

Vince: People ask that a lot, but it’s funny, I get angry emails maybe once a month or less, usually when people who aren’t my normal readers stumble in through Digg or Google or someplace else where readers who aren’t used to the way I write. As for holding no bars, I wish I could hold less bars. I hate having to censor my swear words and blur our nipples. It’s the most asinine thing in the world. We’re fucking grown adults. Am I really to believe that someone would see Diora Baird’s nipple on my site, instantly look around to what banner ads are next to it, and run and go boycott those brands? That’s fucking moronic. Of course you have to play ball to some degree unless you want to pay the bills yourself. In general, I think comedy is a good barometer for offensiveness. If something is really funny, it’s probably not that offensive almost by definition. Plus I think that one of the main advantages of a blog as opposed to traditional journalism is that we’re allowed to be HONEST. If you’re not forcing yourself to be completely honest, you’re not playing to the strengths of your medium.

Emily:  Cool that’s an awesome point, good segue to my next question. This is from one of my writer/blogger friends, Mary Shyne of Lies About My Friends. “Do you think blogging demands a different skill set from writers than print journalism?“

Vince:  Not to say a print journalist couldn’t blog, but yes. Some print rags try to emulate blogs and LOTs of blogs try to emulate print, but I think that’s being ignorant of the way your medium is being experienced by the reader, for one thing. A blog post is generally shorter because your reader is generally at their desk, between tasks, whereas your print reader is on the subway or having a long lunch/breakfast. It’s inherently different. The second thing is that journalists are not allowed to be honest in certain ways. If I’m sitting at my desk at work and I see a guy take a shit on my boss’s desk, as a mainstream print journalist, my story would still have to begin “A San Francisco man allegedly defecated on his boss’s desk yesterday, according to onlookers.” Journalism relies on this sort of stilted, sort of fake idea that there’s this entity out there who wears a suit and doesn’t have any regional accent and has all the authority of an actual authority, but no history. No Facebook pictures of him drinking with his friends, etc. It’s kind of an outdated paradigm, when you think about it. As a blogger, you try to balance fairness with honesty. And like I said, you have to play to your strengths, and one of the strengths of a blog is personality. So whereas when you’re trying to take personality out of the equation as a journalist, I feel like being a good blogger requires adding the personality in. Of course, by “adding the personality in,” I don’t mean beginning stories by talking about what you ate for breakfast that morning.

Emily:  Yeah, I get what you mean. Another writer/blogger friend of mine Reb Carlson of 360i asked, “Where do you draw the line between being personable and professional? or are those two words not in the same language?” and I think what you just said answers that.

Vince:  I could answer that as a separate question, if you like….

Emily:  haha sure! She referenced your LinkedIn “ex – take a look at Vince’s LinkedIn – he included his deli job, where he was “the sandwich professional.” his “about” on FilmDrunk is even better.“

Vince: Basically, career counselors and professors are working from a model that’s 50 years old. If I was looking to do a job that didn’t involve writing comedy, I probably wouldn’t put that there. But it’s also absolutely preposterous not to expect people to have lives outside of their work in 2010. Look at what happened to Mike Tunison. It’s that same thing where journalist have to pretend they have no history or personality and just arrived on this planet wearing a blue blazer for the purpose of delivering the news unbiasedly like Bryant Gumbel. I feel like I owe my readers honesty above all else. Well, maybe not above entertainment, but you know what I mean.

Emily: haha..so entertainment is above honesty? So what’s your take on the fact that people can post pretty much anything with no fact checking now a days? Have you ever posted anything untrue/that you didn’t fact check because you knew it’d get hits?

Vince:  No. I might post an interesting rumor that I don’t think is true, but in doing so, I’ll always immediately point out that I don’t think it’s true. As far as my take on people being able to post whatever…that’s the medium. It sucks that people can post whatever they want sometimes, but it also sucks having to check with a lawyer before you can say something you know is true.

Emily: Cool. Ok last questions. For all the struggling writer/interns/freelancers out there… how did you end up getting paid to blog on a consistent basis about what you’re interested in to an audience that cares?

Vince: Luck, mainly. I saw an ad looking for writers on a blog that I read that seemed like something I could do, and I sent them some stuff. Luckily they liked it and chose me out of the 1000 other writers that applied. From there, through a combination of luck, doing my job well, and networking, I hooked up with Ryan Perry, who ran Fat Penguin at the time, and we came up with the concept of FilmDrunk and he made me an offer to run it. That was pretty much it.

I know plenty of people who’ve gotten jobs like mine simply from being an active, funny commenter…a really surprising amount, actually. I think the KSK guys all hooked up through being active Deadspin commentators, and RoboPanda, Chodin, and Burnsy all proved how funny and internet savvy they were as FilmDrunk writers, and now they write for Uproxx, GammaSquad, and WithLeather.

Emily: Wow that’s cool! So if you could offer advice knowing what you know now to people my age (20 somethings) what would it be?

Vince: Haha, you’re asking a blogger?

Emily: Yes…is that a bad question? haha. I like to have a little sum-it-all-up piece of advice.

Vince: In the words of NoFX, “So come on, dance like a retard. Life’s an endless party not a punch card.” Seriously though, I have no idea.

Emily:  LOLz. Loveeeee it

Vince:  Hold on hold on, I think my advice would be that no matter what you do, at least attempt to do something that cuts through bullshit, rather than adds to it. Ugh, that sounded paternal.