Their job is to make you laugh. And not just once, but every single night. You might not know their names; they do their work behind the camera --- most of it, in fact, in an altogether different room. But I would suspect you’ve heard of the people they work for --- Jon Stewart, perhaps, or Steven Colbert? Jimmy Fallon? Maybe David Letterman?
On Tuesday night, the New York Television Festival convened a panel of late-night comedy writers to discuss --- well, what it’s like being a late-night comedy writer. This is the fourth year that the festival has held the event, which it calls "Long Day’s Journey Into Late Night." Given the looming election, the discussion was mostly about the opportunities and pressures presented by the election season.
All the panelists seemed to agree that, as much material as the presidential campaigns give them, they “look forward to not having to stay up until 12 each night watching the debates.”
