For a quintessentially Brooklyn writer, Jonathan Ames sounds awfully L.A. When we caught up with Ames, whose new HBO show Bored to Death premiered on Sunday, he was driving to a rental car depot to renew his wheels. Still, he managed to find some time for the paper he used to toil at to talk about Craigslist, Russian baths and the secrets of his success.
How did Bored to Death come about?
In 2004, I wrote and acted in a pilot for Showtime called What’s Not To Love, the same title as my first collection of essays, which was 95% of the columns I had written for New York Press. It was based on my life as a columnist. That did not go to series but did air a few times as a special. That’s how I got my foot in the door a little bit but I kind of gave up on Hollywood because it seemed like I was always too weird. So I was scraping by. The I wrote a short story called Bored to Death and this producer named Sarah Condon who had a deal with HBO wanted to meet me because she had just moved to New York City and was meeting New York writers. She asked what I was working on and I told her about the noirish Bored to Death and I sent it to her that night and she said she thought there was something there.
Whenever I write fiction, people think its real, when I write non-fiction, people think I’m making it up. It’s about a writer who puts an ad on Craigslist and becomes a PI. The short story was more about this one case, so [Condon] asked me to develop a world for the character. She liked it, so I went to L.A., pitched it to HBO—the concept and the first episode, which was close to the short story—and since they had sort of been interested in me, I went and pitched this thing and left and about 20 minutes later they called and said they wanted me to write the pilot. Then the writers strike happened and I waited six months. And it was cast contingent and I really wanted Jason Schwartzman...I’d done an all right job playing myself in What’s Not To Love, but I decided to get a real actor to play me. We shot the pilot in October 2008 and they liked that and so they ordered seven more. So this part spring I wrote those episodes and we filmed them and I became what’s known as a show runner in that I was on the set for every shot, I did the final edit on every episode.
Jason Schwartzman’s character loves wine, Ted Danson’s character loves weed. What’s your poison?
The Schwartzman character isn’t really an alcoholic; he’s a mild self medicator. Danson enjoys the marijuana. The things that make me happiest are to swim in the ocean and go to the Russian baths. Those are what make me high.
How much of the show is based on your personal experience?
For example, one episode focuses on a Russian nightclub in Brighton Beach—did you real life inform this at all? In all the episodes that are elements of myself. For example, the place we filmed that I had actually written about for Slate and once took a girlfriend there. I drew upon my own life constantly, but rearranging things.
Have you ever tried your hand at private detective work?
Yes, in my own way I have. One night in Brooklyn I was in a bar and a woman had lost her purse. She had been to several bars and was too drunk to investigate where she had left it, so I went around trying to track down her purse. Another time I was contacted because of an essay in New York Press—"I Shit My Pants in the South of France"—and I got an email saying that the hygienist who gave me the colonic had disappeared. So someone wanted me to find this missing colon hygienist—she’s been found at this point. In general I try to come to people’s aid when I can. I once did an investigation for someone in a divorce case.
In the first episodes, everything works out for the Jonathan character. He manages to make it through some tough spots. Is he always going to be so lucky?
If we make it to a second season…obviously nobody can die. There are certain ramifications, like girlfriends being unhappy with you permanently. There will be consequences.
What about advertising on Craigslist?
I used to love to read the personal ads on Craiglist. I was always fascinated by the narratives, but I’ve never shopped for anything there.
You’re a well-known Brooklyn writer, but most of the time Brooklyn isn’t shown realistically on television. Do you think TV is coming around to the idea that the borough isn’t one giant slum? Both consciously and maybe not…I kind of wanted to put him in my world. I’ve always worked, ction or non-, from an autobiographical place, so for me it’s a touchstone to put someone I my world even if then I go off and make things up. He’s very much in my world, so the locations are places I know and admire and find beautiful.
You have this TV show. Amy Sohn has a big new book that Sarah Jessica Parker bought the rights to. Sam Sifton has been named dining critic at the Times. Would any of you be where you are without New York Press?
Nowhere. The Press really saved and helped my writing career. It was great, I was uncensored. Amy used to write about me back in the day, I was 'Novel Lover' in that column. I wonder if they’ll have two Brooklyn shows…
