Border's
San Francisco, CA
July 19, 2005

Paul Feig Signs Superstud

Report by Ann Becker

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I went to see Paul at Borders in San Francisco last night. I'd guess there were about 60 people there. Paul was dressed up in a dark suit, which is how he's been dressed at the other appearances, according to photos I've seen. He read 3 excerpts from "Superstud", very funny stuff about his youthful adventures around masturbation. It was quite amusing to me that he stopped several times, stumbled over words, and told us how embarrassing it was to read this. And this is almost the last stop on his tour--he's been reading this stuff out loud to people for a couple weeks now! Anyway, it was extremely entertaining, and so wonderful to have Paul perform it.

Then he took some questions. I'll detail what I can remember that hasn't already been reported from previous events:

He was asked how he got involved with "Arrested Development". One of the producers of that show had been a producer on F&G, so invited Paul to direct an episode. Paul said it's a great show to work on, the cast is really wonderful. Will Arnett, who plays GOB, is so funny--and he had not done comedy previously.

I asked whether "Life Sold Separately", his first feature directing effort, would be coming out on DVD. Paul said the guy who produced the F&G DVDs has his own company now and wants to release it, but he (Paul) is such a perfectionist that he keeps saying no. He said it was shot on 16mm, very low-budget. But the worst thing is that they hired an inexperienced negative cutter who cut the negative incorrectly, so there's a big flash at every cut in the film. It would be quite expensive to go back and fix it, and Paul
 hates to release it with those flaws.

He just that day (yesterday) signed a deal to write a series of sci-fi comedy novels for kids. He said he's returning to his nerd roots.

He's probably going to write another memoir-type book about work -- he says it'll be his "trilogy of shame".

Then he read his story about being Ronald McDonald, which was performed expertly and had everyone rolling. Then we lined up to get stuff signed. Paul was extremely friendly, humble, so grateful and appreciative to everyone who was there. He seemed to really take time to chat with everyone. A bunch of people brought the Norsemen yearbooks to be signed--I remarked to the woman behind me that it was like being in high school, all of us with our yearbooks.

Anyway, thanks to Paul for doing the book tour. I'm looking forward to reading "Superstud" (once I finish Harry Potter), and I'm so glad I went last night.

 Ann


 Here's a couple more things I remember:

Paul, when introducing the book and the excerpts he was about to read, said he wrote this book to show that most guys go through similar experiences. And for women, he said, consider it a kind of owner's manual. In fact, he's gotten e-mail from a mother of a son who said something like, "now I know what my son does when he's home alone." Paul said he'll probably get a disgruntled message from the son, whose secrets are now exposed. :-)

 Also, during the question period, while discussing the appeal of F&G, Paul said that at one of the book signings, he met a woman and her adolescent son. The mom said the boy was starting high school in the fall and was very anxious about it, so she showed him "Freaks and Geeks", and now he feels