6 Important Writerly Questions with Reese Cassard
Reese Cassard co-wrote Humorist Books latest release and out-of-the-gate hit on the political humor charts, Red Tie, Blue Tie: How to Tell Whether Someone is Liberal or Conservative in Any Possible Scenario. We bombarded him with our standard author questionnaire. Here’s what he said!
- 1. Who are you? What are you doing here?
I ask myself the same questions every morning. Right now, I am a copywriter by day and a comedy writer by night. I currently live in Denver, and I’m here to promote Red Tie, Blue Tie: How to Tell Whether Someone is Liberal or Conservative in Any Possible Scenario, the new book I wrote with my best friend, Gary Almeter.
2. Since “Where do you get your ideas?” is a terrible question, what made you want to write this book?
Besides the selfish desire to see my name in print? Probably the power of friendship. Gary and I have enjoyed collaborating on short pieces for years—including the original “How to Tell Whether Someone is Liberal or Conservative” that ran in McSweeney’s—and we’d been kicking around the idea of writing a book together for a while. I can’t remember who thought of it first, but one of us realized our liberal vs. conservative premise had enough legs to become a full book. Once we paired that with the fact that an election year was right around the corner, it became a no brainer for both of us.
3.How did you keep writing this book?
The bulk of the work took place over the winter, which is a wonderful time to write. After a weekday of copywriting (shoutout to MGH, Inc.) or a weekend of skiing (shoutout to the Rocky Mountains) I would cook dinner, throw on some music, and drive myself insane in front of my laptop. Thankfully I had Gary. Whenever I felt like I simply couldn’t come up with another silly way liberals and conservatives are different, I would think about how he was in Baltimore struggling with the same problem. I knew he’d deliver on his end, so that motivated me to deliver on mine. Next thing I knew we had a book.
4. Who is this book for, anyway?
Anyone who spends their hard-earned money on this thing has every right to love or hate it as loud as they please, but I’d like to think our ideal reader is any man, woman, or nonbinary human that is both aware of and at peace with where they fit in the ever-changing spectrum of political identity. If you only enjoy the jokes that pick on one side of the aisle, that’s fine with us, but you may be disappointed because Gary and I did put a lot of thought into picking on liberals and conservatives equally. Now, if you can go into it open to laughing at everyone, including yourself, we think you might really have some fun.
5. Any darlings you had to kill?
Yes, which is wild in hindsight because I still remember thinking there was no way we could deliver on the 200-page target the good folks at Humorist Books set for us. Sure enough though, our manuscript ended up being too long. Gary and I trimmed some fat, but our editor Brian Boone really helped us identify full sections that could go, and the book is much funnier as a result.
6. What are you working on now?
On the professional front, I’m working a fun mix of advertising projects with my awesome team at MGH. On the comedy front my current goal is to continue promoting Red Tie, Blue Tie until we dethrone Bill Maher for the best-seller in political humor. Once victorious, I’d like to give the 10,000 words of a novel currently collecting dust in my hard drive an earnest effort.
