Paul Feig is a wonderful director and author with a refreshingly honest view about how it is to grow up being a self conscious geek with little or no luck with women.
He has given us the books "Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence" and "Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin", both biographical tales about growing up as a somewhat of an outsider and unable to deal with the opposite sex.
He's also an accomplished film- and TV-director and writer, and has worked a lot with Judd Apatow, director of the films "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up".
WHY I WRITE THIS
I'm telling you about him because tonight I just finished reading his "Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin", and it's lovely to read his tale of being a Christian kid in the 70's, struggling with meeting a girl and when he finally finds one, how he struggles to not sleep with her because sex should wait until marriage.
The humour is spot on, the stories very direct and he's so honest about shortcomings that most writers would never dare to write about in their diaries - certainly not publish them in bookform.
I was geeky myself when I grew up. I always had a sense of being a different from the typical "jocks", tough guys, fashionable people and pretty girls I didn't dare to talk to - essentially the same kind of people we see in the media, the "norm".
Paul Feig never belonged to this norm, and with his writings, TV-series and films, he gives us a much-needed different perspective that makes a lot of geeky people feel that they are OK too.
WHAT PAUL HAS DONE
Paul Feig's body of work includes creating and writing the TV-series "Freaks and Geeks" (2000), and writing and directing the films "Life Sold Separately" (1997), "I Am David" (2003) and "Unaccompanied Minors" (2006).
He wrote the books "Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence" and "Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin"
And he directed TV episodes of "The Office US", "Weeds", "Mad Men", "30 Rock", "Arrested Development" and Judd Apatow's excellent "Undeclared".
If you want to check out some of his writings and read some interesting interviews, check these links:
* His first webpage, very funny and featuring a very interesting tour journal of when he travelled around showing his first movie, "Life Sold Separately".
* A new article in USA Today about the making of "Life Sold Separately" and how it might be released if Paul ever gets around to it.
* An NPR radio interview about the TV show "Freaks and Geeks"
* A long interview about "Freaks and Geeks" on the SuicideGirls website - check out the girls there if you wanna see unconventional and interesting girls (probably just the kind of 'freaky' girls a slightly older Paul would like?)
* Another long interview about "Freaks and Geeks", for IGN.com:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
* A long interview about the DVD-release of "Freaks and Geeks":
Part 1, Part 2
* An eight part "Director's Diary" on IGN.com of the making of his film "I Am David":
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8
* A blog he had in 2005 in the Huffington Post, covering very varied topics
* A long radio interview he did about "Superstud", on the show "Drinks with Tony", hosted by Tony DuShane
* An interview about "Superstud" in Washington Post
* A clip on YouTube with Paul speaking on Arrested Development and the Office at UNC Chapel Hill
* A clip on YouTube with Paul being interviewed on G4's "Attack of the Show"
* A clip on YouTube with some rare unaired footage from "Freaks and Geeks"
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