Today, I spoke to Joel Stein, who writes for Time Magazine, and has appeared on VH1’s “I Love the Decade You Tell Me I Love,” HBO’s “Phoning It In,” Comedy Central’s “Reel Comedy” and E! Entertainment’s “101 Hottest Hot Hotties’ Hotness.” In this interview, Joel talks about how he’s crafted his personal brand, remained authentic, how he got his job, and more.
Joel, the front-page of your website has a single picture. How does that represent your personal brand?
It represents my brand because my brand is lazy, and, after building that website on iweb four years ago, I have no idea how to get back in there and change anything. So I have no choice. Unless I want to pay someone to build a site for me. And my brand is also cheap.
I only had a few pictures of myself when I was on iweb, and most of them, like the one I used, were from my friend Art’s wedding. But if that photo shows my brand at all, my brand is insanely good looking.
You’re quite the authentic figure. Why is it so hard for others to just be themselves?
Because they have fear, whereas I have none. Also, I’m not very authentic. If I acted like I do in my columns in real life, I’d get beat up a lot. Which I do not. My column persona is an exaggeration of my personality plus a little bit of my id. It’s not that I’m more authentic than other writers; I’m just more obnoxious. Plus, in this world of blogging, tweeting and facebooking, I don’t think I reveal any more than anyone else. Authenticity is not revealing what you want to reveal; it’s about revealing stuff you don’t want anyone to know. I don’t do that. I leave that for crazy people.
How did you get your cool job at Time Magazine? What were your favorite articles to write and why?
It was total luck. I gave myself two years out of college to find a writing job and couldn’t and was about to give up when I found out from a friend on the production end of my old Martha Stewart fact-checking job that Time Out NY was being launched. About a year into that job Josh Ramo, who was a young editor at Time, read my stuff in Time Out and gave me a freelance assignment for Time Digital, which was in 1996, back when magazines like Time Digital existed. I did four stories for him, and he brought me in to meet the editor of Time and they offered me a job. Apparently they hadn’t hired anyone in his 20s in decades and were eager to. I was both psyched and bummed when I got the job offer, because I figured I’d have to write in a boring Time magazine voice. But I would get paid in money instead of food. So I was torn. Luckily I like money. And telling people I work at Time.
My favorite articles to write? I guess ones where I get to go places and see stuff that surprises me. That’s an intellectualized way of saying “the ones about porn.”
When and how did you find your voice as a writer?
In college. My first column, my sophomore year, I just ripped off Dave Barry. My second one, I wrote in an exaggerated way of how I talk, plus Dave Barry. By the tenth one I got down to the Dave Barry percentage I’m at now, which is just enough to avoid a lawsuit.
What’s in your future? Do you see print media remaining strong for the next decade?
Anyone who says he knows what’s in his future is an idiot. Unless you’re on death row. Then you know you’re going to fill out legal briefs for the rest of your life until you die of old age. Also, anyone who says print media will be strong for the next decade is an idiot. This is my way of calling you an idiot.
So, no, I would not invest my money on print media. Or any media. It could very well be that what I do will become a hobby that none of us are paid for. But I already got a book advance, so I can predict that I will have a book out in February 2012 about learning how to be man. And I’m banking on the fact that when print dies, there will be some new thing for me to do. And that all my powerful friends who run print will be running that thing.
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Joel Stein is desperate for attention. He grew up in Edison, N.J., went to Stanford and then worked for Martha Stewart for a year. After a year of fact-checking at various important publications (okay, Readers Digest Books and TV Guide), he got hired as a sports editor at Time Out New York, where they paid him to write sentences. Two years later he lucked into a job as a staff writer for Time magazine. He has appeared on any TV show that asks him: VH1’s “I Love the Decade You Tell Me I Love,” HBO’s “Phoning It In,” Comedy Central’s “Reel Comedy” and E! Entertainment’s “101 Hottest Hot Hotties’ Hotness.” After teaching a class in humor writing at Princeton, he moved to L.A. at the beginning of 2005 to write a column for the Los Angeles Times and work as a sitcom writer. He still contributes to Time and whatever magazines allow him to.
