Call it WME‘s comedy book club.
During the mega talent agency’s weekly Comedy Department meeting on Feb. 26, co-chief and senior partner Mike Berkowitz told agents that they’d be getting a new mandatory reading assignment, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
After saying he read Susan Morrison’s 656-page tome Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live in one sitting, Berkowitz noted that WME would be buying copies for everyone in the department as a required reading assignment given it tells the history of the comedy biz and looks at how the producer discovered creative talent.
The Random House book, billed as the authoritative biography of the TV producer, was released on Feb. 18, timed as part of the 50th anniversary media festivities for the venerable NBC late-night sketch show. The title bowed at No. 4 on The New York Times bestseller list in the nonfiction category.
Berkowitz is said to be looking for the Lorne biography to kick off periodic new book assignments for the Beverly Hills-based agency’s Comedy Department that employees will be encouraged to read.
WME, notably, is home to a major roster of SNL-affiliated star clients, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Martin, Martin Short, John Mulaney, Pete Davidson, Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy. Many of those names participated in Feb. 16’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special taping, which hit 14.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, the biggest figure for the network’s entertainment programming since the 2020 Golden Globes.
When asked for comment, Morrison’s rep, David Kuhn at Aevitas Creative Management, added: “It doesn’t surprise me that the book would be assigned reading to anyone wanting to understand how comedy creators think, to understand their creative process. How comedy works is almost as mysterious as Lorne Michaels himself, and the book unlocks those mysteries.”