Sometimes reviews can be helpful, especially for plays out of town. Neil Simon was having a bitch of a time with the third act of ODD COUPLE, writing new scenes every night during tryouts. But it was a reviewer in Boston who had the solution. How many millions of dollars changed hands because of that review?
It stings of course to get a bad notice. And it’s the old story -- You get rave reviews and one bad one and you obsess over the bad one. That’s human nature.
There have been reviews of my plays where I wondered just what play were they watching because it bears no resemblance to what I wrote or what was performed on stage. Or they’ll focus on one thing like the throw pillows on a couch and that ruined the whole play for them.
You have to accept the fact that no matter what you do there will be someone who doesn’t dig your act. For years, Al Michaels used to keep in his pocket a review where the great Vin Scully got slammed. Al kept it as a reminder to not try to please everybody. It’s physically impossible. Just do your thing.
But what I look for in a review of my work is the context. Is this person offering constructive advice or just on a mission to slam me? And if so, why?
I was reminded of this the other day when I came across my podcast reviews from Apple listeners. I received 422 reviews — most, I’m happy to say, were five stars.
One guy, however, gave me only one star and pretty much hated everything about me. I’m a terrible interviewer, I’m rude, I should be put out to pasture, etc. But then comes this:
He makes snarky comments about celebrated actors and passes along his out of touch political views , as if everyone listening has the same views .Who wants to hear a situation comedy writer pontificate about politics?
Okay, so now we get to the nitty gritty. He doesn’t like my “politics.” So of course he’s going to hate everything I do. Ironically, the way he phrased his complaint makes me thinks he listened at least several time. If you hate me, why would you listen more than once?
Obviously, his objective was not to offer constructive advice but to try to scare away future listeners. Whatever.
To me the best podcasts are the ones where the host or hosts are passionate about things. They have opinions, they take stands. Otherwise, they're boring. So when I consider the context, this bad review is really a good review. So thanks. And find a podcast with politics you like.
from By Ken Levine
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