David Rensin
Writing
July 29, 2008 | by brett | Permalink
David Rensin is a best selling author, oral historian, and occasionally contributes to Playboy. Upon entering his home in Tarzana, I pointed out Studs Terkel’s book, “Working” on his office table. He referred to it as his Bible.
I think what I do is something anybody can try. It’s not that daunting. I started out with no experience. Just a passion for wanting to meet girls and go to concerts for free.
How would I describe my job? Basically, as gainful unemployment. My job really is…I write books. I interview people. I use that as an excuse to go out and have different experiences in life.
I’ve had the luxury of choosing who I want to interview. Bill Gates, Martin Scorsese, Jerry Seinfeld, Tom Cruise…Cindy Crawford. She’s a smart woman and has great legs in cut off jeans. Listen, Jack LaLanne was memorable. The guy has more energy in one pectoral muscle than a class full of aerobic dancers. He was really cool. And then he made me work out with him…which was not really cool. Because I’m not nearly up to swimming underneath the water while towing seventy-six boats like he does.
I would describe myself as an author who has fun doing a job that doesn’t feel like a job. I enjoy being independent and not having to go to work. I enjoy meeting the people. I enjoy solitary work at my computer editing voices. I enjoy the challenge of writing more and more. I enjoy the strategy of interviewing three hundred people. It’s just all a big puzzle. I don’t feel beleaguered. My promise to myself in high school was to never have a job, and I’ve been largely successful.
The most challenging part of being an author is starting over…again and again and again. I really love the process. But you have to overcome a lot of inertia. Or at least I do. My last project took me four years. It wears you out. It’s like taking four or five years to have a baby. Like a baby, you forget the pain after awhile, and then you can have another one.
I’m about to start a new book. I’m into it. But I’m really searching for the passionate connection to it. I have a lot of good ideas. But, ninety-eight percent of them I’d like to see somebody else do because having a good idea is not the same as feeling passionate about it. And it’s scary to follow that.
How do you distinguish the ideas that you’re really passionate about from the ones where you aren’t?
In 1979, Playboy sent me into the adult film industry to see what was going on in adult films. I happened upon a guy porn actor and I asked him, “You gotta make it with these women over and over and over again…what if you don’t like them? How are you going to get it up?”
He said, “Well, you focus on the one thing about them that you like. The one thing about them that you can be passionate about. Maybe it’s their lips. Maybe it’s something they said. Maybe it’s some other body part. And then, block the rest of it out.” That’s your method acting for porn, and I think it applies across the board.
So why oral history? Why are you passionate about that?
Oral history is like making a documentary between hard covers. I am getting the material, and then I am editing the material. I have a facility for making people’s voices come alive on the page as they sound.
I like the sound of people’s voices. I feel like people explain themselves better than I am able to explain them. I don’t want to tell readers what to think. I’d rather they make their own judgments. It’s a harder road, because publishers would rather have you tell readers what to think. Or paint pictures. I paint pictures with other people’s voices.
How do you support yourself? Not everyone can take four years to write a book.
In a perfect world, you’d just abandon the day job. Look. You have to be sensible, obviously, but you also have to be aware of when fear of abandoning the day job is getting in the way of you pursuing your passion.
Eddie Murphy once told me that he didn’t believe in having something to “fall back” on. Because if you’re going to be a hairdresser while you’re trying to be an actor, you’ll end up being a hairdresser. So you really have to let go. After awhile you stop thinking about it. And you just do it.
I think, really, to the point of your subject, about passion, most people are afraid not of failing, but of succeeding. People are afraid of their power. You have enormous power. You can do things. Its like, “What happens if I succeed and my dream comes true?” That’s as scary to some people as what happens if they fail.
I mean, “They won’t pay me as a writer because they won’t let me have that much fun?” Well, sorry, I guess you’ll be working on the breadline. Yes! They will pay you for having that much fun. Look around! What do you think the other writers are doing?
You can easily give yourself a chance in this to see if it works or not.
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THERE ARE 4 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
Writing Says:
July 29th, 2008
[…] Pursue the Passion: The Interviews Tags: Bible, Concerts, David Rensin, Girls, Job, Oral Historian, Passion, Playboy, Studs Terkel, […]
Writing Says:
July 29th, 2008
[…] Original Pursue the Passion: The Interviews […]
Steve Says:
July 30th, 2008
This was the best interview and writing to date. I especially liked “Eddie Murphy once told me that he didn’t believe in having something to “fall back” on. Because if you’re going to be a hairdresser while you’re trying to be an actor, you’ll end up being a hairdresser.”
That is great stuff. KEEP getting the message out PTP. There are very few voices like yours. You are building a larger audience every day. Keep it up.
Pursue the Passion: The Journey » Blog Archive » Getting ‘it’ up for your job Says:
July 31st, 2008
[…] can I be passionate about my job?” There is no better analogy that will stick with you than what best selling author David Rensin told us during an […]
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