Martin Olson (born April 2, 1956) is an American comedy writer, television producer, author and composer. He is known for his unusual subject matter, and is an original member of the Boston Comedy Scene. He is the father of actress Olivia Olson.
Olson has received seven Emmy nominations, five for television writing and two for song writing. Olson also received an Ace Award for television writing.[1]
Olson began writing for comedians before there were any comedy clubs in Boston. As a young man, he sent batches of jokes to Rodney Dangerfield, which were always returned with the same polite note scrawled at the bottom, "Sorry, Marty!" (According to his agent's press kit, years later when writing for Penn & Teller in Las Vegas, Olson produced comedy bits with Dangerfield and the two became friends.)[5] Olson first sold comedy material to the hosts of local "Gong Shows", which began his career as a comedy writer.
Olson and comedian Lenny Clarke became roommates in Harvard Square; comedians from all over the country stayed with them while performing in Boston comedy clubs. Olson wrote for Clarke, who was the most popular comedian in Boston. Their apartment became known as The Barracks, a legendary hub of comedy and depravity that was the subject of a television special on Boston comedy in the 1980s, and also of the award-winning documentary on the Boston comedy scene When Standup Stood Out (2006) directed by filmmaker-comedian Fran Solomita.[8]
When comedian, writer and political satirist Barry Crimmins started the second comedy club in the Boston area called the Ding Ho, Olson became piano player and with writer Jim Harris created Lenny Clarke's Late Show, a late-night comedy series on TV-38 hosted and co-written by Clarke. This bizarre, two-hour weekly monster movie show attracted a small but dedicated cult following. After two years Olson and Clarke were fired for airing two controversial segments ("News for Negroes" and "The Mentally Challenged Faith Healer" featuring Bobcat Goldthwait).[9]
Olson and the West Coast comedy scene
Olson took his tapes from the show and drove cross-country to San Francisco with comedian Don Gavin. There, by coincidence, the 1980 San Francisco Comedy Competition was starting up, which offered a first prize of $10,000. Olson helped Gavin audition and make it into the finals. There Olson met his future wife Kay Furtado, a writer who had been flown to San Francisco to coach another comedian in the competition. A year later they were married in a ceremony in San Francisco by comedian Michael Pritchard, attended by all of the local comedians. Olson and his wife moved to Los Angeles where they raised two children, Casey Olson and Olivia Olson.
While staff writer forRocko's Modern Life, Olson's office was next to that of Stephen Hillenburg, his friend who years later would create SpongeBob SquarePants. Olson read The Intertidal Zone, an educational comic book hosted by a sea sponge character, which Hillenburg had written and illustrated. Olson enthusiastically encouraged Hillenburg to create an underwater television series like the book, which became the SpongeBob series.[12]
Olson wrote, co-wrote or directed a number of off-beat stage plays in Los Angeles, including "The Head", "The Idiots", "I Never Knew My Father", "1958", "Torn", "The Ron Lynch Show", "The Bob Rubin Experience" and "Cold Black Heart" at various theaters, including the Comedy Central Stage, the HBO Theater and the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. Olson and his writing partner comedian Jeremy Kramer were head writers for Fox's Comic Strip Live, for Screen Actors Guild Awards for three years, and for the animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. Olson was also producer of Penn & Teller's FX variety series Penn & Teller's Sin City Spectacular.[13]
With the help of his literary agent Annette Van Duren, Olson sold comedy screenplays to DreamWorks, United Artists, Touchstone Pictures, and Warner Bros.[14] He wrote the satirical book Encyclopaedia of Hell, and sold the film rights to Warner Bros. through Andrew Lazar of Mad Chance Productions.[15] With Ken Kaufman and Howard Klausner, Olson co-wrote the final draft of the screenplay adaptation of his book for WB under a new title, D-Men.[15]
Olson collaborated with many writers and artists: with special effects director Phil Tippett on the screenplay for Veronica's Daughter, with writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait on the screenplay Sightings for United Artists, with writer-comedian Rob Schneider on the screenplay Family Disorder for Touchstone, with writer-comedian Kevin Nealon on the screenplay Late Bloomer, with director Ken Locsmandi on the story and screenplay for Bronson Beak, and with sci-fi novelist Robert Sheckley on the screen adaptation of his wonderful novel Dimension of Miracles. Olson was a contributing story writer ("Additional Writing By") and songwriter for Disney's TV film Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension. Olson also adapted the novel The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton, as a screenplay for Andrew Lazar of Mad Chance.
Olson first collaborated with songwriter Jeff Root on four home studio albums in the 1970s.
Olson's latest CD was written and recorded with his daughter Olivia Olson (July 2013) and called The Father-Daughter Album of Unspeakable Beauty, released at Comicon SD 2013, and their new album, Hey I'm Not Dead Yet, has a release date at Comicon NYC 2021 (delayed due to covid).[19]
Books
Olson's encyclopedic satire Encyclopaedia of Hell is published by Feral House (July 2011);[20] the film rights were bought by Warner Bros. through producer Andrew Lazar for Mad Chance. The French edition was published in 2016 by Les Editions Lapin, Paris.[21] His notorious children's book The Adventure Time Encyclopaedia (July 2013), published by Abrams Books, reached #5 on the New York Times Best-Seller List.[22] His latest Abrams book, The Enchiridion/Marcy's Super-Secret Scrapbook, was cowritten with his daughter Olivia Olson, and released at Comicon NYC 2015.
His fourth book is The Conquest of Heaven, a mystical history book from the future, and a breakdown of the paradoxical Secrets of the Universe, written by demons and angels. Conquest is a sequel to his first book from Feral House.
Olson also wrote two unpleasant collections of poems, Hitler's Dog and Imaginary History of Reality, which are available for free DL.[23]
Awards
Olson has seven Emmy Nominations, five for TV writing and two for songwriting:
Olson, Martin. 2016 Prime Time Emmy Nomination/Outstanding Animated Program – "Phineas & Ferb".
Olson, Martin. 2014 Prime Time Emmy Nomination/Outstanding Short Form Animated Program – "Phineas & Ferb".
Olson, Martin. 2012 Prime Time Emmy Nomination/Outstanding Short Form Animated Program – "Phineas & Ferb".
^Hillenburg, Stephen; Murray, Joe (2003). The Origin of SpongeBob SquarePants. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete First Season (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment.
