The Man Who Made Mark Twain Famous by Cappy McGarr

Author:Cappy McGarr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: N/A
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2021-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Twain in the Tweens

After Tom Daschle lost his reelection bid in 2004, suddenly a bunch of talented, hardworking staffers for one of the most high-level Democrats in the country were left adrift. Then, as the 2008 presidential race revved up, and Daschle endorsed then-Senator Obama’s insurgent candidacy, a bunch of Daschle’s people made the transition to the campaign—and eventually, the White House. Perhaps the most high-profile Daschle alum in Obama’s orbit was Pete Rouse, who was Senator Daschle’s chief of staff, then the chief of staff for Obama for America, before taking on the role of senior adviser to the president after the 2008 election.

What the Obama folks might not have understood is that when you adopt Tom Daschle’s people, you get me too.8 I sat on the National Finance Committee for the Obama campaign, and early in Obama’s presidency, I called Pete Rouse and let him know I was interested in being appointed to the board of the Kennedy Center because I wanted to be as involved with the Mark Twain Prize as possible. Pete put in a good word, and in 2011, I became one of only two people in the Kennedy Center’s history up to that point to get appointed to its board by two different presidents of the United States. Or you could say I snuck in under the nose of two different presidents—however you want to put it.

Around that time, after many years of honoring living legends who had made their mark decades earlier, there was a period when we shifted to paying tribute to comedians who were firmly in their prime. This wasn’t a conscious decision per se, but early in the development of the Mark Twain Prize we decided that it would not necessarily be a lifetime achievement award—at least in the sense that it doesn’t have to be awarded at the end of a career. Instead, it’s meant to honor anyone who has achieved the highest degree of excellence and influence in comedy, regardless of what age they achieved it. Whether you’re ninety-three or thirty-nine, the key question is: Has your career changed the shape of American comedy?

In that regard, the next three recipients of the Mark Twain Prize fit the bill: Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and Ellen DeGeneres.

In 2010, Tina Fey became our thirteenth recipient. She was the third woman to receive the Mark Twain Prize, as well as the youngest winner ever at the age of forty. But despite her relative youth, Tina’s career was unmatched in many regards: she had been Saturday Night Live’s first female head writer, one of that show’s all-time most iconic cast members, the screenwriter behind a modern comedy classic in Mean Girls, the creator and star of one of the best sitcoms of the 2000s in 30 Rock, and she did a Sarah Palin impression that was so uncanny and biting that it might have handed Barack Obama the 2008 election—it was either that or the financial crisis. I go back and forth.

Everything

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