The Great Gambino

Okay so maybe I'm not talking about THE Great Gambino but I do want to talk about a man some may know as Childish Gambino (a stage moniker) and others may know as Donald Glover. The man can do anything he wants.

He's a rapper:

(Bonfire music video, directed by Derrick Comedy alumn Dan Eckman)

With two certified gold singles (Heartbeat and 3005) Glover raps under the name Childish Gambino.

A writer:

(30 Rock)

After working on Derrick Comedy, he gained attention, and became a writer with occasional cameos on Tina Fey's hit show, 30 Rock. He later left the show to pursue his acting career.

An actor:

(Community)

“Usually, when writers tell you they want to pursue performing, you want to tell them to keep their day jobs. But with Donald, I had to agree that his talent, youth and handsomeness were not to be wasted sitting on my living room floor.”  - Tina Fey

And a comedian:

(From his standup, Weirdo)

This clip explains the internet campaign that began with one fan suggesting on an online message board that Donald would make a good spiderman. This seemingly harmless opinion led to an internet sensation revolving around arguments of the race of spiderman and ended with Andrew Garfield getting the role. Don't worry though, they worked it out.

(Picture tweeted by Glover with the message, "Talked it out")

This story does have a happy ending. Writer, Brian Bendis, released a comic about a year later with a black spiderman, saying he had the idea before the whole "Donald for Spiderman" debacle, but that it did influence his choices for the character.

Now that character, known as Miles Morales, is appearing on Ultimate Spiderman, a Disney Channel cartoon adaptation of the Marvel comics. Miles Morales is a half black, half latino prepubescent who takes over for Peter Parker, and IS TO BE VOICED BY DONALD GLOVER.

And as a bonus heres a Derrick Comedy sketch about film school and a crazy ex-boyfriend played by Donald Glover:

As a second bonus here is Tina Fey rapping on Childish Gambino's album Royalty:

Dan Harmon's Story Circles

As a scriptwriting minor and hopefully, a future television writer, I have spent a lot of time trying to find the best (and easiest) way to structure a story. The typical three-act structure was not cutting it for me, as it left too much to interpret; dividing an episode of television up into three identifiable parts was difficult and messy, especially with the commercial breaks.

As a scriptwriting minor with a serious affection for NBC's Community, though, I have found the structure that I was seeking through the work of the show's creator, Dan Harmon. Since the 90's, he has perpetuated the idea of the "Story Circle", as seen below.


These story structure circles dictate not only the ebb and flow of the episode, but the state and development of the characters within it. It is a quick, surefire formula for creating compelling and fun stories. This isn't just the ramblings of some comedian; it is based directly off of Joseph Campbells monomyth, or the Hero's Journey. The protagonist ventures out into the unknown, and then returns, having changed. Here are the steps elaborated further:

1. A character is in a zone of comfort,
2. But they want something.
3. They enter an unfamiliar situation,
4. Adapt to it,
5. Get what they wanted,
6. Pay a heavy price for it,
7. Then return to their familiar situation,
8. Having changed.

As you can see, the Story Circle does not vary from the three act structure, but instead expands and develops it. Watch an episode of Community. I would wager that in 75% of the episodes (or maybe more), all seven of the main characters go through this circle, whether in an elaborate way or not.

I just recently used this very same circle to write the script for my film for this class, called $perm Bank. I loved how the formula emphasized character change and tied the plot directly into character growth (shouldn't that always be the case?)

Dan Harmon released a series of six well-written tutorials to teach his formula, the first of which can be found here. He also graciously includes a sixth tutorial which explains the use of this character-changing formula within the realm of television, a venue which is notoriously stagnant in that regard.