I would be the person they would have sent to tell them they were made redundant.”Īsk Queenan where the humor is in business writing and he wisely says it’s in the words of the person writing about it. “I would have closed it down a long time ago. “The thing about “The Office” is, if I were an executive, I would close down Dunder Mifflin,” Elliott said. Elliot’s career has spanned both working in business and writing for the stage. While television’s “The Office” mines work for laughter, Elliott says that may be a paradigm for successful comedy, but not necessarily a successful company. Queenan and Elliott often write about the workplace. Neil Simon wrote about the humor in relationships. “One thing I like about writing plays is, when you write jokes, you don’t have to write long.”ĭavid Mamet became famous writing about male bravado. I won’t write anything long unless I get paid for it,” said Queenan, who punches up the dialogue in “The Oracle” with humor. I don’t get paid a dollar a word for an e-mail. If you send me an e-mail, my reply is about six words long. But if working may involve drama, even talking with these two writers tends to lead to laughter. Rather than wielding weapons, the characters wield wit as they struggle for power and position. In a world where business is rarely viewed as fodder for laughter, Queenan in the pages (and digital views) of The Wall Street Journal and now with Elliott on stage finds humor and heart. He’s a former executive at a large company and author of business books, as well as numerous plays. “The story is about how, in business, one succeeds not by doing what the textbook will tell you,” Elliott explained.
“The Oracle,” playing at Theater for the New City in the East Village from May 18 to May 22, is the latest result of the two writers’ collaboration, frequently finding comedy (and some drama) in the office. Queenan and Elliott have written a fast-paced, fun new comedy that, although it’s not strictly speaking a Western set in the workplace, is about a company where two chief knowledge officers vie for power. “But in our play the young gunfighter wins. And the young gunfighter is going to lose,” Queenan says before describing the play he and Elliott wrote. “The old gunfighter has to face off against the young gunfighter. Although it’s set in an office, Queenan sees the situation as similar to the 1950 Western “The Gunfighter,” starring Gregory Peck as an aging Johnny Ringo.
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK | On a recent day, Joe Queenan, a humor columnist for The Wall Street Journal, described the situation and the set-up for “The Oracle,” the new play he wrote with T.J.
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