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Wit large No doubt about it: Merrill Markoe '68, M.A. '70, is wired to barb. "I think people figure out early in their lives what currency they can work in," says the Emmy Award-winning writer and one of the creative forces behind Late Night With David Letterman. "Some people know that they are so adorable looking, all they have to do is smile and dress up," says Markoe. "Then there are some of us who, early on, see that that doesn't work. So we joke about it." She's written six books, including Merrill Markoe's Guide to Love and How to Be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me, and served as editor of Late Night, a compilation of pieces written during the first five years of the show. In each of her works, Markoe taps her life experiences, extracting giggles from the grimmest of scenarios--a "love" seminar, a relationship in which an enraged partner hurls cooked lobsters, and humiliating dinners with loud, abrasive parents. Many of those loathsome family repasts, which beat at the jaded heart of 2002 bestseller It's My F---ing Birthday, took place in Berkeley. "My parents would just embarrass me to tears," she says, "because Berkeley was so incredibly cool, and they were so loud and curt and abrasive and unafraid." But not all memories of Cal drip with family dysfunction. Markoe reveled in the chaos of campus life in the late '60s. "I can remember walking down Telegraph Avenue and having people come up to me and say: 'Are you interested in trying a new religion?' And I said: 'Sure,' and got in the car with them." In 1980, Markoe teamed up with then-beau David Letterman to create a morning show that would go on to become the Late Show with David Letterman. One of the Late Show's celebrated segments, "Stupid Pet Tricks," had its beginnings in Berkeley, says Markoe. "When I was an undergrad, sitting around with friends, broke and with nothing to do, our entertainment for the evening might be putting socks on our dogs," she remembers. In What the Dogs Have Taught Me, Markoe pays tribute to her overly excitable pawed pal Lewis, who is afflicted with a "greeting disorder." "He tries to injure people in the name of love when they come in the door," she says. Though Markoe ended her relationship with Late Night--and Letterman--in 1987, she made amends seven years later when she appeared on the show to promote her second book, How To Be Hap-Hap-Happy Like Me. "It was a dark joke that appealed to my sense of humor," says Markoe: "That you would not speak to somebody for a very long time, then get all dressed up, put on tons of makeup, and go see him on his show. It was a lot of fun." Other Markoe TV credits include Michael Moore's short-lived TV Nation and HBO's Not Necessarily the News. In her new book, The Psycho Ex Game, she pairs with current beau--veteran singer/songwriter Andy Prieboy--for a study in two-part disharmony: two jaded Angelenos engage in a battle of online one-upsmanship to establish who has suffered more in the name of love. --Allison Block '86 |
 June 2004 Keep in touch with fellow classmates through California Monthly's Class Notes. Become a member of the California Alumni Association now to receive your own copy of the magazine. Call the Monthly at 510 / 642-5781 for Class Secretary names and addresses, or submit your own Class Notes now.
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