If you’re wondering if seeing a therapist will help your bizarre comedian tendencies, well, help is such subjective word. This week’s The New Yorker profiles Adam McKay’s therapist Barry Michels, who’s unorthodox methods are designed help creative people figure out how to move past being neurotic bundle of nerves and actually write that script. According the article, McKay started visiting Michels four years ago, after his fear of speaking to the press would have him visibly shaking on the red carpet. “People are, like, ‘Oh, my God, are you all right? Do you have Parkinson’s?’ You think no one will notice and then you read the comments online, and people are genuinely worried, or, worse, they’re making fun of you,†McKay explained. Aw, how sweet and/or what assholes!
To help him conquer his anxiety, Michels made him “an index card bearing the mantra ‘YOU ARE MARKED TO BATTLE THE FORCES OF JUDGMENT’ and one with a drawing of a stick figure radiating arrows to symbolize the internal seat of authority, which McKay keeps in the visor of his car.†The good doctor also taught him to utilize him Cosmic Rage, which entitled his shouting “‘Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!’ in his head to a roomful of faceless critics.†As bullshit as it might sound to the rest of America, McKay counts himself as a therapy success story: “I did Jimmy Fallon, the red carpet, all the press junkets where you’re filmed a hundred times, and I did great with it, But for some fuckin’ reason Charlie Rose got me again.†No, but really, you can’t argue with results. Something to think about as you try to grind out your Always Sunny spec for the one billionth time or, you know, can’t leave the house.