书城励志在哈佛听讲座Ⅱ
19928300000035

第35章

我感觉,这两个星期就如两个季节一样的愉快,这就是成功,我成功了,它如此之大,连电视导播的稿子都要我来写。

Successful enough to write a TV pilot for an original sitcom.

When the network decided to make it,feeling good,I left Saturday Night Live.

而在工作组感觉不错,决心将蛋糕做得更大时,我离开了“生动周六之夜”节目组。

This TV show was going to be groundbreaking.

这个节目将会是奠基性的。

It was going to resurrect the career of TV s Batman,Adam West.

它将让巴特曼亚当威斯特重返江湖。

It was going to be a comedy without a laugh track or a studio audience.

它是没有一丝笑声没有一个观众的喜剧。

It was going to change all the rules.

And here s what happened.

它将打破常规,并且确实如此。

When the pilot aired,it was the second_lowest_rated television show of all time.

而当导播气愤的宣告,这个节目只不过是时下二流的电视节目,因为新斯科细亚的民意测试证明了这点。

It is actually tied with a test pattern they show up in Nova Scotia.

So I was 28and,once again,no job

因此我又一次失去了工作,那年我28岁。

I had good writing credits in New York,but I was filled with disappointment and I had no idea what I was going to do next.

在纽约,我的文章写得不错,可我心灰意冷,茫然不知所措。

And that is when the Simpsons saved my life.

那时是辛普森挽救了我。

I got a job there and started writing episodes about Springfield getting a monorail or Homer going to college.

我在那儿开始着手写些谢菲尔德怎样走上单轨铁道和休谟如何上大学的故事情节。

I was finally putting my Harvard education to good use—writing dialogue for a man who is so stupid that in one episode he forgot to make his own heart beat.

Life was good.

最后我把哈佛学到的知识派上用场了,为一个蠢到上台胡言乱语的人编写台词。

And then an insane,inexplicable opportunity came my way,a chance to audition for host of the new “Late Night”show.

然后一个令人疯狂,莫名其妙的良机光顾与我。担任“夜深”节目主持人,

I took the opportunity very seriously,but at the time—I have to be honest—I had the relaxed confidence of someone who knew he had no real shot,so I couldn t fear losing a great job that I could never hope to have.

And I think that actually that attitude made the difference.

所以我对这天赐良机倍加重视,但在那时,我得面对现实,我以放松的心情自信,没有人会对我构成威胁,因此我用不着担心会失去这份我从不奢望拥有的重要的工作。

I will never forget being in the Simpsons recording basement that morning when the phone rang.

It was for me.

我将永远不会忘记在辛普森地下录音室的早晨,电话响了,是找我的。

But a week later I got another call and got the job.So this,finally,was undeniably it.

但一周后,我又接到一个电话并得到了一份工作。

The truly life_altering break that I had always dreamed of.

这正是梦寐以求的真正的生活的转机。

And so I went to work.

I gathered all my funny friends and poured all my years of comedy experience into building the show over the summer.

因此我立即投入工作,整个夏季我都和风趣幽默的朋友们泡在一起,并将我多年积累的喜剧经验融入节目。

I gathered the talent,figured out the sensibility,found Max,found Andy,found my people.

我收集了有关天才喜剧家的材料,寻找灵感,结果我找到了马克思、安迪,找到了我所要找的人。

We debuted on September 13,1993,and I was really happy,really happy,with our effort.

I felt like I had seized the moment,that I had put my very best foot forward.

1993年9月13日,我们初次登台亮相,那天我真是高兴极了。

我感觉我已抓住了那一瞬间。

And this was what the most respected and widely read television critic,Tom Shales,wrote in the Washington Post.

下面是最令人尊敬和拥有最高收视率的电视评论员汤姆舍尔在《华盛顿邮报》上的评论:

O Brien is a living college of annoying nervous habits.

He giggles and jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs.

He has dark,beady little eyes like a rabbit.

He is one of the whitest white men ever

欧本瑞正将日常生活中的紧张与烦恼拼凑起来。他的咯咯的傻笑伴随他手掌的娴熟抖动。这位拥有又黑又小恰似野兔的眼的人,却是当今最白的人。

O Brien is a switch on the guest who won t leave:

He s the host who should never have come.

欧本瑞善于左右逢源,随机应变。

Let the Late Show with Conan O Brien become the Late Show,and may the host return to whence he came.There s more,but it gets kind of mean.

让欧本瑞的节目做为压轴戏,你一定会有一种宾至如归之感。

Needless to say,I took a lot of criticism,some of it deserved,some of it excessive,and,to be honest with you,it hurt like you would not believe.

But I m telling you all this for a reason.

不用说,我遭受过大量的批评,有些是恰当的,有些是过份了点儿,可说真的,你很难相信我的确遭到了伤害。

I ve had a lot of success.

I ve had a lot of failure.

I ve looked good.

I ve looked bad.

I ve been praised.

And I ve been criticized.

But my mistakes have been necessary.

但我对你们说这些出于一个原因,我经历过成功与失败,感受过光荣与耻辱,品尝过掌声和责骂,但我所走的弯路却是我人生的必经之道。

I ve dwelled on my failures today because,as graduates of Harvard,your biggest liability is your need to succeed,your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve.

如今我已习惯于品尝失败,而你们,作为哈佛的研究生,最大的愿望就是获得成功,徜徉在幸福的河流之中。

Success is a lot like a bright white tuxedo.

成功很像洁白无暇的晚礼服,你越想得到它,你就越怕它染上污垢,遭到玷污。

You feel terrific when you get it,but then you re desperately afraid of getting it dirty,of spoiling it.

I left the cocoon of Harvard,I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live,I left the cocoon of the Simpsons.

之后,我离开了哈佛的襁褓,舍弃了“生动周六之夜”的温床,阔别了辛普森的摇篮。

And each time it was bruising and tumultuous.

而每一次的离别都是遍体鳞伤,引起一片哗然。

And yet every failure was freeing,and today I m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good.

而每一次的失败都让我的心灵得到放松,如今我对挫折的怀念犹如我对成功的渴望一样。

So that s what I wish for all of you—the bad as well as the good.

Fall down.

Make a mess.

Break something occasionally.

这就是我对你们的期望,倒下,将事情弄糟,偶尔“停业”整顿一下。

Know that your mistakes are your own unique way of getting to where you need to be.

要知道失败乃成功之母。

And remember that the story is never over.并记住失败是永无休止的。

If you ll indulge me for just a second,I d like to read a little something from just this year.

如果你听了我的演讲就那么一会儿,那我来念一段:

Somehow,Conan O Brien has transformed himself into the brightest star in the late_night firmament.

无论如何,欧本瑞已将他自己变成了夜空中最为灿烂的星星。

His comedy is the gold standard,and Conan himself is not only the quickest and most inventive wit of his generation,but quite possibly the greatest host ever.Ladies and gentlemen,class of 2000,I wrote that this morning.

他的喜剧具有现代气息而光彩照人,而他本人不仅是那个时代的最机敏最具有创造性的人,而且也极有可能是迄今为止最伟大的主宰自己的人。

As proof that when all else fails,you always have delusion.

I will go now to make bigger mistakes and to embarrass this fine institution even more.

我将去犯更大的错误,使一些所谓的常规陷于崩溃的边缘。

But let me leave you with one last thought.

但请让我留给你们一个最后的问题。

If you can laugh at yourself,loud and hard,every time you fall,people will think you re drunk.

如果你大声而痛苦地嘲笑你自己,而每一次你都跌到在地,人们就会认为你一定喝醉酒了。

Thank you.谢谢。

From You ve Got Laughs!

上帝与你同乐。