Danielle Krage interviews writer, creator, and brand builder John Derevlany. John is an award-winning writer, animator, and showrunner who has written or produced hundreds of hours of TV (including for the Jim Henson Company and LEGO). John has also been a game designer, street artist, investigative journalist and played Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken for Michael Moore’s TV Nation! In this episode John shares learnings from his creative career, and how he now thinks about Super Narrative – his approach to planning a story across multiple media platforms.   Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 02:05 Founding a Comedy Newspaper 03:09 Using Comedy as a Defense Mechanism 04:12 Transition to TV Comedy 05:40 Working with National Lampoon 07:25 Creating Crackers, the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken 08:47 The Power of Reaction Shots in Comedy 09:56 Transition to Animation and Children's Shows 10:38 The Concept of Super Narrative 15:08 Understanding Super Narrative 16:00 Differentiating Super Narrative from Transmedia 24:02 The Need for Innovation in Hollywood 24:49 Adapting and Pivoting in Creative Projects 25:15 Navigating Humour and Broad Appeal 26:04 Considerations for International Audiences 26:34 Keeping Content Broad and Timeless 27:02 Challenges with Technological Advancements 27:49 Creating Characters and Expanding Worlds 28:18 Using AI for Idea Generation 28:57 Simplifying Stories and Layering Content 29:25 Creating a Multitude of Characters 29:58 The Challenges of Naming Characters 30:25 The Role of AI in Joke Generation 31:26 Using AI as a Tool for Creativity 32:09 The Increasing Speed of Content Production 33:21 The Importance of Trying New Things 34:19 The Uncertainty of the Entertainment Industry 35:28 Take Risks and Embrace Ignorance 36:36 Being Playful and Creative in All Aspects 37:35 Finding Inspiration in Comedy and Entertainment 38:16 John's Website and Projects 40:01 The Resurrection of 'Squish' 41:21 Dealing with Fan Obsession   You can find more about John’s work here: https://johnderevlany.com/ Videos - https://johnderevlany.com/video-trailers-episodes/ (Including Squish, Legends of Chima, Crackers the Corporate Crime Fighting Chicken, Uke Til U Puke.)   The "Give me a job LEGO” animation  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZznS4Y06_Cc   The big, outdoor board game:  https://culverland.johnderevlany.com/ You can find the transcript at: https://comedymasterclass.com   And Danielle’s socials here: https://twitter.com/daniellekrage https://www.instagram.com/dekrage