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This article is written from the Real World Perspective.

Ernest Martin Olson (born April 2, 1952) is an American writer, author, and songwriter. For Phineas and Ferb, he was a writer starting with "Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror" and a songwriter. His daughter, Olivia Olson, plays Vanessa Doofenshmirtz in Phineas and Ferb and is a featured singer on the soundtrack CDs.

Background[]

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, Olson began writing for comedians before there were any comedy clubs in Boston. He sent pages of jokes to Rodney Dangerfield, which were returned with the same polite note scrawled at the bottom, "Sorry, Marty!" (According to his agent's press kit, years later when writing for Penn and Teller in Las Vegas, Olson produced comedy bits with Dangerfield and the two became friends.)

In an interview for the Writers Guild of America's magazine Written By, Olson stated that as a child he saw the eccentric German comedian Brother Theodore ranting and raving on The Merv Griffin Show, and from that moment on he knew he would be a comedy writer. (Before his death in 2001, Brother Theodore became a fan of Olson's first book ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF HELL, and wrote one of the quotes on the book's dust cover.)

Olson and Boston comedy[]

Olson started the first comedy club in Boston in 1977 with local producers Paul Barclay and Bil Downes. There, he became "house piano player"and performed as a comedian for the first two years with an absurdist deadpan act. At the club every night for four years, Olson worked for and wrote with the comedians who became his friends — Lenny Clarke, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jimmy Tingle, Steven Wright, Denis Leary, Steve Sweeney, Joe Alaskey, Sean Morey and many others.

"The Barracks"[]

Olson and comedian Lenny Clarke became roommates in an apartment near Harvard University where comedians from all over the country "crashed" while performing in their comedy club. Olson wrote for Clarke, who soon became the most popular comedian in Boston. Their apartment became known as "The Barracks", a legendary hub of comedy and depravity that was the subject of a television special on Boston comedy in the 1980s, and also of the award-winning documentary on the Boston comedy scene When Standup Stood Out (2006) directed by filmmaker-comedian Fran Solomita.

Olson, The Ding Ho and "Lenny Clarke's Late Show"[]

When Barry Crimmins started the second comedy club in the Boston area called the Ding Ho, Olson became piano player and created Lenny Clarke's Late Show, a late-night comedy TV series on TV-38 hosted and co-written by Clarke. This bizarre, two-hour weekly show attracted a small but dedicated cult following. After two years Olson and Clarke were fired for airing two controversial segments ("News for Negroes" and "The Mentally Retarded Faith Healer" featuring Bobcat Goldthwait).

Olson and the West Coast Comedy Scene[]

Olson took his tapes from the show and drove cross-country to San Francisco with Boston comedian Don Gavin. There by coincidence the 1980 SF Comedy Competition was starting up, with a First Prize of $10,000.00. Olson helped Gavin audition and make it into the finals. There Olson met his future wife Kay Furtado, a writer who had been flown to SF to coach another comedian in the competition. A year later they married in a ceremony in San Francisco attended by all of the local comedians. Olson and his wife moved to Los Angeles where they raised two children, Casey Olson and Olivia Olson.

Comedy Writing[]

Olson's Los Angeles home became a halfway house for comedians coming to L.A. to perform and audition for shows. Meanwhile Olson wrote HBO comedy performance specials, became staff writer for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, wrote an Ace-Award-winning series for Comedy Central in London and became head writer for a number of animated series voiced by his comedian friends.

Impact and Affiliations in Contemporary Comedy[]

Specializing in writing comedy specials and directing one-man shows, Olson became producer-writer for Penn and Teller on their notorious FX variety series Penn Teller's Sin City Spectacular.

When Olson was a writer for Rocko's Modern Life, director Stephen Hillenburg showed Olson a comic book called "The Intertidal Zone" that Hillenburg drew in college. Olson loved it and suggested that Stephen rewrite it as an undersea cartoon series, which became Spongebob Squarepants.

Selling comedy screenplays to Dreamworks, UA, Touchstone and Warner Bros, Olson was able to dedicate his time to writing books, composing music and directing live stage performances in Hollywood at the HBO Theater, The Steve Allen Theater and Comedy Central Stage featuring well-known comedians and actors.

As an occasional actor, Olson guest starred in a live action sequence in Spongebob Squarepants ("Mermaid Man 5"), in "Don't Watch This Show" by director-comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, in the documentary When Standup Stood Out by filmmaker Fran Solomita, on The Tonight Show playing an Indian Yogi with Bobcat Goldthwait, and in a featured role as a fundamentalist professor in the film The Anna Cabrini Chronicles by filmmaker Tawd b. Dorenfeld. Olson also voices "Lord of Evil" in Cartoon Network's Adventure Time!, playing the evil father of his real-life daughter Olivia Olson who plays Marceline the Vampire Queen in the series.

Gallery[]

Episodes he wrote[]

He also wrote additional material for Phineas and Ferb the Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension.

External links[]

Some of Olson's work has been published online:

v - e - dCrew
Producers
Brandi Young | Carla Arcuri | Dan Povenmire | Jeff "Swampy" Marsh
Lance LeCompte | Mark Brammeier | Natasha Kopp | Robert F. Hughes
Writers
Alex Almaguer | Aliki Theofilopoulos | Antoine Guilbaud | Bernie Petterson | Bill Motz | Bob Bowen
Bob Roth | Bobby Gaylor | Calvin Suggs | Chong Lee | Chris Headrick | Clint Daniels
Damon Lindelof | Dan Povenmire | Dani Vetere | David Shayne | David Teitelbaum | Derek Thompson
Devin Bunje | Douglas McCarthy | Eddie Pittman | Eddy Houchins | Edgar Karapetyan | Edward Rivera
Elizabeth Ito | J.G. Quintel | Jeff "Swampy" Marsh | Jeff Myers | Jeffrey M. Howard | Jen Kirkman
Jennifer Keene | Jill Daniels | Jim Bernstein | Joe Orrantia | John Mathot | Jon Colton Barry
Jonathan Howard | Joshua Pruett | Kate Kondell | Kaz Prapuolenis | Kent Osborne | Kim Roberson
Kyle Menke | Lance LeCompte | Marc Ceccarelli | Marc Crisafulli | Martin Olson | May Chan
Michael B. Singleton | Michael Diederich | Michael Ryan | Mike Bell | Mike Milo | Mike Roth
Nick Stanton | Patrick O'Connor | Perry Zombolas | Piero Piluso | Richard Goodman | Scott Peterson
Sergio Armendariz | Seth Kearsley | Sherm Cohen | Timothy Björklund | Tom Minton | Zac Moncrief
Storyboard Artists‎
Aimee Steinberger | Albert Calleros | Alex Almaguer | Aliki Theofilopoulos | Antoine Guilbaud
Ashley Michelle Simpson | Bernie Petterson | Calvin Suggs | Chong Lee | Chris Headrick
Derek Thompson | Douglas McCarthy | Eddie Pittman | Eddy Houchins | Edgar Karapetyan
Edward Rivera | Elizabeth Ito | Flammarion Ferreira | J.G. Quintel | Jeff Myers | Joe Orrantia
John Mathot | Jon Colton Barry | Joshua Pruett | Kaz Prapuolenis | Kent Osborne | Kim Roberson
Kyle Baker | Kyle Menke | Marc Ceccarelli | Marc Crisafulli | Matt Whitlock | Michael B. Singleton
Michael Diederich | Mike Bell | Mike Milo | Mike Roth | Nick Sazani | Patrick O'Connor
Patrick Ventura | Perry Zombolas | Piero Piluso | Ram Patel | Seth Kearsley | Sherm Cohen
Steven Umbleby | Tammy Manis | Timothy Björklund | Tom Minton | Wendy Grieb | Zac Moncrief
Directors‎
Alan Bodner | Bob Bowen | Dan Povenmire | Jamie Thomason | Jay Lender
Jeff "Swampy" Marsh | Jill Daniels | Kim Roberson | Kristin Paiva | Lisa Schaffer
Robert F. Hughes | Ruben Chavez | Sara Jane Sherman | Sue Perrotto | Zac Moncrief
Assistant Directors‎
Derek Thompson | Herb Moore | Jacob Hair | Jay Lender | Kyler Spears
Oreste Canestrelli | Russell Calabrese | Sue Perrotto | Tricia Garcia
Songwriters‎
Andrew Novak | Antoine Guilbaud | Bernie Petterson | Billy Lopez | Celeste Moreno | Dan Povenmire
Emanuel Kiriakou | Janis Liebhart | Jeff "Swampy" Marsh | Jennifer Hughes | Jim Bernstein
Joey Lawrence | Jon Colton Barry | Karey Kirkpatrick | Kate Micucci | Keith Horn | Madison Scheckel
Martin Olson | Michael Culross Jr. | Patrick O'Connor | Piero Piluso | Randy Rogel | Rob Morrow
Robert Lopez | Scott Heiner | Sean McGuire | Sue Perrotto | Wayne Brady
Musicians‎
Aaron Jacob | Beverley Staunton | Big Bad Voodoo Daddy | Bowling For Soup | Carmen Carter
Christopher Showerman | Danny Jacob | Darryl Phinnessee | Fee Waybill | Ian Osborne | Jack Jones
Jaret Reddick | Jason Paige | Jeff Gunn | Jen Hirsh | Kate Pierson | Kenny Loggins | Laura Dickinson
Linda Strawberry | Marshall Richards | Matt Bissonette | Nick Belcher | Randy Crenshaw
Rick Cowling | Robbie Wyckoff | Sarah Hudson | Sheena Easton | Slash | Traci Hines | Vangie Gunn
Authors
Disney Book Group | Greg Guler | Jim Bernstein | Jon Colton Barry | Nancy Ulene | Scott Peterson
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