“We interview people face to face to make sure we are not wasting our time with Craigslist psychos”

Unfortunately I lost the original ad. I responded to a Craigslist ad looking for sketch comedy writers. I wrote to them for more information about who they were and what they were planning. I was given a bunch of boilerplate nonsense that told me nothing and asked to rush out the next day to be interviewed in a very crowded train station in Boston called South Station. These people had better be pretty hot shit for me to pay $12 to take a train to South Station to be interviewed on some platform amidst the noise and chaos and loudspeakers of South Station. Irritated by a world full of Craigslist assholes who do not feel that they have to identify themselves and expect people to do all kinds of crazy shit, like being interviewed on the platform of the largest, most crowded train station in Boston, I gave them a not-so-polite response, not expecting them to respond back:

Hi Bobby,

You're not really giving me any real information, like whom I would be
writing for, who would be getting writing credit, what writing
credentials your group has, and what I would be writing for ... stage
... screen ... television ... youtube ... a student project? Also, I
am not an actor; I am a writer, so I'm not really sure what I'm being
interviewed for.

Dickie

I was surprised that they did respond:

Dickie-

Think "whitest kids u know" style sketches that will be posted on our website which will launch early fall 2012. You will get credit for any scripts you bring to the table or any pieces you play a significant role with. My experience is more with acting and the production side of things. Our head writer has a degree in creative writing and spent a semester writing for "the soup." We interview people face to face to make sure we are not wasting our time with Craigslist psychos or people who don't even have enough motivation to come and meet us. See it as a post- collegiate project we want to have some fun with. Our goal is to make people laugh. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea then I wish you the best! If you're interested- email me back.
Bobby Bradbury
Bobbyx.Bradbury@gmail.com
443-834-9520

 

I did offer to be interviewed, but to do it proper:

 

Bobby,

Thank you for the information.
Look, I'm for real. Here is a sample of my work:
http://archive.org/download/dickie-richards-canadian-goose/canadian-goose.mp3
I may be a craigslist voyeur, but I assure you that I am not a
craigslist psycho.
Is anyone available on Thursday instead to interview me at South
Station, as I'm going to be seeing a doctor in the afternoon near
there. Otherwise, would it be possible to meet at a more
car-accessible and quieter location, maybe like a Starbucks in a
suburb.

Dickie

They responded as follows:

I'm sure we can work something out. Let me get through all of the interviews tomorrow and we'll set something up at a later date. I'll listen to the link you sent me tonight. Thank you!
Bobby Bradbury
Bobbyx.Bradbury@gmail.com
443-834-9520

I’m glad I didn’t agree to be interviewed at South Station on their terms. I was busy with something else. If I had rushed out to meet them and gotten jerked around, I would have been really irritated. It’s a pretty bad feeling to be jerked around by jokers. This has happened to me before. Maybe I am just an asshole with a bad attitude; I’m not sure.