Michael Jann on Bug Therapy
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Description
Michael Jann is an Emmy-nominated late-night comedy writer for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon for over two decades. Michael teaches screenwriting at UCLA-Extension. He co-wrote and co-produced the short animated film Bug Therapy (www.bugtherapy.film). It’s a story about a mosquito who faints at the sight of blood. This story is deeply personal: Mike’s son suffered a severe mental-breakdown at age 29, resulting in hospitalizations and psych wards. His ongoing recovery (fingers crossed) has fueled Mike’s passion to fight the stigma of mental illness. Mike lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and writing partner Michele Jourdan. Michele’s the funny one; Mike's the pretty one. In Bug Therapy, Citronella, a mosquito who faints at the sight of blood, nervously waits outside her first group therapy session, while the Pill Bug therapist, Dr. Pill tries to calm a neurotic group of bugs, each suffering from a mental-health issue: An OCD germaphobic Fly freaks when he runs out of hand sanitizer. A Dragonfly couple struggle with co-dependency; she's literally on top of him. A Grasshopper, addicted to coffee, is so jumpy, he launches himself in mid-sentence. A Praying Mantis who doesn't pray because she thinks she is God. A terrified Spider is deathly afraid of -- spiders. And, a perfectly-camouflaged Stick Bug complains that no one ever "sees" him. Throughout all this, Citronella battles her urge to flee - while Dr. Pill implores her to share her "embarrassing" problem.
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