Class Notes copy editor for the Newport News Daily Press. Timothy Wagstaff, b’81, is vice president of sales for the Coleman Company in Wichita.
1981
Leo Gilmore, e’82, manages projects for Chevron in Houston. Jacquie Hill, j’82, is a public-relations specialist for Assurant Employee Benefits in Kansas City. James Kinderknecht, c’82, m’86, prac-
Tamara Whitacre Payne, c’81, g’89,
works as principal scientist for Applied Optimization in Dayton, Ohio. George Pollock, c’81, j’82, lives in Newport News, Va., where he’s senior
Profile
B Y K AT I E C O F F M A N
Writer finds dream gig in the funny business
T
wo years after she graduated from KU, Molly McNearney made the move from Midwest to West Coast. A job in advertising sales had taken her from Chicago to Los Angeles, and for this St. Louis native, acclimation proved difficult. “Santa was wearing board shorts. Girls were wearing fur boots in the summer,” she says incredulously. “The whole culture confused me.” It wasn’t until McNearney, j’00, landed a position as assistant to the executive producer of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that she began to feel at home in L.A. Since she started at “JKL” in 2003, McNearney has used her perfectionist work ethic and sense of humor to climb the ranks to segment coordinator, writers’ assistant, writer, and, after a promotion in 2007, co-head writer. Her daily routine begins at 7:30 a.m. when she scans the news for the top headlines, then stares at her computer screen in hopes of conjuring creative angles on those stories. Celebrities and reality television, always good fodder for a comedy writer, make her job easier some days—McNearney jokes that she’s embarrassed by her vast knowledge of useless information, which includes the 48
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KANSAS ALUMNI
1982
tices medicine with the Columbia Orthopaedic Group and is a clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of Missouri. He recently was named physician director for the Board of Certification, a national credentialing agency. Daniel Myers, m’82, practices surgery with Allen County Surgical Associates in Iola. Richard Rowe, b’82, owns Mid America Business Credit and is vice president and strategic partner at HSBC.
bizarre name of every celebrity’s baby and all the reality show catch phrases. At 11 a.m., McNearney and her colleagues gather around the writers’ table to pitch their ideas to host Kimmel, who determines which bits to use in the evening’s monologue. After hours of editing ■ One of McNearney’s favorite “Jimmy Kimmel Live” moments scripts, writing jokes was working on set with Tom Cruise. In the skit, Kimmel saves and rehearsing shoots, Cruise from a burning building. “I got to work with him and McNearney watches the Jimmy on a shoot, and I was blown away by how nice and 7 p.m. taping (the show professional he was.” airs weeknights at 11:05 Central time on ABC) from Kimmel’s office with fellow staff memthinking about material for the next. bers. Seeing her hard work in action can McNearney says the most difficult part be nerve-racking. of the job is producing creative, original “He’s out there trusting our material,” material every single day. “Thankfully,” McNearney says. “We get to hide in his she explains, “Jimmy has 10 other writers office while he delivers this stuff in front to rely on, so we can each have days of a live audience on national TV.” where we don’t say much.” And the most Finally, at 8 p.m. the entire process rewarding part of the job, of course, is starts over again. “The nice thing about being around people who make her working on a daily show is that if you laugh. had an off day ... you have a blank slate Now in her sixth year with the show, for the next night,” says McNearney, who McNearney feels she has found the perhas to deal with the flip side as well— fect writer’s niche. “I think I have a dream writing something she’s truly proud of, job. It’s incredibly stressful at times, and with mere minutes to enjoy her moment we are all under a lot of daily pressure,” of comedic success. Either way, as soon she admits, “But to get paid to make fun as one show ends, it’s time to start of Paris Hilton is a dream come true.”
ABC PHOTOGRAPHY
Susan Heuchert, p’80, works as a pharmacist at CVS Pharmacy in Dunedin, Fla. Diane Giachetto Prentiss, d’80, teaches at Gadsen Elementary School in Savannah, Ga. She lives in Bloomingdale.