Paul Scheer on Writing His 'Joyful' New Memoir and What His Galaxy Quest Series Would Have Been Like

As I mentioned to Paul Scheer when we spoke this week, the man is the epitome of multihyphenate. From the TV series he’s been a regular on (including The League and Black Monday), to his frequent guest star appearances (Night Court and Knuckles, just to use recent examples), to projects he’s created like NTSF:SD:SUV, to the comic books he’s written and the podcast’s he co-hosts (How Did This Get Made? and Unspooled), the man seems to never rest. So why not become a published author too? 

May 21 sees the release of Scheer’s first book, Joyful Recollections of Trauma, a memoir that dives deep into Scheer’s childhood. Listeners to How Did This Get Made? are familiar with the often unusual and hysterical stories Scheer will sometimes tell and the book provides plenty of that, but also lives up to its title, as Scheer is truthful about some notably dark and harrowing experiences he went through for a prolonged period growing up and how that shaped the man he is, including discussing his early career and meeting and falling in love with his wife and How Did This Get Made co-host, June Diane Raphael. The book is a terrific read – funny and poignant throughout and a testament to what a great storyteller Scheer is – and well worth pre-ordering. 

Scheer and I spoke at length about the process of writing Joyful Recollections of Trauma, including how he decided what to include and what to not, especially when it came to his career. We also chatted about How Did This Get Made? and how the podcast has had incredible longevity (14 years and counting!) - and I made my plea to finally get them to cover the majesty that is Troll 2.

Paul was very generous with his time and we actually spoke longer than I expected. Long enough, in fact, that I decided to post the entire conversation as my first Substack-originated podcast. You can listen to the entire conversation at the link above, while below are some notable excerpts in text form, including Scheer revealing more about the Galaxy Quest TV series he was once developing and how it would have had a lot of fun with the idea of Hollywood’s modern approach of taking once-niche sci-fi and rebooting it as a huge blockbuster.