I am technically a filmmaker, so there is more of a filmic influence on my work than actual literaturary influences. I became a writer because of the Marx Brothers. That part of Life: An Autobiography as Told by Jack Gunthridge is true. The rest of it is not so true. I was also influenced by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Mae West, Jack Benny, and George Burns. I think I have also been influenced by Looney Tunes and the Muppets.
I would say that I also have a Billy Wilder influence. There is a wit to his work that appears in mine.
I have sometimes been compared to Woody Allen, but I have never really seen his work. I think we just have some mutual influences, but he has never really influenced me. I'm just putting it out there.
I have also been influenced by some stories like Gone with the Wind, Vertigo, Atonement, and Cinema Paradiso.
I have been influenced by writers like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. Other than that, I read a lot of non-fiction works, which is why I probably wrote a piece of fiction as if it were an autobiography.
Birth Place: Salem, MO USA
Accomplishments: As a teenager, I was accepted to the Governor's Summer Institute for Writers. My screenwriting was at the same level as the poets and fiction writers of my generation. That is quite an achievement.
I won Best Experimental at the 2007 Pumelo International Film Festival. I won the same title at the 2006 Bowling Green State University Film and Media Festival.
