Ned Vizzini

My first reading ever was in 2004 when a friend named Michelle asked me to speak at the Alternative Media Center at Yale, where she was studying. I brought my friend Jeffrey Yamaguchi with me and my wife filmed it. I thought he was great but he thought nerves got the best of him and was grateful that I didn't have enough battery to record both of us. After that first public reading, I wanted to do more of them.

My first appearance at Ned's series was the last one, ever. After that, he asked me to read at a few different venues where he was not the host and those readings went so well that people started asking me to be a part of public readings on a regular basis. I became friends with Ned and he would come see me at my readings because he was a very friendly and supportive guy. He wrote a novel that got published in 2004 called, "Be More Chill." The premise is an awkward high school kid takes a pill that helps him to be cool. After that, he wrote another novel called, "It's Kind of a Funny Story," which was about an awkward high school kid who is depressed and ends up in a mental hospital in New York. It was his way of dealing with his depression and when it became a hit, I was so happy for him. I always liked his writing and it was cool to see someone I genuinely liked succeeding. They made that book into a movie that was hilarious and sad at the same time.

He e-mailed me to to say he was going to move to LA to write for TV. It was something I heard other people attempting and failing many times but Ned actually did it. There was a series network drama about a nuclear sub going rogue. It starred the excellent Andre Braugher as the captain who is trying to do the right thing in an impossible situation. Ned co-wrote an episode and they even gave him a cameo in it. It was so cool to me to see him, even for a second. A humble kid from Brooklyn actually moved out to LA and wrote a TV show. Amazing.

He did a lot of public speaking events on the subject of his depression, his writing and how students can use writing as a treatment for mental health.

I sent him an e-mail congratulating him on the Last Resort credit and cameo and I didn't hear back from him. I asked our mutual friend Ron about him and he said he hadn't heard from Ned in a while. Google gave me the bad news that he jumped off the roof of his parents' building in Brooklyn. Since his death they made "Be More Chill" into a Broadway play and in 2024 I bought a graphic novel adaptation of the same book.

If you want to see Ned introduce me at the reading, click the link. I would embed it but they won't let me because I curse so much.

https://youtu.be/Hj2cIHgmEQI