Writer's Biography
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From Blue Collar to Blue Blood
If I have any secret sauce at all, it is my lived experiences, which are the springboard for my stories. This goes back to living in a quasi-hood as a child, then to eventually founding and running an investment firm that manages more than $150 million. Along the way, I’ve bussed tables, worked on Wall Street, and have seen enough craziness to fill a book – or write funny scripts.
The investment firm has since been handed off to others, and I am no longer a trustee on a state college board of directors, which all let me write full-time.
Growing up, we were so poor that, at one point, my sisters and I thought we would die from carbon monoxide poisoning as it leaked up from the gaping hole in the floor of my father’s old Ford. It was bearable only when we were moving, when I could open the window for a breeze. But idling at a red light
was asphyxiating. And driving in the winter with the windows closed was a near-death experience. The fumes!
After college, I eventually made it to the boardroom where the egos were higher than Mt. Everest. At one meeting, the president kept yelling at us, “Read my lips! Read my lips! Read my Lips!” The strange thing: He was talking to us on a conference call from three thousand miles away, and we couldn’t see his lips—or any other body part. But we were still scared enough of the big boss to crap and fart in our pants. More fumes.
Romance, Schmo-manace
Over the years running my business, in the romance department, I’ve seen just about everything – and I’m still confused.
I’ve worked with a rich wife whose greedy newlywed husband threw her overboard from a sailboat to inherit her money, but she swam miles to make it to shore anyway, then divorced his ass.
I’ve seen an old widow who was probably murdered by his caregiver, even though she used to walk topless around his house — probably right before pushing him down the steps, too. Who knows, maybe he thought it was worth it. And by the way, she got away with it.
But then I’ve seen a 93-year-old woman marry a 63-year-old Russian immigrant. I initially thought, WTF, but after getting to know them, it seemed like an uncanny perfect fit. She is an amazing woman, and he works to keep up with her.
For my own scripts, I start with all these flavors of truth and completely fictionalize my stories to protect my friends' privacy and to save my own hide.
I write what I know. I write about how these events and people move my own heart to humor.
I live in Florida and Pennsylvania with my wife, Susan.
By the Way . . .
My real name is John Dougherty. Dougherty is pronounced with a hard K in the Philadelphia area, like Dock-er-tee. Thus, the abbreviated moniker Doc.
Over the years, I have honed my craft to write funny scripts with the potential to become commercially successful.