Backgrounder: John Ficarra
MAD Magazine editor John Ficarra.
Photo: Irving Schild.
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John Ficarra has been on the editorial staff at MAD Magazine in some form or another since 1980, but his love affair with MAD began much earlier. “I started writing for the magazine when I was in grammar school,” Ficarra said, in an interview with the reporter in mid-February. “Unfortunately, they didn’t start buying until I was out of college.”
After earning a BA in journalism from NYU in 1976, Ficarra immediately secured a position at INCO, the world’s leading producer of the nickel, in the sales and marketing department. After, presumably, learning all he needed to know about nickels (i.e., not to take any wooden ones), he was released from the drudgery of corporate America thanks to a massive layoff. Shortly thereafter, Ficarra decided it was time to put his real skills to good use.
Based out of his parent’s house, Ficarra launched a personally fulfilling but financially unrewarding career as a freelance comedy writer, writing for comedians like Rodney Dangerfield and Phyllis Diller, print publications, like OMNi and TV Guide, and and radio shows, including the Ted Brown show on WNEW-AM Radio. In 1980, he received a call from MAD editor Nick Meglin asking if he had any interest in working on other peoples’ scripts. The answer was “Yes.” “[I knew] there was no other corporation in America that would hire me,” Ficarra said, frankly.
Before long he’d landed an interview with MAD founder William M. Gaines and a few other MAD managerial messhuggenehs. Within a single day, Ficarra became the magazine’s associate editor, and their first new hire in more than two decades. By 1984, he shared the position of co-editor with Nick Meglin. And in 2004, he was promoted to editor-in-chief.
During his tenure at the magazine, Ficarra has ushered MAD into a new era. In 2001, he oversaw the introduction of color and advertising to the historically black-and-white, subscriber-driven magazine. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in 2002, he said of the controversial overhaul of the magazine, “MAD looked like it was printed in a Third World country in 1959.” He also spearheaded the February 2006 release of the new MAD Kids publication.
But, most importantly, Ficarra has opened the once closed doors of the magazine to enterprising young goofballs interested in joining the “the usual gang of idiots.” If you’re looking to work in an office zany enough to give a straight-laced Human Resources type an aneurysm (or at least elicit a resounding ‘Blech!’), you might want to corner him after the lecture.
Sources:
- Ficarra, John. Telephone Interview. 12 February 2006.
- “John Ficarra.” Wikipedia. February 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ficarra.
- “MAD Magazine 50th Anniversary.” Kloer, Phil. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. October 2002. http://www.collectMAD.com/madcoversite/ajc-article.html.
- “MAD Magazine’s Spanking New Look.” As It Happens. CBS Radio. 3/22/01.