Judd Apatow is perhaps best known for work in the film world, writing movies and television like The Ben Stiller Show, The Larry Sanders Show, Freaks and Geeks, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Funny People, and This is 40, among others.

But he’s also known for mentoring rising stars, such as with Lena Dunham for Girls, Pete Holmes  for Crashing, Amy Schumer for Trainwreck, and Pete Davidson for The King of Staten Island.
Somehow, between all these projects, he’s also created documentaries about George Carlin, Garry Shandling, Darryl Strawberry, and The Avett Brothers and published books of interviews called Sick in the Head. The thread through all of these avenues, however, is comedic storytelling.

“It’s like a tuning fork, where it’s fun, it also services all of my other writing and all of my other projects,” he said about stand-up, specifically in regards to his 2017 special, The Return. “You really feel like you understand the audience and you’re taking in information on an unconscious level of how to be funny.”

In this interview, Apatow talks about writing comedy movies today, how to make voice-driven films, lessons from making documentaries, audience validation, and his new book Sicker in the Head.