Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://marinavshifrin.com/
CITY: East Hollywood
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
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| 400 | 1_ |a Shifrin, Marina Vladimirovna |
| 670 | __ |a 30 before 30, 2018: |b eCIP t.p. (Marina Shifrin) data view screen (published writer who lives in East Hollywood and likes it; written for TV; middle name is Vladimirovna; this is her first book) |
PERSONAL
Daughter of Vladimir and Olga Shifrin.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comedy writer, standup comedian, digital producer, and television scriptwriter. Comedy writer for television networks such as Comedy Central, NBC, and TruTV. Writers’ assistant on programs such as Talk Show the Game Show, Problematic, and Comedy Central Presents: Clusterfest. Digital producer for Comedy Central program @midnight.
AWARDS:Emmy Award, for digital producer work on @midnight.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Marina Shifrin is a comedy writer, standup comedian, digital producer, and television scriptwriter. She has worked as a comedy writer for networks such as Comedy Central, NBC, and TruTV. She has also been a writers’ assistant on several programs, such as Talk Show the Game Show, Problematic, and Comedy Central Presents: Clusterfest. She was a digital producer for the Comedy Central program @midnight. Shifrin won an Emmy Award for her work on that program. On the Marina Shifrin website, she noted, “I will write anything for anyone as long as the intent of the writing is positive.”
In her book 30 before 30: How I Made a Mess of my 20s, and You Can Too, Shifrin presents a “quirky list of accomplishments in memoir form,” noted a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Each of the essays in the book concerns a separate wish, goal, or intent that Shifrin had in her twenties, along with what she did to achieve those goals and what happened after she succeeded. The book originated with online posts about these subjects; once the posts achieved widespread popularity, they served as the basis for her long-form work. In an interview on the Furious Gazelle website, Shifrin noted that a person’s twenties is the perfect time to take some greater-than-normal chances. “Your twenties are this magical time for debauchery and experimentation, a time when mistakes can be molded into lessons instead of life-altering set-backs,” she stated in the interview.
Shifrin’s bucket list for her twenties consists of goals that range from the relatively mundane to the personally outrageous. She includes among them: take a writing class, cook a five-course meal, and buy real furniture. Others are more daring, such as go to a nude beach, quit a terrible job and start over, or get a gig to perform a late-night comedy set. Some are personally significant, such as fall in love (for real), have a dramatic airport reunion, and learn how to dress stylishly. “She recognizes she’s not a guru, though, and instead presents an irreverent guidebook to dominating your twenties from ‘a schmuck; who managed to figure a few things out,” commented a reviewer on the website Brit + Co.
Reviewer Tess Tabak, writing on the website Furious Gazelle, commented that Shifrin’s book “might be of special interest to women still grappling with their twenties, this book serves as a guide to people of any age or gender who want to learn how to approach their lives with the energy of a twenty-something: simultaneously ambitious and lazy; optimistic and cynical.” Shifrin, according to a Publishers Weekly writer, “provides a genuinely inspirational example without ever taking herself too seriously.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2018, review of 30 before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too.
Publishers Weekly, April 16, 2018, review of 30 before 30, p. 80.
ONLINE
Brit + Co, https://www.brit.co/ (August 7, 2018), review of 30 Before 30.
Bustle, https://www.bustle.com/ (August 7, 2018), E. Ce Miller, review of 30 Before 30.
Furious Gazelle, http://www.thefuriousgazelle.com/ (July 21, 2018), Tess Tabak, review of 30 Before 30; July 23, 2018, “Q&A with Marina Shifrin, Author of 30 before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too.“
Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/ (September 4, 2018), filmography of Marina V. Shifrin.
Marina V. Shifrin website, http://www.marinavshifrin.com (September 4, 2018).
Whimn, https://www.whimn.com.au/ (August 6, 2018), review of 30 Before 30.
Four facts you need to know about me:
I love writing* so much that I hate it.
My parents' names are Olga and Vladimir.
I wrote a book of comedic essays and I'm very proud of it. You can buy it at: Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Books-a-Million, IndieBound, or at all of those fine web-stablishments.
I forgot the fourth one.
*What kind of writing? I am a comedy writer who has written for Comedy Central, NBC, and TruTV. I was the writers' assistant on Talk Show The Game Show (TruTV), Problematic (Comedy Central), Comedy Central Presents: ClusterFest (Comedy Central), and I've written on a handful of pilots you've never seen. Previously, I was an Emmy-award winning digital producer on @midnight (Comedy Central, again). I have half-hours, specs and web series available on request. I also have a barely-maintained IMDb page with more information. I will write anything for anyone as long as the intent of the writing is positive.
Marina V. Shifrin
Biography
Mini Bio (1)
Marina V. Shifrin is known for her work on Problematic with Moshe Kasher (2017), I, Curling (2018) and @midnight (2013).
Filmography
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2015-2017 @midnight (TV Series) (digital producer - 96 episodes)
- January 16, 2017 (2017) ... (digital producer)
- Episode #4.46 (2017) ... (digital producer)
- Episode #4.45 (2017) ... (digital producer)
- Episode #4.44 (2017) ... (digital producer)
- Episode #4.43 (2017) ... (digital producer)
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- Colin Quinn, Charles Barkley, Marissa Jaret Winokur (2018) ... (writer assistant)
- Melissa Joan Hart, Caroline Rhea, Jared Logan (2018) ... (writer assistant)
2017 Comedy Central's Colossal Clusterfest (TV Movie) (writer assistant)
2017 Problematic with Moshe Kasher (TV Series) (writer assistant - 6 episodes)
- The Alt-Right (2017) ... (writer assistant)
- Guns (2017) ... (writer assistant)
- The Dark Web (2017) ... (writer assistant)
- Islamophobia (2017) ... (writer assistant)
- Is Technology Ruining Our Brains? (2017) ... (writer assistant)
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2015-2016 @midnight (TV Series) (researcher - 38 episodes)
- Episode #3.56 (2016) ... (researcher)
- Episode #3.55 (2016) ... (researcher)
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- Chef Gordon Ramsey, Amber Riley, and a Once in a Lifetime Surprise for Two Philadelphia Dance Teachers (2013) ... Herself
Shifrin, Marina: 30 BEFORE 30
Kirkus Reviews.
(June 1, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Shifrin, Marina 30 BEFORE 30 Wednesday Books (Adult Nonfiction) $16.99 7, 24 ISBN: 978-1-250-12971-0
A quirky list of accomplishments in memoir form.
"Being an immigrant is akin to surviving a near-death experience--minus the excitement," writes debut author Shifrin. "You constantly feel like you were given a second shot at life, and you want that shot to amount to something spectacular." Originally from Russia, the author was turning 30 when she set out to write this book. She explains how her life was full of excitement, especially her 20s, which she calls "sloppy, sexy, sometimes sweet." In preparation for her birthday, Shifrin established a list of all the things she needed to do before she hit 30. The book gathers the items on the list, each one with an accompanying story. Among the goals she set: take a writing class, live in a different country, land a late-night comedy set, fall in love (for real), buy real furniture, have a dramatic airport reunion, learn how to dress my body, etc. "I am living proof," she writes, "that you can blossom from an awkward caterpillar into an awkward butterfly--a sharply dressed awkward butterfly who commands attention because she is comfortable in her clothing and looks like a consummate, trendy professional." Shifrin continually tries to grasp why any said item on the list is integral to her development. When she moved to Taiwan for a "shitty job," she quickly realized that even though she managed to leave America and live abroad, the abuse she endured at her work was not worth the limited opportunities her job offered her. The author also shuffled through a series of uncommitted relationships before she found the man with everything she looked for in a partner. Throughout, Shifrin gives readers a taste of what successful self- deprecation looks like; she constantly pokes fun at herself, analyzing the situations she put herself in and figuring out how they affected her journey.
An entertaining bucket-list tale. Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
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"Shifrin, Marina: 30 BEFORE 30." Kirkus Reviews, 1 June 2018. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A540723258/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=c2e7700f. Accessed 7 Aug. 2018.
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30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too
Publishers Weekly.
265.16 (Apr. 16, 2018): p80+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too
Marina Shifrin. Wednesday, $16.99 trade paper (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-12971-0
Shifrin, a standup comedian and TV writer, debuts with a ribald and witty collection of essays. Each piece is devoted to a specific wish made and fulfilled over the course of her 20s, including "Fall in Love (for Real)" and "Buy Real Furniture." Shifrin's intention, she writes, is not to boast, but to encourage readers to "dominate [their] twenties too." She proves an affable narrator, combining humor with self-effacement. In the opening essay, "Go to a Nude Beach," she documents how she overcame discomfort with her body, declaring, "Maintaining and projecting a body that's considered to be a 'wonderland' is an unreasonable standard and also a waste of time." Through the hangovers and failed romances over the rest of the book, she remains perceptive and charming. As the daughter of Russian immigrants, she continually reflects on her luck in being born "a few lost documents away from brutal Soviet oppression--or at least that's what my parents tell me." Hand-drawn illustrations, including a "Dating Gesture Timeline" and a graph measuring "Emotional Needs Vs. Dog Size," appear throughout. In Shifrin's journey to confidence and success, she provides a genuinely inspirational example without ever taking herself too seriously. Agent: Anthony Mattero, Foundry + Media. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too." Publishers Weekly, 16 Apr.
2018, p. 80+. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A536532747 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=590b1bad. Accessed 7 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A536532747
3 of 3 8/6/18, 11:34 PM
1. 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too by Marina Shifrin ($17): Shifrin spent much of her 20s like most do; she drifted a bit, failed a bit, complained a lot. The child of Russian immigrants who constantly reminded her how lucky she was to live in America, she eventually one night over wine with a friend realized they hadn’t yet done what they wanted to in life, so they made a list of thirty things to do before 30: “No rules. No impossibilities. Only a timeline.”
“My 30 before 30 list was the restart button I was looking for. I desperately wanted to prove to my parents that moving to America was a good choice and that I was taking advantage of the opportunities for which they worked so hard. I didn’t want to be another lost twentysomething, wasting my youth and smooth skin on a bad job and recurring existential crises. My father didn’t work himself to the bone so that I could curl up into an anxious ball every time I was confronted with my difficult-to-pursue dreams. Coming up with, and sticking to, my 30 before 30 list gave me some much-needed focus. It gave me a second chance at doing my twenties right and conquering my own version of the American Dream.”
Shifrin posted dispatches from her quest online, and soon became wildly popular, receiving floods of messages asking for advice. She recognizes she’s not a guru, though, and instead presents an irreverent guidebook to dominating your 20s from “a schmuck” who managed to figure a few things out. The book is a series of essays taking us through her list items, include “take a writing class,” “go to a nude beach,” and “cook a five-course meal.” It all started with, perhaps, the most important goal, and the only one she and her friend had in common: “Quit shitty job.” Seeing as goal #30 was “write a book,” Shifrin’s endpoint can serve as your beginning.
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Book Review: 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too, by Marina Shifrin
July 21, 2018 / The Furious Gazelle Editors / 0 Comments
Review by Tess Tabak
When life gives you lemons, it’s time to quit your shitty job, move to Asia, and start fresh. In 30 Before 30, comedian Marina Shifrin shares the story of how she turned her life around with one little list, and a lot of guts. This surprisingly optimistic collection of essays is full of humor, and even offers some advice about living with the reckless abandon of a 20-something that can apply to anyone, no matter your age.
One night in her 20s, Shifrin penned a list of “30 before 30” goals in a night of frustration over her shitty job and life. She found herself drifting after college, unhappy with how little she had accomplished. In a series of 30 essays, she takes us through each goal, and what happened as she tried to achieve them. The list ranges from small (take a bus tour of NYC) to life-changing (“fall in love for real”). Some items seem quirkier than others (such as “learn how to drink”) but they all have a special meaning to Shifrin which she explains. The collection coheres more than you might expect it to – some goals, even seemingly random ones, bring Shifrin closer to reaching big goals, or in some cases made her realize that opportunities she thought she wanted once upon a time aren’t for her anymore. Even when the essays are more standalone, they’re all at heart about growing up, and achieving your dreams.
This volume is a light, often heartwarming, and funny read. No essay outstays its welcome, and for the A.D.D. in all of us, the essays are punctuated with little humorous drawings and graphs by the author (like a guide on “how to cry at work”). At times, it’s easy to feel jealous of Shifrin’s life (she gets a Modern Love essay accepted on the first try!) but her self-deprecating humor and honest writing style keep the book grounded. She learns, for example, that being a viral video star isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. This book provides a portrait of an (extremely talented, yet) ordinary twenty-something trying to figure out life, like Meredith Gran’s Octopus Pie or a more down-to-earth Girls.
Though obviously this book might be of special interest to women still grappling with their 20s, this book serves as a guide to people of any age or gender who want to learn how to approach their lives with the energy of a 20-something: simultaneously ambitious and lazy; optimistic and cynical. Shifrin writes of her own experience as a millennial child of immigrants: she appreciates the fact that life could be harder, but also has the millennial desire for instant gratification. This combination of drive to work and inability to be satisfied with anything less than perfect gives her the perfect tools for success.
This is the perfect book for anyone who wants the courage to walk out onto a naked beach.
30 Before 30 will be released July 24 by Wednesday Books
The Furious Gazelle received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Q&A with Marina Shifrin, author of 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too
July 23, 2018 / The Furious Gazelle Editors / 0 Comments
One night in her twenties, Marina Shifrin penned a list of 30 goals to complete before she turned 30. Funny and full of heart, 30 Before 30 tells the story of what happened as she set out to achieve each one. (Read our review here.)
We asked Marina a few questions about her book, and what she’s doing now.
Q: How do you think approaching life with a 20-something mindset can help even people who have passed that part of their lives?
Your twenties are this magical time for debauchery and experimentation, a time when mistakes can be molded into lessons instead of life-altering set-backs. Wisdom comes with age, sure, but we begin to lose a little bit of our tolerance for risk-taking. I think everyone, regardless of age, should approach life with enthusiastic resilience—you don’t need to be in your twenties to continue to learn and evolve as a person (these important practices are simply easier when your younger, and you have fewer responsibilities).
Q: In the “Perform a Late Night Set” chapter of 30 Before 30, you mentioned that part of the reason you stopped doing standup was that you “grew tired of the unending harassment, sometimes physical, from a surplus of creepy comics” you faced as a woman doing comedy. Have you thought about trying again in the #MeToo movement?
Yes, that’s true, but it wasn’t the reason I stopped doing stand-up. I stopped doing stand-up because, put simply, I failed at it. I would never hand over that kind of power to anyone, especially shitty dudes. The reason I started comedy in the first place was because of a group of comics so funny, sweet, and lovely – who also happened to be men. The reason I stopped is because I liked writing jokes much more than preforming. I do occasionally toy around with crawling back to the stage but have been enjoying more success as a writer.
Q: A few months ago you started a web series called Work Friends. What inspired you to do that?
My favorite thing to do is work, specifically on creative projects. But in order not to get burnt out on creativity itself, I find it important to switch up the different types of outlets I use. A book, for example, is a quiet, almost meditative creation. You work by yourself a lot. You wring out your mind for stories. You spend a lot of time editing, rewriting, editing, refining your work. With Work Friends, the creation was loud, chaotic, and collaborative. Working on that project pushed me to be a better producer and improvisor. It allowed me to use a different, more impulsive part of my brain. David and I (we worked together in real life and quickly discovered we have a lot of comedic chemistry) came up with the idea about a year before the book was finished, which meant I had to put it on a metaphorical shelf until I had time to dedicate to other ideas. As my editing on the book slowed down, I pulled the idea off the shelf and began to work on it as a break from long-form writing.
Q: How is writing for short form web different from writing for TV? For print? How do your different writing mediums inform each other?
Different mediums boast different expectations from the audience. Someone who is clicking on a video on Facebook is not going to want the same thing as someone sitting down to watch a TV show at the end of the work day. I allow the story in my head to pick the medium it wants to exist in. Work Friends, for example, came from little moments David and I had together during the work day. I thought it’d be compelling to visually represent our frenetic, irreverently funny relationship. It’s not necessarily something that can fill a book, but it’s definitely something that can and does exist on the web. Different ideas can of course cross over to multiple mediums too, books become movies, web series become tv shows, but you have to always reformat the writing to fit the proper structure of the medium.
Q: Did any of the essays in 30 Before 30 start as storytelling or stand up comedy bits? If so, what’s your process for adapting the spoken/performed word to written essays?
All of the essays did start out as actual goals, that being said, some of them revolve around my early years as flailing comedian so there is some cross-over there. “The Moth” chapter, for example, takes a story I told on stage, and puts it into the context of my life. What used to be a 5-minute story about my parents fighting turned into a chapter about patience, rebuilding your life, and love.
Q: What happened to your friend’s “30 Before 30” list?
The same thing that happens to everyone’s “life changing” plans, it kinda faded into the night. A “30 Before 30” list is kind of like New Years’ resolutions on crack, it’s this intense, 10-year promise to yourself to do better, explore, grow, evolve. Resolutions of any kind are hard to stick to, especially when you have this sloppy, messy life, much like the friend who wrote the list with me. But, she seems to be doing well for herself, regardless of ditching her list.
Q: How did the experience of making and completing this list shape your attitude about going into your 30s now? Did it change your approach to goal-making?
I spent most of my twenties dogmatically following this spontaneously constructed list of rules which jerked me from city to city, job to job, person to person. Completing the list inspired me to continue writing down goals, both big and small, and it also made me more confident that I can accomplish those goals regardless of their size. Transitioning into a new decade of life can be really daunting but when you have this list of goals and the stories attached to those goals clutched in your fist, the transition feels earned as opposed to forced.
Q: Can you tell us one thing that you’d like to do before you turn 40?
Get health insurance.
Q: What are you reading right now?
I’m reading “Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes The world” by Aja Raden (highly recommend) in the mornings, and “Calypso,” David Sedaris’s most recent book at night.
Q: Right now, is there anything going on in your life, or in the world, that makes you furious?
I mean, I’m a gentle but passionate liberal refugee-immigrant, I think the more difficult question to answer would be what isn’t making me furious.
News
'I Did Everything On My To-Do List By Age 30 Except This'
Marina has had a big decade and she regrets only one thing.
Jennifer Wright
NY PostAugust 6, 201812:30pm
Marina in Moscow's Red Square. Photo: Supplied
A generation ago, people’s 20s were a time to get on a career track, get married and start having kids.
Not so for millennials.
And maybe that’s a good thing.
“I think our parents were forced into a certain life, and our generation is freed from that pressure and is charting our own path,” says Marina Shifrin, the 30-year-old author of the collection “30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too.”
Even if it’s an imperfect path.
“Your 20s are great because you can make messes,” Shifrin explains. “You can drink too much. You can quit in grand ways. And then you can rebuild your life.”
Inspired by a list she made at age 23 of adventures she wanted to have before 30, Shifrin set out to “force myself to have big experiences” for a decade.
“There’s an idea that [it’s] being self-indulgent and ‘basic’ to make a list of life goals,” she says. “People say millennials are all about cultivating lifestyles, but you shouldn’t care about that. Just go after it.
“Which,” she adds with a laugh, “sounds like an Instagram post for Nike.”
Some of the items on her list included living in a foreign country, donating her hair, falling in love and quitting her job — which she did via a video that quickly went viral in 2013 when she posted it on YouTube. Set to Kanye West’s song “Gone,” it showed Shifrin dancing as subtitles announced her resignation from a Taiwanese animation firm. The clip eventually racked up more than 19 million views. That proved to be something of a mixed blessing.
Marina's viral quitting video. Photo: Supplied
Marina's viral quitting video. Photo: Supplied
“There were two camps of people” who had something to say about her resignation, Shifrin recalls. “Those who were super supportive and living vicariously through it — everyone has had a bad job and fantasised about quitting — and the another camp who talked about what an ungrateful millennial I was.”
Quitting meant Shifrin had more time to pursue the items on her to-do quest. That list was inspired by the blog “100 Interviews,” where aspiring journalist Gaby Dunn interviewed 100 subjects — from abortion doctors to Buddhist priest — and told their stories online.
“I was so impressed with Gaby’s commitment to getting out of her comfort zone ... that I wanted to do the same,” says Shifrin.
She was able to tick off nine of the items in the first two years after drawing up her list, but finished the majority of them after quitting her job at 25.
One of her favorite items was visiting Russia, where her parents were born, and meeting family there.
“Experiencing Russia firsthand brought the edges of my blurry past into focus,” Shifrin says. “Being able to meet my estranged family members and see how their features aligned with mine was incredibly bizarre and heartwarming.”
The only list item she regrets including is “become a muse”. The closest she came was inspiring some song lyrics by a former high-school boyfriend who occasionally crashed on her couch when he was visiting New York. The lyrics were hardly romantic: They were about how he didn’t want any real commitment. Shifrin says it disabused her of any notion that being a muse was satisfying and, “I learned not to put that power into other people’s hands ... But what makes it great is I learned from it.”
Property in New York City - it ain't cheap. Picture: Istock
Property in New York City - it ain't cheap. Picture: Istock
By the time she turned 30 in January, she hadn’t accomplish just two items: appearing on The Tonight Show and buying property in New York.
Shifrin admits that property prices in New York mean “I don’t foresee it happening in my 30s either” — but adds that failing in the goal taught her "you shouldn’t let a city define you".
After quitting her job, she moved to Los Angeles to work on Comedy Central shows including “@midnight” and “Problematic with Moshe Kasher,” first as a digital producer, then as a writer’s assistant and now as a writer for an upcoming pilot.
Marina's book. Photo: Supplied
Marina's book. Photo: Supplied
Now, Shifrin is finalising items for her 40-before-40 list. Items so far include killing and butchering her own dinner and painting a mural.
She wouldn’t advise anyone else to quit a job or to make a video of themselves doing so — even if, in her case, it led to TV offers and a book deal — but does say that everyone should find a job they enjoy.
Shifrin also urges people in their 20s to: “Be selfish. If you focus on what you want and who you want to be, you’ll be a better contributor to society as you enter your 30s.”
You might even find you have enough material to make a delightful book.
This story originally appeared on The New York Post and is republished here with permission.
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From Nashville to Chile, the eye-opening places to put on your travel bucket list for the holiday of a lifetime.
'30 Before 30' By Marina Shifrin Is An Essay Collection About The Bucket List You Wish You Made In Your Twenties
ByE. Ce Miller
2 weeks ago
Photo by Vladimir Shifrin
In 2013 Marina Shifrin went viral — for a video ("An Interpretive Dance For My Boss Set To Kanye West's Gone") depicting the then-25-year-old quitting her job at a Taiwanese animation company. It’s a moment Shifrin documents in her just-published essay collection, 30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s and You Can Too, out from Wednesday Books on July 24. The collection chronicles a radical decision the writer made in her 20s — to compile a list of 30 things to accomplish before turning 30, and then actually accomplish all of them. The first item on Shifrin’s list? “Quit My Shitty Job”, of course.
Filled with other to-dos, like “Go To A Nude Beach”, “Have A Dramatic Airport Reunion”, “Go To India” and “Fall In Love (For Real)”, Shifrin’s list not only propelled her through her third decade on earth, it also became the source of the thirtieth and final item on her list: “Write A Book”. That book, 30 Before 30, is the revealing, relatable, and laugh-out-loud funny collection of essays — one that I read a mere 10 days before turning 30 myself (and at as many months pregnant.) Reading through Shifrin’s own life-changing moments — “Live In A Different Country”, “Become Famous” — while on the cusp of my own was both comforting and refreshing; as was diving even deeper into her experiences, when she connected with Bustle earlier this summer.
30 Before 30: How I Made a Mess of My 20s, and You Can Too by Marina Shifrin, $16.99, Amazon
“It wasn’t until two-ish years after writing the list that I started taking it seriously,” Shifrin writes in an email, when I ask if there’s anything she’d say to her pre-30 before 30 self. “I was cloaked in self-doubt and so much self-censorship when it came to my whacky outside-of-work ideas. What I’d say to myself is: Quit your shitty job as soon as possible, because that silly list of goals you wrote is what’s going to help achieve your wildest dreams. Take it seriously and start it NOW."
"I was cloaked in self-doubt and so much self-censorship when it came to my whacky outside-of-work ideas."
The story of that job — and Shifrin’s viral departure — make up less than a handful of the essays in 30 Before 30, but they’re essays that stand alone in the collection, taking on a different tone than many of the other light-hearted and hilarious essays. They’re list items “Quit Shitty Job” and “Become Famous”, and they speak to the writer’s experience of sexist, gendered workplace dynamics and the hostility women face on social media — two topics that are ever-relevant in today's world.
“These chapters, I’d say, were the most complicated for me to write,” Shifrin says, when I ask if it was harder to mine the more difficult experiences of her 20s, for humor. “I’ve been told that I often hide behind my humor to avoid being vulnerable. In fact, the whole reason I quit on the internet is because I was dealing with some very difficult things in relation to my job. I was just beginning to learn the unfairness of being a young woman in a corporate work environment and rather than get litigious (which I did not think was an option for me, both financially and logistically) I dealt with it in a humorous way. On the surface, quitting on the internet is a very silly and somewhat funny thing to do, but the reality of what brought me to that decision wasn’t as funny. That’s why I knew, to give justice to the story, I had to set aside my instincts to be a comedic writer and tell the truth behind what happened. Stripping myself of humor to get a more impactful story was very difficult. I prefer to write funny things.”
"That’s why I knew, to give justice to the story, I had to set aside my instincts to be a comedic writer and tell the truth behind what happened."
As a writer and a comedian, Shifrin says she’s always loved making people laugh. But I wonder if she always sees the potential for humor in her life — even when she’s going through something difficult — or does that come later, with some distance?
“I learned the therapeutic benefits of comedy the first time I did stand-up. I was 19 and fresh off my first horrendous break up. The kind where you spend a lot of time lying on the couch, hand pressed to forehead, staring out the window,” Shifrin says. “It was very dramatic. Ryan Beck, a stand-up friend of mine, brought me to a comedy show (the only one in Columbia, Missouri, at the time) and encouraged me to get on stage. There was a comic who went up before me and talked about how he was getting a divorce and his wife was keeping the kids. He said he still had some visitation rights and that the last time he saw his children they all played The Game of LIFE. ‘My kids beat me of course,’ he told the audience, ‘not in the board game…but in real life.’ I thought that bit was so funny and devastating. It was clear that this guy just got his ass kicked by life and the only place he could process it was on stage. So, I decided to try to talk about my break up. My jokes were rough and very juvenile. I basically talked about getting broken up with via flip phone and how all my responses were autocorrected into nonsense. Autocorrect jokes are so hacky! I read my texts on stage, told a few jokes about them and got a few laughs. Not my best material, but the second I got off stage I wasn’t sad anymore. I didn’t care about the breakup. I had a new boyfriend, and that boyfriend was comedy. As soon as I looked at our relationship through a humorous lens, I couldn’t see it any other way. I’ve been ‘looking for the funny’ ever since.”
Photo by Vladimir Shifrin
The other 28 essays in the collection range from “Donate Hair” to “Tell A Story At The Moth” to “Watch All Three Godfather Movies”. The one list item Shifrin’s embarrassed about? “Become A Muse”. “It felt so childish and vapid,” the writer says. “But I was talking to a friend who said that it was a super relatable desire and that I shouldn’t be embarrassed by it. Comedy writing, at its best, is extremely relatable so I decided to embrace the aspirations of my past. Organizing these goals in a nonlinear way that made sense for the bigger story made me realize how crucial each and every one was in pushing me forward. I didn’t start out writing my book with pride over all of these goals, but I definitely ended it with a special kind of respect for them.”
"As soon as I looked at our relationship through a humorous lens, I couldn’t see it any other way. I’ve been ‘looking for the funny’ ever since."
In addition to wholly entertaining readers and keeping them laughing, 30 Before 30 also offers a ton of advice for young women who are just starting to make their way into the post-college world. Shifrin has one particular piece of advice to highlight, however: “Be selfish. The word ‘selfish’ has such a bad connotation but I think that everyone; men, women, those who don’t identify with either category, should be selfish when they’re in their 20s. That’s the beauty of being a 20-year-old! No one expects anything from you, so you should take that time to focus on yourself. Once you’re in a relationship, or a parent, or get more responsibilities at work, you can’t really be selfish anymore (at least if you want to be a decent human). Put yourself and your goals first because no one else is going to.”
"That’s the beauty of being a 20-year-old! No one expects anything from you, so you should take that time to focus on yourself."
As far as a “40 Before 40” list? The writer says she’ll never, ever be past the list-making stage of his life. “New Year’s is my favorite holiday because everyone creates these mini-goal-oriented lists, aka resolutions,” she says. “I love it. I LOVE LISTS and I don’t care who knows it. My “40 Before 40” list is a work in progress, but I have: Read Master and Margarita, Go On Vacation Alone, Buy Land, Write For TV, Get Health Insurance, Re-Discover My Youthful Confidence, Get Closure, Organize My Digital Life, and, of course, Write (Another) Book.”
Oh yeah — one more thing readers will definitely want to know, after devouring Shifrin’s collection: has knowing how to say “I have one son” (the only phrase she managed to learn fluently in Mandarin, during her time in Taiwan) ever actually come in handy? “You know, it totally has,” Shifrin says. “My boyfriend’s family is Chinese and I was able to impress them with my limited ability to ‘speak’ Mandarin. I’m nearly positive, though, that they think I have a son with another man.”