Dick Cavett writes about how it feels to write a joke for someone else to tell…which of course means that (a) the other guy gets the laugh and (b) most people assume he came up with that witty, funny thing to say. I was always fine with that. I mean, it was kinda part of the job description.
My brows did a Groucho though when I came across Mr. Cavett saying this: "…surprising as it may seem, I never knew a staff comedy writer who yearned to be the Star." Maybe because I got into comedy writing a decade or more after he did, my experience was different. In a six-person comedy writing staff, I'd say half not only yearned to be the Star but were sure they were just as good 'n' entitled, if not better and more entitled, than the person who was. It got worse as you had people like Chevy Chase, Al Franken, Chris Elliott and others who were initially hired as writers, segued to performing on their shows and eventually went on to bigger, better things.
I think I owe you a story I promised a while back about how I wound up (briefly) not only performing but — God help us — dancing once on a TV show I wrote. After I finish the Bradbury/Feldstein/Schwartz epic, I'll try to get to it.