Exclusive | Carol Burnett intimidated Hacks and former SNL writer Carol Leifer: You dont want to overstep

It was a meeting of two Carols. Carol Leifer, a prolific TV writer who has worked on “Saturday Night Live,”  “Hacks,” and the Oscars, has a new book coming out with a forward from Carol Burnett. Called “How to Write a Funny Speech ..

.for a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Graduation & Every Other Event You Didn’t Want to Go to in the First Place,” is set to hit shelves on March 11. “I first crossed paths with Carol when I got hired to ride for her 50th anniversary show,” Leifer, 68, exclusively told The Post, referring to the 2017 CBS special about Burnett, 91. “Of all the people I’ve met through my very long career, to meet her was like – check that off the bucket list.She is one of the most down to earth, kindest, incredible people I’ve ever worked with.” Leifer has released stand-up specials, worked on “Seinfeld,” “The Ellen Show,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” and she won an Emmy for “Hacks” in 2024.The writer cut her teeth on the notorious “weird year” Season 11 of “SNL,” when the show’s cast included Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael Hall, Joan Cusack and Randy Quaid. “[Downey Jr.] and Anthony Michael Hall were the kids on the show, I think they used to skateboard around the halls, it was crazy,” she recalled.

She views her time on the NBC variety show as a training ground.“You have to produce a lot, and also pretty quickly….So I think it also gave me a great work ethic.

Comedy is not a slow business.It’s fast.

And ‘SNL’ is much more competitive than ‘Seinfeld’ or other sitcoms I’ve worked on.So as my first writing job, it was a good one to have because it was like a marine boot camp.”Leifer said that when she gave Burnett her book, “I actually said, ‘no pressure to read – you don’t have to read it!’ And the next day, Carol came in, and she was like, ‘My God, I love your book!’ She was like, ‘I love this on page six, and I love this.’”Burnett is “that kind of p...