'Princetern' Wolman '07 lives it up at Maxim

Scott Wolman '07 spent the summer assembling an electric bike without an instruction manual, putting together a toy rock crawler, trying to find a Rolls Royce keychain in Chinatown and placing copies of Maxim magazine in random locations throughout Central Park. At Maxim, where he was an intern, they called him the "Princetern."

He's not the first Princetonian to work for Maxim magazine. Wolman is joining a tradition of 19 Princetonians who have become either editors or writers for Maxim. That list includes Keith Blanchard '88, the founding deputy editor, and Charles Coxe '97, the current executive editor.

As an intern, Wolman performed his share of traditional duties such as filing and photocopying. Some tasks, however, were unique to a Maxim internship. For a month and a half, Wolman got to see what it is like to get paid for what you really like to do — namely, looking at beautiful women and writing what you think is funny.

Wolman described the atmosphere in the office of Maxim as "really chill."

"Everyone dresses informally and when the editors feel really bogged down by work, they take out a football and toss it around in between cubicles, often knocking down office accessories that get in the way of the ball," Wolman said. "That was awesome."

Wolman, who's in Quipfire and the Triangle Club, aspires to become a sitcom writer. He watches a lot of television — "not one of them casual watchers" — and particularly enjoys "Arrested Development" and "The Office."

He dreams of becoming "one of those writer guys who work 14-hour-days, and who sit at 2 a.m. in a smoke-filled room and yell at each other that 'we gotta make this funnier!' "

It is not only Wolman's innate talents that have brought him success. Wolman attributes much to his English professors at Princeton, especially Time magazine writer Joel Stein, whose humor writing class was among Wolman's favorites.

Over the summer, Wolman relied on Coxe as a resource. "He was always very available when I was just getting my feet wet," Wolman said.

Coxe described Wolman as "always having an opinion about everything," an invaluable quality for a small fish in a big pond, adding that Wolman earned the nickname "Princetern" for being "snobby in a good way."

Though Wolman is not planning to pursue a longterm career at Maxim, Coxe began working there fresh out of Princeton and has been there ever since. When Coxe was just starting out, Maxim was hardly established, trying to compete with publications such as Esquire and Men's Health.

"The first several years required a very committed staff that was willing to work seven days a week, often until 1 a.m.," Coxe said. This staff was a very dedicated group of people, and coincidentally almost all "single workaholics."

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Coxe's athletic career at Princeton also affected his life in the real world. "The side effect of being a college hockey player was having pizza steak Hoagie Haven sandwiches be a nutritional supplement for me at Princeton," he said.

It turned out to be a bad habit to carry over to an office job, Coxe said. "As the magazine expanded its publication, I also expanded by 50 pounds."

For Coxe, one of the most important qualities of a Maxim employee is self-deprecating humor and the ability to be the butt of jokes. Coxe said "Princetern" Wolman was very successful in that regard.

"After all, when you make money by looking at beautiful women and playing with toy cars, you better be able to occasionally make fun of yourself," Coxe said.