Today, the New Yorker has an excellent profile of Hollywood casting director Allison Jones, the woman who discovered Jonah Hill and "McLovin," among others. In the article, it becomes clear that Jones, while an extremely funny person, doesn't write as often as her talent should dictate, or as her collaborators might like:

I asked if she had written a script for "Seinfeld." Jones tried to change the subject, then claimed that she could remember only the subplot, which turned on the idea that in 1985 Kramer had been aboard the Achille Lauro when Palestinian terrorists seized the cruise ship. It was Kramer, not the terrorists, who (accidentally) pushed Leon Klinghoffer overboard.

Jeff Garlin, a principal actor on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and a longtime friend of Jones's, later told me that he'd read the script. "It was hilarious," he said, and added that she was instrumental in helping him write his 2006 comedy, "I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With." "I always try to get her to write more. She is so talented."

As it turns out, I have a rare sample of Allison Jones' excellent comedy writing.

In 2007, Jones did the casting for a more or less forgotten comedy called Semi-Pro, which starred Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson and Andre 3000 as '70s basketball players. Last year, a tipster emailed us screenshots of a recording of Kanye West auditioning for the role that eventually went to Andre 3000, and in trying to find out a bit more about the audition, I emailed Jones.

Jones was very helpful—she was the only one involved with the film who would talk to me about Kanye—but given her first email to me it might have been even better had she stopped right there.

Here is our exchange:

That's it. That was the whole email. "SEMI PRO!"

Still cracks me up.