An unrestrained grab bag of rapid-fire observations ranging from the tasteless to the hilarious.
Droll, often off-color snippets from a comedian’s life.
Former attorney–turned-writer Gregg follows up his debut novel, Luck Be a Chicken (2014), with these observances, most but a few paragraphs in length. The collection runs the gamut—innocently funny, darkly comic, and offensive, depending on who’s reading. An admitted fan of man caves and recliners and a vasectomy survivor, Gregg is an enthusiastic contributor of every “golden drop of man wisdom” he can muster. Random thoughts about drone privacy invasions, circumcisions, bathroom foibles, sportscaster embellishments, and wisdom nuggets called “buck snorts” (“Plastic surgeon sign: If life gives you lemons, simple surgery can give you melons”) are contemporary, relevant, and ironic. More universally relatable are opinions on intrusive telemarketers, taxes, and bills and more expanded essays on gambling and college-dorm shenanigans. The author seems to be most comfortable and authoritative when joking about farts (human and animal), excessive drinking, or his duties as a good husband, the latter of which finds him instructing other men to purposefully shrink their wives clothing in order to get out of laundry duty. Like with all humor, Gregg’s brand won’t appeal to everyone. This hodgepodge works best when the humor is harmless—involving his home state of Georgia, housetraining a puppy, colonoscopies, or frustrations with medical care. It’s less appealing when, even for laughs, he becomes derogatory about “sticky marital issues” or when admitting he’s a “chubby chaser.” A stab at gallows humor also falls particularly flat: “In OJ’s defense, I think every Heisman Trophy winner should have one free pass at any felony of his choice. Well, okay, maybe two. Perhaps three.” Best for bathrooms or parties.
An unrestrained grab bag of rapid-fire observations ranging from the tasteless to the hilarious.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-63183-930-6
Page Count: 209
Publisher: Mountain Arbor Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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