ROAST OF THE TOWN

Though thinly cloaked as a guide to mastering the Friar's Club insults, this book is merely a redundant list of one-liners by an elder statesman of the gag trade. Even fans of Borscht Belt comedy will consider this book an insult--not a zinger, just an insult. A few stray jokes have wandered in, but they are pretty lonely. Adams says there is no such thing as gentle humor, and that no joke should take longer than one line. If you believe that, I've got some real estate in Florida I think you'd be interested in. Many jokes repeat two and three times in the text--but they aren't any funnier for it. Dull? The Library of Congress sent it back. Out of date? Adams thinks that Jane Fonda is best-known for her war protests. . .and that the Kinsey Report is hot news. . .and that bikinis sure are small nowadays. His pieces are sort of like a Carson monologue, circa 1965, played at half-speed. He has nothing to say and says it. The Friar's Club is a perfect subject for a hilarious book; maybe someday someone will write one. A sad self-parody filled with moldering comic relics. For die. bards only.