A terrific account of a truly unique sensation, best accompanied by pulling up corresponding sketches on YouTube.
The inside story of one of the most groundbreaking and influential comedy troupes from the golden age of MTV.
Musician and writer Myers (A Wizard, a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio, 2010, etc.) happens to be the brother of actor and comedian Mike Myers, giving him a unique perspective to tell the inside story of the Canadian comedy troupe the Kids in the Hall. The author had an extraordinary level of access, and the book features contributions from not only the founding members—Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, and Scott Thompson—but also from industry legends and others, including the normally elusive Lorne Michaels, who produced their show, as well as Mike Myers, Judd Apatow, Samantha Bee, Bob Odenkirk, and Seth Myers, who provides the foreword. The author tracks the Kids’ paths from childhood to the formation of the comedy troupe in 1984, through their “comedy boot camp” in New York courtesy of Michaels, to the hilarious, often audacious show that just managed to stay on the air from 1989 to 1995. They’re a fascinating group, from McCulloch’s social commentary to McKinney’s character-driven “jams” to seemingly secret weapon Foley, who would go on to further fame in NewsRadio. It’s also interesting to watch an obviously eager McDonald struggle with his physical image while openly gay Thompson tussles with his identity even as the Kids were breaking taboos with drag characters and trolling the straight world with skits like “Dr. Seuss Bible” and monologues like Thompson’s “The Night the Drag Queens Took Over the World.” Myers’ prose is reliably steady, and his subjects are surprisingly unfiltered in their remembrances. It’s a fun story that doesn’t end in a bad breakup, as Myers notes: “As of this writing, the Rolling Stones are still together, and so too are the Kids in the Hall.”
A terrific account of a truly unique sensation, best accompanied by pulling up corresponding sketches on YouTube.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4870-0183-4
Page Count: 344
Publisher: House of Anansi Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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