I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: January 2024] Huge

Brent Butt is a Canadian comedian (treasure) who created Corner Gas.

His humor (at least in the show, I’ve never seen his stand up) is fairly PG–a few jackasses thrown in, but mostly (the show at least) is about living with weirdos who you love and hate.

So, imagine my surprise to find that there’s bad words in here–and pretty intense (but not graphic) violence!  This is not Corner Gas: The Book.

It is about stand up comedy though.  And it follows three main characters (in 1994).

Dale is the main character.  He’s been a comedian for years and is reliably very funny.  But his star is fading and now that he is his forties, he’s finding himself doing smaller shows.  He also has an ex-wife and daughter who he wants to support. Once he gets through this run of shows he’ll have enough to give her what she needs.

The tour that he signs up for is through some remote and rural areas–Canadian towns that have one bar and people who are itching for a night out.

He is paired up with a woman named Rynn.  She’s from Dublin, is in her 20s and has a possible show lined up in Hollywood.  She’s doing this run to hone her chops before the Hollywood interview.  Brent has written her very funny, both on and off stage.

Dale’s plan is to introduce Rynn, do a little banter, then let her do her show and then finish up big–a tried and true formula.

But they are given another comedian to come along with them.  His name is Hobie Huge, he’s a local comedian and he agrees to do all the driving (his van is hilariously over the top).  Dale doesn’t like this, but it’s basically a deal-breaker–it’s clear that someone owes Hobie for something.

Hobie is intense–like his van, like himself (Huge is not his real name, it’s what he wants to be), he is full of energy–but it’s not all positive.  He has a temper and it shows right from the start.  What’s worse is that he’s not funny.

So Rynn offers to be MC, she’ll introduce Hobie, follow him with her act and then introduce Dale.  Rynn warms up the crowd and people like her.  Then Hobie comes in and really, well, sucks.  He sucks the life out of the room, he sucks the momentum out of the gig and the room turns on them all.  Rynn really has her work cut out for her.  But she manages to pull the shows out of the disaster pit that Hobie creates.

Which makes Hobie even more jealous.

Then we learn about why Hobie is on tour with them.  And who Hobie is trying to get away from.  And just how depraved his mind is.

Hobie is certainly an over the top character but that doesn’t make the threats that Dale and Rynn face and less real.  There are some really genuinely scary moments in the book as we don’t know how dedicated Brent is to these characters.  Pretty early on we do start to care about both Dale and Rynn.  They build a quick (non-romantic) bond and have mutual respect for each other.  It’s a solid foundation for a touring team and really makes you like them both.

I genuinely didn’t expect this book to be funny and scary, but Brent did a great job.