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Archive for the ‘Funny (ha ha)’ Category

Rick Mercer–The Road Years: A Memoir, Continued … (2023)

Posted in Alex Lifeson, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Corporate skewering, Dip-in Books, Essays, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Geddy Lee, Jann Arden, Mercer Report, Neil Peart, Political Humor, Politicians, Religion, Rick Mercer, Rush, Stephen Harper on February 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: February 2024] Rick Mercer The Road Years

Sixteen years ago I read Rick Mercer’s first book.  Since then I’ve read a couple of his other books, but I missed the first part of this memoir, Talking to Canadians.  I guess I’ll have to track that book down too.  Because I love the way Mercer writes.  I loved his show and now I love his print.

About his first book I wrote:

Rick Mercer is a great political comedian.  He puts all American political commentators to shame. I’m sure that much of this difference is the way Canada is structured. There seems to be so much more openness to politicians there than in our system.  For reasons I can’t fathom, politicians agree to hang out with Rick even though in the next segment he will rant about their incompetence.

Well, this book goes some way to take the blinds off how the show worked.

So this book picks up where his previous memoir finished–just as he was about to start The Rick Mercer Report.

He explains that the premise of this book and indeed of his show was “What does it mean to be Canadian?”  [Spoiler: he never does find the answer to that].

He talks about how the show was spun off from This Hour Has 22 Minutes and was originally The Monday Report.  (It was going to be on Mondays and they figured if they called it that then the CBC would never move it).  They didn’t really have a plan for the show–it was all kind of seat of the pants until they were about to start filming.  They decided that everywhere in Canada there was something interesting happening.  And he would go to check it out and show the rest of the country.  It would spur local and national pride.  And it would be funny as well.

So Rick travelled around the country and rode on “The Train of Death” (fortunately, the book comes with pictures).  And soon it was established that if Rick could be put in danger or humiliated, well, that was the show right there–locals getting the best of the snooty Toronto TV guy.

So he wore a beard of bees, he was tucked into bed by Prime Minster Stephen Harper, he pulled a sleeping polar bear out of its den and he had lots of crazy adventures with Jann Arden. (more…)

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John Scalzi–Starter Villain (2023)

Posted in Adventure, Cats, Death, Funny (ha ha), Huh?, Morality, Murder, Supernatural, Technology, Villains, Violence on February 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: February 3, 2024] Starter Villain

My wife and I have relatively different tastes in books, but we have a large section of overlap.  And since she is a much faster reader than I, she brings home all kinds of books that I think I’d like to check out.

And this was, obviously one of them.  I mean, blah blah, books by their covers, but come on, of course I’m going to at least look at this one.

She confirmed that it was good and I jumped in.

I must say right off the bat it’s not what I thought it was going to be.  The cats are not the villains, despite how obvious that seems. Rather, the cats are helpers to the villain.  But we’ll get to that.

Charlie is down on his luck.  He’s a substitute teacher.  He’s recently divorced–this hurts even more because his Uncle Jake sent him a pair of berry spoons as a wedding present with a note that said 18 months, which was exactly as long as his wedding lasted.  And the house he’s living in was his only inheritance.  But he has three half siblings who are all owed a part of the house.  But it’s the only place he has to go.  And he’s got this stray cat that he recently brought home…

His last hope for a semblance of success is to buy a local Irish pub that is for sale.  But it costs a few hundred thousand dollars more than he has–and the bank isn’t fooled by his lies.

When he gets back from the bank, there is a woman waiting on his porch.   She tells him that his Uncle Jake (the one with the spoons) has died and left him a substantial sum.  He just has to go to the funeral and say a few words on his behalf.

Charlie hasn’t seen his Uncle since he was like five years old and has no idea what to say about the man.  The man owned parking garages.  How could he have a substantial sum?  But whatever, he has not much else going on.

The funeral home is hilarious because all of the bouquets has curses and threats on them–beautiful flower arrangements with sashes that say things like “See You In Hell.”  And when the funeral actually starts one of the men takes out a knife to make sure that Jake is dead. (more…)

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Joseph Keckler (ArtYard, Frenchtown, NJ, February 2, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in ArtYard, Drugs, Frenchtown NJ, Funny (ha ha), Joseph Keckler on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: February 2, 2024] Joseph Keckler

I saw Joseph Keckler open for Sleater-Kinney five years ago.  It was a great and memorable performance:

The short version is that he has an utterly amazing voice.  It is deep and rich and operatic and I can honestly say I have never been in the presence of someone who could sing like that before.

But he doesn’t sing opera.  Well, he does, sort of.

He came out on stage and didn’t introduce himself.  He asked us how we were doing and then said that he wasn’t doing great.  Then he turned on a laptop and played a musical motif and he began to sing in beautiful Italian.  The video screen behind him projected the translation of the words.  And they were hilarious.

It was a song about going to a party and eating shroom-laced chocolate.  Then walking home and wanting to kill himself until he remembered he had to brush his teeth.  It is called, naturally enough “Shroom Trip Opera.”

I saw that he was touring and then I was shocked that he was playing in Frenchtown (not all that far from me).  I was thrilled to discover there was a performance space closer than Philly.  So he introduced me to this location as well. (more…)

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Nina Simon–Mother-Daughter Murder Night (2023) [audiobook 2023]

Posted in Audiobooks, Funny (ha ha), Gilmore Girls, Jane Oppenheimer, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Nina Simon, Violence on January 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: December 2024] Mother-Daughter Murder Night

This was described as Gilmore Girls meets mystery novel.

And while I want to be clear that in no way was it Gilmore Girls related, it had a Gilmore Girls vibe.  Three generations of women living together (out of necessity) working together to solve a mystery.

The grandmother is Lana Rubicon (terrible name).  She has created a real estate empire.  I enjoy that she is a strong and powerful woman who had been pushed down but fought back and built her own fortune.  But she’s also cold and distant–especially to her daughter, Beth.

The plot moves on when Lana is diagnosed with cancer and has to move in with Beth and Beth’s daughter.

Like Gilmore Girls, Beth was impregnated when she was a teenager.  She decided to keep the baby and move out.  But she moved into a property that Lana owned in a waterfront community.

Lana thinks she’ll be back home pretty quickly but she winds up in worse shape and needs to be there for a a lot longer than she imagined.  Beth and Lana are quite antagonistic.  But Lana and Beth’s daughter Jack get along pretty well. (more…)

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Hilma Wolitzer–“Overtime” [The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar #12] (1974)

Posted in Canadian Content, Christmas, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Hilma Wolitzer, Hingston & Olsen, Marriage Trouble, Short Story, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 12, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 12, 2023] “Overtime”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Hilma Wolitzer.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 12. Hilma Wolitzer, author of Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket, suffers neither fool nor broken hanger.

Here’s a fun bit from the Q&A

When did you write it, and how did the writing process compare to your other work?

HW: I wrote it 50 years ago! My only other work way back then was housework, and as with writing I was always trying to make order out of chaos. Revising a story is something like cleaning out a closet: excessive words and broken hangers all have to go.

This was one of those delightfully weird stories that has a weird premise and follows it through to a very satisfying ending.

It opens

Howard’s first wife wouldn’t let him go….  I wondered why he was attracted to her in the first place.  It could only have been her pathos.  Reenie is little and thin.

Howard and Reenie had only been married for seven months, and yet Reenie constantly called them for help and advice.  And financial support.  (more…)

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Aunty Donna: The Magical Dead Cat Tour (Perelman Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Philadelphia, PA, October 7, 2023)

Posted in Aunty Donna, Australia, Broden Kelly, Funny (ha ha), Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Mark Bonanno, Perelman Theater, Philadelphia, PA, Religion, Zachary Ruane on October 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 7, 2023] Aunty Donna

I don’t recall what made me check out Aunty Donna one night.  But the opening skit of the first episode had me cracking up.  I’ve been a fan ever since.

The only “problem” with them is that their jokes are so vulgar, so over the top rude, that it’s hard to share them.  Especially with the kids.  I mean, even their merch–which includes a hat that says Morning Brown is hard to explain without going a bit red in the face.

So what was this show going to entail?

Well, the promo told us this

Dear Human Beings,

Hello, I am a Magical Dead Cat, the titular Magical Dead Cat from the very title of this very show. I write to you today because I have discovered the most wondrous sketch show on the popular streaming service Netflix – Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun. I was so impressed with said show that I issued Aunty Donna this challenge: entertain me with a 2 hour live show, one that features all new sketches, but also a few fan favourites. It MUST include a short interval, and based on availability / budget, possibly an opening act. If Aunty Donna succeeds in pleasing me with a rip-roarin’ show, I have promised to surprise them with a special, web slinging, mystery guest!
Come, sweet humans, and see if Broden, Zach and Mark are up for the task!

With loving grace,
The Magical Dead Cat.

The show also came with a warning that there would be occasional coarse kanguage.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It was filled front to back with nothing BUT coarse language.

They opened the show by having an announcer introduce each of the three comedians.  And as each one’s name was announced they came to the front of the stage and did a high-stepping dance.  But the announcer continued to re-introduce Broden and Mark, as Zach’s face fell and the other two grew exhausted from all of their dancing. (more…)

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Eddie Izzard: The Remix Tour (Miller Theater, Kimmel Cultural Campus, Philadelphia, PA, September 14-15, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Eddie Izzard, Funny (ha ha), Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Miller Theater, Philadelphia, PA, Religion on September 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: September 14-15, 2023] Eddie Izzard

I saw Eddie Izzard 20 years ago in Boston.  The show was hilarious and since then she has been one of my favorite comedians of all time.

When I saw that she was coming back to the States to tour I immediately went to the Kimmel Center site to grab tickets.  But they must have been on sale for a long time already because both shows were almost sold out.

The Thursday night show was the same night as the final Palm concert ever, so I couldn’t miss that and then the Friday night show, well, let’s just say that it would have been a real challenge getting my wife and I to Philly on a Friday night for a show at the Kimmel–especially after her first full week back to work.

So I had to give this one a miss.  She tends to record her shows so I hope this one gets a release because it promised to be revisiting some of the best bits over the last thirty some years.  (more…)

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Lindsay Buroker–Sinister Magic [Death Before Dragons #1] (2020) [audiobook 2020]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Death, Dragons, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Lindsay Buroker, Magic, Morality, Murder, Supernatural, Tigers, Urban fantasy, Vampires, Violence, Vivienne Leheny, Werewolves on September 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: November 2022] Sinister Magic

I’m not sure what attracted me to this author.  I suppose she came up on my Chirp Audiobook suggestions and I was looking for something a little different.

I like fantasy, but sometimes it gets too much up its own world building of for me to get into the story.  I hadn’t really read much urban fantasy, but from the little I’ve read, I rather like it.  The stories feel contemporary and feature alternate-reality takes on things we already know.  And I rather like that.

Linday Buroker is a self-published author.  This typically raises a red-flag, but this book has almost 10,000 ratings on Goodreads, so it’s not like no one is reading her.  She is also absurdly prolific as you can see by the massive chart down below.

But what hooked me on this series was narrator Vivienne Leheny.  I don’t know much about her, but I absolutely loved her voices, her tone and her ability to really get sarcasm across (Buroker’s characters are very sarcastic).  And, amazingly, Leheny seems to read most if not all of Buroker’s books.

So, in summary, the main character is Val Thorvald.  As she says, “I’m an assassin.”  But she’s not that kind of assassin.  She only goes after “magical bad guys.”   When magical bad guys come to earth, she takes care of them. Permanently.

This doesn’t make her popular with the rest of the magical community.  But thanks to her half-elven blood, a powerful sword named Chopper, and a telepathic tiger with an attitude, she’s always been able to deal with any threats that come her way. (more…)

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Sam Ernst–The New Manifesto or The Slow Eroding of Time (2021)

Posted in Arthur B. Johnson, Books about writers, Choose Your Own Adventure, Dreams, End of the World, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Huh?, Humiliation, Sam Ernst, Skiing, Unreliable narrator on July 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[READ: June 1, 2022] The New Manifesto

So I received this book at work and it was my job to catalog it (it has yet to be cataloged by anyone else).  But there was a problem.

The cover of the book says The New Manifesto a novel by Sam Ernst.  But you never trust the cover for the actual title of a book, you trust the title page.  And the title page says The New Manifesto or The Slow Eroding of Time Arthur B. Johnson edited by Sam Ernst.

Now the cover also has an about the author of Sam Ernst (with an author photo of the back of his head).  And the list of books by Arthur B. Johnson don’t seem to exist.  So, clearly, the author is Sam Ernest and Arthur B. Johnson is fictional,  But from a cataloging standpoint, Johnson needs to be acknowledged in some way.  Which is a pain.

Anyway, I decided to see if this book was worth all of the trouble.

I’m not quite sure.

It opens with a Foreword by Dr James L. Vanderworthy of Bradford College (also fictional).  He says that The New Manifesto is the novel that resonates with him more than any other.  The editors preface is from Ernst, he says he had a copy editing position at Smith Ralston Excelsior which led him to meet and befriend Arthur B. (“Artie”) Johnson.  It was this that inspired him to edit Artie’s words in the way we see here.  The Publisher says they didn’t really know what to do with the book, but they thank Ernst for his tireless work on it.

The book is presented in nine parts.  Many are short, but some (like part 2 An Assemblage) are nearly 100 pages.

Part 1 the Prelude is a series of 25 numbered paragraphs

1. He sat down to write
4. He was writing a book.  A book he never finished.  This is a story of failure.
18. Given the book’s title, he was finding it surprising how little manifesting was being done.

Part 2 is written in several much longer sections.  Each one is a hilarious account of the narrator’s life as he does remarkable things and then moves on.

He averts a war between two countries. He speaks neither language but found a letter from one kingdom to the other.  Had the message not gotten through, war was inevitable.  But he rowed for days across the sea to bring the message to the beacon he saw.  He walks to a war torn country and is taken for a doctor (he is not).  Because of a book he had just read, he is able to diagnose a seemingly dying patient, and as he leaves the area he inadvertently participates and wins the 1984 Sarajevo Ski Jump Competition.

After a few more adventures, including one aboard a ship, he gets a job at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he uncovers a brilliant scientific schema because of the box elder bugs that swarm his office window. (more…)

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Kate Williams–The Babysitters Coven: For Better or Cursed [Book 2] (2020)

Posted in Babysitters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dogs, Funny (ha ha), Magic, Monsters, Series, Set at School, Supernatural, Unfinished series, YA Books on July 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: hiatus

[READ: July 2023] The Babysitters Coven Book 2

I enjoyed the first book in this series quite a bit.  Then I forgot all about it.  I happened to see book 2 in the library and decided to check it out.

My daughter actually said she wanted to read it too, but I told her it was book 2, so she may go get book 1.

Book 2 picks up pretty quickly where book 1 left off with our two Babysitters/Demon slayers in the middle of the action.

Our heroine is Esme Pearl.  In book one, Esme Pearl is a babysitter.  She and her best (and only) friend Janis started a Babysitter’s Club back in junior high. There were of course four of them in the club and each girl paralleled one of the girls in the original series.  The Sitters were successful, until Cassandra Heaven showed up.  Cassandra is eccentric, to be sure.  But by the end of the book, Esme and Cassandra realize they have a connection—Cassandra’s father (a supernatural being) is the reason why Esme’s mother is more or less comatose.  It turns out that Esme’s mother was also a Sitter and was cursed—we believe by Cassandra’s father. (more…)

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