Martin Schneider writes:
Finally, a post that doesn’t mention Tw****r! I think I’ve discovered the 2009 release I’m looking forward to most. A gentleman named Mike Sacks has compiled a book of interviews with twenty-five of the funniest writers on earth, due for publication in July from F+W Press.
The book will feature interviews with familiar New Yorker contributors Roz Chast, Daniel Clowes, Jack Handey, and David Sedaris, as well as:
Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks)
Merrill Markoe (Late Night with David Letterman)
Dick Cavett (The Dick Cavett Show)
Larry Wilmore (The Daily Show)
Irving Brecher (Marx Brothers)
Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show)
Robert Smigel (TV Funhouse)
Dan Mazer (Ali G, Borat)
Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day)
Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H)
Mitch Hurwitz (Arrested Development)
Dave Barry (syndicated column)
Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)
Bruce Jay Friedman (The Heartbreak Kid)
Marshall Brickman (Annie Hall, Manhattan)
George Meyer (The Simpsons)
Al Jaffee (MAD Magazine)
Allison Silverman (The Colbert Report)
Buck Henry (Get Smart, The Graduate)
Stephen Merchant (Extras)
Todd Hanson (The Onion)
(Apparently New Yorker editor Susan Morrison is involved as well.)
I feel confident in guaranteeing that if you collected that group in a room, nobody’d ask, “So when do the funny people show up?”—except in jest.
Best of all, you can read the chapters for Handler, Chast, Friedman, and Clowes in full on the book’s website, which also has generous excerpts of every single other chapter.
As a comedy enthusiast with a serious weakness for artist interviews (Paris Review, Inside the Actor’s Studio, you name it), I’m genuinely excited, as you can well imagine.