Book Review: “We Had A Little Real Estate Problem”

Mar 24, 2021 | Authors, Comedians

A little more than five years ago, I interviewed Kliph Nesteroff about his book, “The Comedians,” a terrific history of the last century of American comedy, from vaudeville right up to today (you can listen to that conversation here). Now Kliph is out with...

Norton Juster

Mar 10, 2021 | Authors, Blog

I was sad to hear of the death at 91 of Norton Juster, author of what I consider the greatest book of all time, “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Here’s how the book is aptly described on Wikipedia: “The Phantom Tollbooth” is a children’s...

Book Review: “Weird”

Jul 28, 2020 | Authors

I’ve just finished a fascinating book by Olga Khazan, “Weird: The Power of Being An Outsider In An Insider World.” Having immigrated to the US as a child and growing up in a very conservative small Texas town, Khazan knows what it’s like to be...

Book Review: “Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother”

Jun 12, 2020 | Authors

Barry Sonnenfeld has had an amazing life. He started his professional career as a cinematographer, working with the Coen Brothers (“Blood Simple,” “Raising Arizona,” and “Miller’s Crossing”), Penny Marshall...

Alan Zweibel’s “Laugh Lines”

May 1, 2020 | Authors

They have a new thing now called sperm banks. It’s like an ordinary bank except here, after you make a deposit, you lose interest. Alan Zweibel wrote that joke in 1972 for a comedian performing in the nightclub of Kutscher’s, a hotel in the Catskills. At...

Woody Looks Back

Apr 17, 2020 | Authors, Movies

I had a great time reading Woody Allen’s autobiography, “Apropos of Nothing.” It was one of the rare times I had to put a book down because I was laughing so hard. Although it would be hard to prove if the evidence were only his last few movies, the...