  Comedy
This week: The Night I Met Christopher Moore Edited by: spidey  
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Welcome to the  Comedy Newsletter. I'm spidey , and I'm your guest Editor this week.
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The night I met my favorite Comedy writer
I was introduced to the writing of Christopher Moore when my sister-in-law gave me the book, Fool, which is a re-telling of Shakespeare's King Lear, told from the King's jester's point-of-view. It's hilarious and pretty lewd. For me, what was most funny about it was the absolute ridiculousness and absurdity of the characters and their words and actions.
"What is your name?" asked Lear.
Caius," said Kent.
And whence do you hail?"
From Bonking, sire."
Well, yes, lad, as do we all," said Lear, "but from what town?"
from Fool
I had the pleasure of meeting Christopher Moore during his book-signing tour of his latest, Sacré Bleu (a novel about the color blue, the Impressionist painters, and the mystery surrounding Vincent van Gogh's death), and I can tell you that the author is as funny in person as he is in his writing! He started his speech to the hundreds of fans gathered at the bookstore by telling us of an email he received from a reader:
"I got an email from someone who wrote, 'Hearing about your upcoming book tour was like a beacon of light in an otherwise horrible day, which consisted of a colonoscopy and a kitchen fire.' I don't know if that person is here tonight, but I just wanted to say that if the colonoscopy caused the kitchen fire, you might want to find a different doctor."
After reading Fool, I began Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. At the book signing, Moore explained, "I was watching something on a history channel about how the Gospels only address Jesus' birth and then start up again when Christ is in his 30s. No one covers the years in between, and I thought, 'I don't know a thing about religion or history, I should do it!' "
In the book, Jesus (who is called Joshua) searches for the message he is to bring to people by studying other religions and finding his own way, along with help from his pal, Biff. I think Moore expected a lot of criticism (and maybe some hate-mail) from Christians, but overall, he has gotten a great reception for the novel, which treats all religions with respect while still being hilarious.
It's sarcasm, Josh."
"Sarcasm?"
"It's from the Greek, sarkasmos. To bite the lips. It means that you aren't really saying what you mean, but people will get your point. I invented it, Bartholomew named it."
"Well, if the village idiot named it, I'm sure it's a good thing."
"There you go, you got it."
"Got what?"
"Sarcasm."
"No, I meant it."
"Sure you did."
"Is that sarcasm?"
"Irony, I think."
"What's the difference?"
"I haven't the slightest idea."
"So you're being ironic now, right?"
"No, I really don't know."
"Maybe you should ask the idiot."
"Now you've got it."
"What?"
"Sarcasm."
from Lamb
There are very few books and writers that make me laugh out loud, but Christopher Moore does just that. His is a mixture of all kinds of humor, from low-brow to stinging wit. His writing isn't for everyone, though. If you're easily offended or don't like to read books with swear words or gratuitous lewdness, you might want to skip over this author. If not, though, definitely check out his writing!
Christopher Moore has written 13 books. He explained that he got started by attempting to write horror. He took his work to workshops and people thought it was funny instead of scary. Someone once told him that horror works so well because it can be mixed with any genre, except whimsy, so he thought he'd try his hand at it, and I think he succeeds rather well!
And for anyone who already knows the writer and might be interested: Moore told us he is currently working on a sequel to Fool (he said re-telling one Shakespeare play wasn't hard enough, he's going to do a couple of them this time, including Othello and Merchant of Venice. He also attempted to write it in iambic pentameter but after it took three days to write one page, he abandoned the style.), and after that, he's going to work on a sequel to A Dirty Job
"Look, Henri, van Gogh was an ambitious painter, talented, but he was not a steady man. Did you ever paint with him? He ate the paint. I'm trying to get the color of a moulin right and I look over and he has half a tube of rose madder on his teeth."
"Vincent did enjoy a fine red," said Henri with a grin.
from Sacré Bleu
Always keep on writing!
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Comedy: May 09, 2012 Issue [#5036]
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