Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage.
Who's it for?: Comedy fans who appreciate @robdelaney, fans of Catastrophe on TVWho made it?: Rob Delaney
Where is it?: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081299308X/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=081299308X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
Length: 208 pages
I've been following Rob Delaney on Twitter since maybe 2010 and I saw some of the tweets in this book when they dropped or got retweeted, so there's a great "I was THERE, man!" feeling and also some great motivation to write my own book and find a way to fit some of my own tweets in. They are the best microblog time capsules that show how the author thinks and reacts to subjects both topical and timeless. For reference, these tweets were written during the Obama presidency.
Mr. Delaney's book is so much more than just these intercalary tweet sections between the topical parts, however. There are twenty great comedic essays about his childhood, travels, recovery from addiction, and transformation into a loving and responsible father who still loves to write jokes. Despite a near self-destruction, he retains an epic jois de vivre to be envied by people who would have an easier time stopping themselves from bungee jumping off a bridge.
Though surviving wild oat sowing is not sufficient proof to try any of these stunts at home, Mr. Delaney has been living a vivid life and responsibly explains what was at stake and could have gone worse in the adventures without consequences, and he is bluntly honest about the ones that hurt the most. He's very lucky to be alive and we as an audience are lucky to get a percentage of his experiences in the reading to shake ourselves out of mundane existential ennui and depression.
He also spent some time in France studying art and French and theater. Though some of these stories read like fraternity pranks, Mr. Delaney is sharply intelligent and an emotive illustrator of moments both ephemeral and life-changing. I think to appreciate his comedy you have to detach yourself from a need to apply the same social rules to everyone. Also it helps to know that comedians have a tone of voice they use to look at negative subjects at a safer distance than the one in which they have experiences. The tone one uses to tell a joke is not the one used to apologize to parents and teachers or address cops at traffic stops. We have free speech just so we can indulge in theatrical interpretation of important matters and keep our self-worth separate from the theatrics enough to control our own emotions and make the outcomes better for those listening to us.
My favorite part of this book is Mr. Delaney's literary voice which is similar to his Twitter feed in its brazen balance between bluntness, devil-may-care optimism, and mock outrage and condemnation toward violations of his actually quite sound ethics system. In my own comedy writing I sometimes get bogged down in the emotional weight of the subject I want to cover and am so overwhelmed and verklempt I have trouble getting back to the light riffing attitude that comedy needs in order to connect with an audience. Or I imagine I'm going to be attacked by socially defined people for being too careless with the feelings of sensitive people who aren't even being targeted by the jokes (why do they lurk my head without showing themselves? nobody ever @s me on Twitter to say I'm an insensitive monster but I still have a brutal inner critic that never seems to manifest).
Mr. Delaney's book probably shouldn't be my writing warmup, but if I'm trapped under a heavy mood or sensing a condemning socially defined lady ghost trying to control me with her pre-emptive psychological constructs, just a few minutes of Rob Delaney: Mother. Wife. Sister. Human. Warrior. Falcon. Yardstick. Turban. Cabbage. will leave said ghost gobsmacked and incapable of torturing me any further, since this kind of malevolent spirit is generally too afraid to learn life-saving information about STDs and fecal incontinence and rehab. It's really the loss of that ghost and her sycophants that they aren't able to use comedy to make these subjects approachable enough to take action on when life happens. Anyway, I feel indebited to Rob Delaney, his book, and also his fun television show Catastrophe for giving me a mix of fun and hard experiences to envision and be prepared for if I ever find myself in closer proximity to them in my life or with friends.
This book is staying on my Kindle for as long as Kindle exists and if that's not my whole life I might buy it again.
