Stan Lee got his start during the first Great Depression, and even if he's enduring a second, he's managed to avoid the ill effects by virtue of his talent and his work ethic. Both are eminently visible as I join him in his Beverly Hills skyscraper office to talk about his books 'Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics' and 'Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics.'
I knew a bit about Lee's history, but hearing him tell it in his own voice is a unique and inspiring experience. This is a man who just celebrated his 89th birthday and is still kicking ass like the 16-year old kid who started out writing two-page stories so that the comics could be mailed second class. He doesn't have an ounce of pretension or self-importance. He's clearly having one hell of a good time getting the job done, working with the creative partners and overseeing the sort of details that keep his company in grand form.
You can hear it in the interview, as we talk about his history, even his writing style; he did much of his writing standing up, on the porch of his apartment in New York. And he's a busy guy. While I was packing up, one of his gents brought in a new series of character busts, which he carefully examined and approved. And before I managed to get clear (I do fold my tent pretty quickly after all these years!), he was on to his next meeting, a phone conference. I felt honored to get the huge slab of his time that I did get. You can hear our half-hour conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
01-31-12 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 29: Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel, 'Lunatics'
Click image for audio link.
Here's the twenty-ninth episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
The twenty-ninth episode is a look at Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel and their new book, 'Lunatics'.
01-30-12:A 2011 Interview with Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel
Click image for audio link.
"From there, the book gets a little odd..."
—Alan Zweibel
I was more than a little surprised that I even had the chance to talk to two superstars like Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel about their book 'Lunatics'. The challenge for me was to figure out a way to keep my mouth shut and let them do the talking. Fortunately, these gentlemen were so at home together in front of the mics at KQED, you'd think they'd been doing a live radio show forever. All this and hilarious as well.
When you read a wonderful work of comedy like 'Lunatics,' it's easy to just laugh your way through the book and think that it's all just a bunch of good jokes. But in fact, 'Lunatics' is an intricately written and here's the fun part, improvised novel. And just as importantly, the two writers were just as funny when they were talking about writing as they were in the novel itself.
I will warn listeners who prefer to know absolutely nothing about plot that portions thereof are discussed here. But as the gentlemen themselves point out, you can't really spoil the novel on the plot level. The humor happens by and large at the sentence level and by virtue of how clueless the narrators are about their own experiences and perceptions.
This is a great way for listeners to hear how comedy is crafted by two masters of the genre. Barry and Zweibel were extremely informative about how they created this novel, both in their individual passages and as a collaboration. You can hear their conversation by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-18-15: Commentary : William T. Vollman Amidst 'The Dying Grass' : An Epic Exploration of Simultaneity
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with William T. Vollman : "...a lot of long words that in our language are sentences..."
09-05-15: Commentary : Susan Casey Listens to 'Voices in the Ocean' : Science, Empathy and Self
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Susan Casey : "...the reporting for this book was emotionally difficult at times..."
08-21-15: Agony Column Podcast News Report : Senator Claire McCaskill is 'Plenty Ladylike' : Internalizing Determination to Overcome Sexism [Incudes Time to Read EP 211: Claire McCaskill, Plenty Ladylike, plus A 2015 Interview with Senator Claire McCaskill]
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Emily Schultz Unleashes 'The Blondes' : A Cure by Color [Incudes Time to Read EP 210: Emily Schultz, The Blondes, plus A 2015 Interview with Emily Schultz]
07-05-15: Commentary : Dr. Michael Gazzaniga Tells Tales from Both Sides of the Brain : A Life in Neuroscience Reveals the Life of Science
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Michael Gazzaniga : "We made the first observation and BAM there was the disconnection effect..."
04-21-15: Commentary : Kazuo Ishiguro Unearths 'The Buried Giant' : The Mist of Myth and Memory
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Kazuo Ishiguro : ".... by the time I was writing this novel, the lines between what was fantasy and what was real had blurred for me..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2015 Interview with Marc Goodman : "...every physical object around us is being transformed, one way or another, into an information technology..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report UPDATE: Time to Read Episode 199: Marc Goodman : Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
