With a strong interest in current events and pop culture, I’ve always found late night shows to be the perfect place to intersect those topics with comedy. As I’ve mentioned before, I am a big fan of comedy over drama- I know action packed, high concept dramas are the sexiest thing on the market these days, but I’d much rather settle in for laughs than stress.
That’s the beauty of the late night talk show concept- the point is to get an update on news and some laughs in before bed. It’s hard to pick a favorite current show host- Jimmy Fallon is probably the one I gravitate towards most, but they’re all pretty great. It’s been particularly fun to watch James Corden’s earnest start to his season as well- check it out if you haven’t yet. He does something pretty unique and it’s really fun to watch.
If you want to count Jon Stewart into the mix, that’s definitely my most watched- I’ve perfectly timed my morning routine to coincide with the duration of the previous night’s episode of The Daily Show. It’s the best way to start the day- hoping Trevor Noah is as good a morning entertainer as Jon Stewart come August. But they’re all great- topical, quick and funny, yet serious when they need to be. It’s fascinating to see how many different takes there are on the same general concept.
This book was an obvious fit given my interests- I was hoping for a non fiction book that would make me laugh. Jon Macks provided a ton of jokes from all over the late night landscape between his own history of late night TV- some great jokes I’d never heard or had simply forgotten were wedged throughout the book.
All in all, it was…fine. I was hoping for a little more gossip, but it read a bit like a 300 page justification for Jay Leno’s career. Don’t get me wrong- I like Jay Leno just fine. I obsessively followed the coverage of the Leno/Conan O’Brien issue a few years back and am glad it all seems to have worked out. I know that the author worked for Jay Leno so that’s his main perspective, but I would have liked a little more information from all over the place.
The book was a little clumsy too- it feels like it maybe didn’t get fully edited. He tried a little too hard to pack in a lot of jokes- it felt frantic, and not in the typically charming Joan Rivers kind of way, but more like a guy trying to prove that he’s the funniest person in the room. In most rooms, he probably is, but it felt a little forced at points.
It’s funny, it’s quick and it’s topical- really all you can ask for in a book about monologues that are supposed to be the same.
(If you like TV as much as I do, check out Vulture’s TV Personality Test to find out what kind of TV watcher you are! I’m a CSMH- Comedy Serialized Mainstream Highbrow. The description is spot on.)
You’ll like this if: you enjoy late night TV and want a behind the scenes look, even if it suffers from a bit of tunnel vision.
Happy reading!
carlyreads 