Carol Burnett once said, “Comedy is tragedy – plus time”. When asked to quantify the unqualified success of the Stand Up Sit Down book club with a similarly elegant equation, Flippo and Steven, the heroic hosts of the same, formulated the following function: “Book club meetings are equal parts calamity, regret, awkward romantic advances, punk rock, bourbon, and more bourbon. Shake the concoction with ice while watching Conan O’Brien’s opening monologue, pour the potion in a travel mug (to camouflage your shameful cocktail), and chug to completion during the musical guest. Can you feel the warming, ebullient glow of friendship patting you congratulations on the back? You just drank books.” As always, the Stand Up Sit Down book club veers a little closer to sloppy, barroom braggadocio than decanting a refined, artistic discourse, but sometimes it’s just comforting to go where everybody knows your name.
This month’s selection is certainly something to take the edge off. Monday September 30th at 7:00 p.m. in BookPeople’s cartoonish cafe, the Stand Up Sit Down book club will be imbibing a “hair of the dog” discussion, having been bitten all month by The Death of Cool by Gavin McInnes. Growing up in the acid-drenched rebellion of the Canadian punk scene of the 1980s, Gavin McInnes could have proudly faded into intoxicated obscurity with the dissolution of the movement. Instead, his whiskey-fueled ambition drove him to New York City, where he founded Vice Magazine, one of the most influential society papers of millennial America, invented hipster culture, disavowed hipster culture, incited a religious firestorm on national television, spackled his brains with enough drugs and alcohol to sink Atlantis (or, at least, Atlantic City), tricked the world into giving him millions of dollars, and, eventually, became a loving and responsible husband and father. The Death of Cool documents his journey “from teenage rebellion to the hangover of adulthood”, and our riotous examination thereof will leave us all drained, queasy, and headachey, but at least we’ll know we had a hell of a time.
The Stand Up Sit Down book club meets on the last Monday of every month at 7:00 p.m. in the dim jazz lounge of BookPeople’s hepcat cafe to banter about comedy memoirs, movies, television, good jokes, bad jokes, jokes so bad that they’re good, jokes so bad that they’re still bad, and the creative process. Be a pal and join us this coming Monday September 30th to rap about The Death of Cool by Gavin McInnes. Just remember to stock up on aspirin for the next morning.
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