February 14, 2011
In this collection of essays, musings, and drawings, Comedy Central host Martin (Important Things with Demetri Martin) gently skewers contemporary social trends, conventions, and insecurities, taking on topics from social hotlines to family and relationships. With a gift for describing awkward situations, Martin challenges readers to recognize the human need for connection and recognition. The theme is seen in a panel in which a limousine displaying two flags on its hood is labeled "important"; another displaying seven flags is "very important." He also answers the big questions with essays like "Who I Am" in which he declares: "I am bravery. I am courage. I am valor. I am daring. I am holding a thesaurus." Throughout, Martin jokes in many guises, silly one moment, barbed the next, and he achieves a satirical brilliance that moves easily among surprising topics, like philosophy, to easy targets, like healthy lifestyles.
February 1, 2011
A grab-bag of one-liners, stories and cartoons from the hipster-favorite comic.
In his stand-up performances, Martin presents himself as the cheerier cousin of comedians like Steven Wright and Mitch Hedberg, experts at simple, observational gags. His debut book is larded with plenty of that brand of Twitter-ready humor--e.g., "You never forget your first kiss. And that's what makes it so hard to forgive my uncle"; "Tell me again how a silver lining helps me?"; "100% of people who give 110% do not understand math." But Martin shines in the longer comic pieces. "Dad" is narrated by the grumpy child of a man who was raised by wolves. In a deleted scene from A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Future Perfect, leading to an entertaining riff on grammatical tenses. "Socrates's Publicist" imagines the deadly consequences of the Greek philosopher acquiring a chirpy PR rep eager to brand him and bring his "question thing" to a wider audience. The best, and longest, piece, which imagines a relationship in the afterlife, is so rich with ironic twists it would be at home in one of Woody Allen's classic books. Martin occasionally tries too hard--one piece makes too much of the phrase "green with envy" --but mostly he displays an enthusiasm for finding literate jokes wherever he can find them, from describing a person's schedule entirely in abbreviations to providing clues for a crossword puzzle in which the grid entirely filled with the letter A. Less successful are the dozens of simple doodles that stuff the book. When they're presented onstage by his deliberately stiff, AV-club-alumnus persona, the cartoons can be endearing. On the page, however, they mostly read like rejected Far Side panels.
Not every joke works, but Martin has energy to burn when it comes to mining linguistic absurdities for laughs.
(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
March 15, 2011
Comedian, former Daily Show correspondent, and all-around prodigious talent Martin brings his wryly captivating voice to the page. Featuring dozens of sketches, lists, essays, stories, conceits, statistics, dialogues, monologues, and even a crossword puzzle, this collection dazzles with Martins characteristic unpredictability and charm. Readers will be delighted by his test to find out if they are a robot, suggestions for updating various real and imaginary flags, a breakdown of the phrase better than sex, honors and awards only the author would qualify for, and, of course, his customary list of impressive and hilarious palindromes. While not all the pieces succeed in originality and humor, Martin always remains surprising, sharp, entertaining, and enthralling. The funniest moments are found in his sketches, charts, and diagrams, which include a drawing of a bucktoothed vampire and a time line that notes the medieval and Renaissance periods on one end and When I Had a Mustache on the other. Martin may not convert any new followers with his literary debut, but fans are sure to enjoy the smart and amusing comedy theyve come to expect.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)