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Μια εκπληκτική ανθολογία μικρών προτάσεων από γνωστούς και άγνωστους συγγραφείς, που έπρεπε να περιγράψουν της ζωή τους με όχι περισσότερες από έξι λέξεις. Να δείγματα:

Didn’t pull out. Downhill from there. — Roger Daubach

Thought I would have more impact. — Kevin Clark

Yes, you can edit my biography. — Jimmy Wales

Must remember: people, gadgets. That order. — Brian Lam

Όχι μία, αλλά δύο πολυδιαφημισμένες βιογραφίες ξεσκεπάστηκαν πρόσφατα ώς ανακριβείς. Το «Love & Consequences» μιας Μάργκαρετ Τζόουνς αναφερόταν στη ζωή της ώς ορφανή μιγάς στα γκέτο του Λος Άντζελες. Είναι όλα ψέματα: Η κυρία λέγεται Μάργκαρετ Σέλτσερ, είναι λευκή σαν το γάλα, έχει τους γονείς της και δεν έχει περάσει ούτε απ’ έξω από το γκέτο.

Η δε αυτοβιογραφία της Βελγίδας Μίσα Ντεφονσέκα αναφερόταν στις εμπειρίες της στα γκέτο της Βαρσοβίας. Μάντεψε: Δεν ήταν ποτέ σε γκέτο της Βαρσοβίας. Δεν είναι καν Εβραία. Ήταν όλα ψέματα!

Ο διάσημος κωμικός έβγαλε πρόσφατα την αυτοβιογραφία του, και είναι καλή. Εδώ ένα απόσπασμα από άρθρο του στο Smithsonian, όπου εξηγεί πώς ανακάλυψε μια νέα μορφή αστείου:

In a college psychology class, I had read a treatise on comedy explaining that a laugh was formed when the storyteller created tension, then, with the punch line, released it. I didn’t quite get this concept, nor do I still, but it stayed with me and eventually sparked my second wave of insights. With conventional joke telling, there’s a moment when the comedian delivers the punch line, and the audience knows it’s the punch line, and their response ranges from polite to uproarious. What bothered me about this formula was the nature of the laugh it inspired, a vocal acknowledgment that a joke had been told, like automatic applause at the end of a song.

A skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope’s «But I wanna tell ya») or even a slight body shift. Jack E. Leonard used to punctuate jokes by slapping his stomach with his hand. One night, watching him on «The Tonight Show,» I noticed that several of his punch lines had been unintelligible, and the audience had actually laughed at nothing but the cue of his hand slap.

These notions stayed with me until they formed an idea that revolutionized my comic direction: What if there were no punch lines? What if there were no indicators? What if I created tension and never released it? What if I headed for a climax, but all I delivered was an anticlimax? What would the audience do with all that tension? Theoretically, it would have to come out sometime. But if I kept denying them the formality of a punch line, the audience would eventually pick their own place to laugh, essentially out of desperation. This type of laugh seemed stronger to me, as they would be laughing at something they chose, rather than being told exactly when to laugh.

Διάβασε στο Vanity Fair μια κριτική των βιβλίων που έχουν βγει για τον τραγελαφικό Αμερικανό Πρόεδρο. Έχει πολύ ενδιαφέρον.