Merrill Markoe has a new comic memoir out, “Cool, Calm and Contentious….”
….that may blow the lid off narcissism. It would be doing much better if her publisher had done a bigger initial print run, but they didn’t figure on her selling out after appearing on the Daily Show. Which shows, once again, that even if you’re fortunate enough to sell a book and get on the right show to promote it, the results are not up to you.
But that’s not why we’re here. If you ever wondered why your mother bothered to take nine months off from thinking about herself to have you, pick it up.
I am reminded of when THE RINGER came out and I went back to Boston to do a reading (at the now closed Borders on Route 9 in Framingham) and some radio promotion. I told my mom I was going to be on Steve Sweeney’s morning radio show at 10 am. Sweeney is a Boston stand-up legend and a friend. My mom had actually seen him a few times when I was doing stand-up at Nick’s Comedy Spot and loved him, especially his two dozen versions of the Boston accent. So, I set her radio to the right station and reminded her about 10 am.
That night, we’re having dinner and I ask her if she heard me on the Sweeney show. “Well,” she said. “I listened to the beginning, but then you started talking about people I hadn’t heard of, so I shut it off.”
And yes, if you remember from the 92Y video, the Framingham Borders was where she introduced me thusly: “And when he was six he used to dance around the living room singing ‘I Enjoy Being a Girl,’ here’s Billy….”
I’m sure I have a book in me about this, but Merrill beat me to it.
