Author News and Book Reports
Andy Borowitz and Susie Essman rock book lovers and bring down the house in Miami
Humorist, writer, and actor Andy Borowitz and comedienne, TV and film comic actress Susie Essman teamed up to rock an audience of book lovers in true 'bringing down the house' style, capping the week long 2009 Miami Book Fair International. Borowitz began by offering the brief back story of his new, updated 'Bernie Madoff Edition' of Who Moved My Soap?: The CEO's Guide to Surviving Prison (Simon & Schuster: May, 2003). Essman followed with the story, laced with comedic observations, of how she came to write What Would Susie Say? (Simon & Schuster; October, 2009) and a performance reading, of sorts, from What Would Susie Say?. With CEO crime waves coming every six years, Borowitz suggested that there would be many future editions of Who Moved My Soap?, but that, though he was chosen to host the prestigious 2009 National Book Awards, he wanted to be taken seriously himself, not as a comedian, but as a literary writer, and had decided to write a novel. On the advice of his agent, he said he had been working on a first sentence to grab his audience and took the opportunity to review potential first sentences for his first novel to gauge the audience reaction. Next, taking questions from the audience, Borowitz found a silver lining in the auto and bank bailouts; Essman and Borowitz gave a shout out to The Moth storytelling events, with Essman giving a shortened version of a story she told at a recent Moth event; Essman, who plays Jeff's wife on Curb Your Enthusiasm, compared working with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David; Borowitz commented on late night talk show host Craig Ferguson's life and recent memoir, American On Purpose (Harper; September, 2009); Borowitz and Essman reflected on the influences on their comedy careers; Borowitz gave a behind-the-scenes description of working with Will Smith on Fresh Prince Of Bel Air; Essman told the improbable story of how she miraculously landed at Curb Your Enthusiasm; Borowitz and Essman assessed the state of post-Bush political satire; and Essman wrapped the comedy hour with a description of the scriptwriting process on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
