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The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations with Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders
Since its creation in 1993, The Onion A.V. Club has run an extraordinary array of interviews with venerable directors, creators, writers, actors, and musicians who articulately and often controversially expound upon their unique careers. Having its content paired with The Onion's humor allows the A.V. Club to focus its attention away from boring starlets and flashes in the pan. Instead, they interview the story-tellers, with an emphasis on the bitter, jilted cranks who've been in the business long enough to not mince words about their experiences.Mixing the in-depth style of NPR or Rolling Stone with its own unconventional subject matter, this collection weaves high and low culture with equal appreciation and understanding. Included in the book are interviews with Robert Altman, Chuck Jones, Berkeley Breathed, Pam Grier, Merle Haggard, William H. Macy, Russ Meyer, Mr. T, Gene Simmons, Joss Whedon, and dozens more. The Onion A.V. Club's friend and resident pundit, "Weird Al" Yankovic, provides commentary on select pieces.
407 pages, Paperback
First published December 10, 2002
4 people are currently reading
280 people want to read
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Stephen Thompson
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 11, 2017
"It's disheartening to know that you live in a country that's just teeming with semi-literate, mediocre psychos." ~ Henry Rollins
"Hit your baseball into my yard, and you'll never see it again." ~ Tom Waits
"If we had short hair, we would be a punk band, wouldn't we?" ~ Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead)
This delightful title, taken from a quote by Henry Rollins, features 68 interviews, mostly conducted during the late 1990s. There's an astonishing array of pop culture icons, writers, actors, musicians, and more represented in the book. Just a few of the "celebrities" include - George Carlin, Ralph Bakshi, George Romero, Alan Moore, Gene Simmons, Douglas Adams, Ron Jeremy, Elmore Leonard, Mr. T, Conan O'Brien, John Waters, and James Ellroy. I'm just realizing now that there were only a handful of women interviewed. For shame!
It's a fairly heavy tome, best taken a little at a time, because if I learned one thing from this book, it's this - it's really hard to talk about yourself without sounding like a whiner or an egomaniac. There's plenty of whinging about "The record company screwed me" and "I never got the acclaim I deserved," AND, plenty of "I'm fantastic; everyone else sucks." But, there were also plenty of pleasant surprises. Tom Waits comes across as charming, unaffected and philosophical - "You know what happens is that as you get older, you get out of touch. I'm like a turtleneck sweater."
And, who'd thunk that David Lee Roth is a voracious and eclectic reader, knocking back a book a week?
There were a few articles that I skimmed - Joss Whedon, The Unknown Comic, and some I skipped entirely - Vanilla Ice, Steve Albini, Ian MacKaye, either because I had no interest in the interviewee, or had no clue who they were.
No matter what your tastes, I'm sure you'll find someone in this book who absolutely fascinates you.
My biggest laugh? When my contemporary, Henry Rollins, mentions that he's currently "havin' fun" in his "old age."
He was 37 years old at the time.
"Hit your baseball into my yard, and you'll never see it again." ~ Tom Waits
"If we had short hair, we would be a punk band, wouldn't we?" ~ Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead)
This delightful title, taken from a quote by Henry Rollins, features 68 interviews, mostly conducted during the late 1990s. There's an astonishing array of pop culture icons, writers, actors, musicians, and more represented in the book. Just a few of the "celebrities" include - George Carlin, Ralph Bakshi, George Romero, Alan Moore, Gene Simmons, Douglas Adams, Ron Jeremy, Elmore Leonard, Mr. T, Conan O'Brien, John Waters, and James Ellroy. I'm just realizing now that there were only a handful of women interviewed. For shame!
It's a fairly heavy tome, best taken a little at a time, because if I learned one thing from this book, it's this - it's really hard to talk about yourself without sounding like a whiner or an egomaniac. There's plenty of whinging about "The record company screwed me" and "I never got the acclaim I deserved," AND, plenty of "I'm fantastic; everyone else sucks." But, there were also plenty of pleasant surprises. Tom Waits comes across as charming, unaffected and philosophical - "You know what happens is that as you get older, you get out of touch. I'm like a turtleneck sweater."
And, who'd thunk that David Lee Roth is a voracious and eclectic reader, knocking back a book a week?
There were a few articles that I skimmed - Joss Whedon, The Unknown Comic, and some I skipped entirely - Vanilla Ice, Steve Albini, Ian MacKaye, either because I had no interest in the interviewee, or had no clue who they were.
No matter what your tastes, I'm sure you'll find someone in this book who absolutely fascinates you.
My biggest laugh? When my contemporary, Henry Rollins, mentions that he's currently "havin' fun" in his "old age."
He was 37 years old at the time.
July 29, 2012
Most books put out by "The Onion" are spoofs; fun, silly "Harvard Lampoon" style faux news that is extremely well done, extremely funny and without a trace of reality to be found anywhere in it.
The only thing this book has in common with those is that it is extremely well-done. It's fascinating, but not even particularly funny except when one of the subjects of the interviews actually says something funny. The "Onion AV Club" actually plays it perfectly straight; this book is a collection of interviews with various Entertainment Industry semi-stars; all of them have had some measure of success, some more so than others. None are complete nobodies, most are not exactly household names. The bigger names include Joan Jett, Weird Al Yankovic, Peter Frampton, Alice Cooper, and Conan O'Brien. Almost all of the interviews were interesting (I could have done without FIVE installments from "Mr. Show", but that's just me) and so far as I can tell, all were completely serious interviews; there didn't seem to be any of The Onion's usual spoof/comedy style to any of them. All of the interviews seem to have been done between 1995 and 2001; the book is copyrighted 2002. If there is a follow-up volume, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
The only thing this book has in common with those is that it is extremely well-done. It's fascinating, but not even particularly funny except when one of the subjects of the interviews actually says something funny. The "Onion AV Club" actually plays it perfectly straight; this book is a collection of interviews with various Entertainment Industry semi-stars; all of them have had some measure of success, some more so than others. None are complete nobodies, most are not exactly household names. The bigger names include Joan Jett, Weird Al Yankovic, Peter Frampton, Alice Cooper, and Conan O'Brien. Almost all of the interviews were interesting (I could have done without FIVE installments from "Mr. Show", but that's just me) and so far as I can tell, all were completely serious interviews; there didn't seem to be any of The Onion's usual spoof/comedy style to any of them. All of the interviews seem to have been done between 1995 and 2001; the book is copyrighted 2002. If there is a follow-up volume, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
May 15, 2012
I've followed the AV club for years (a decade at least) and have always been a big fan of their interviews. That said, I don't think the ones selected for this book are all so great. At least they're not the ones I would've picked. Where's the perfect strangers guy (Bronson Pinchet (sp?)) or the guy from Insane Clown Posse? Or Teri Garr? I dunno there seems to be a bias towards literary & cultural heavyweights, at the expense of more of the more fun random throwaway interviews. Or maybe the ones I'm thinking of all came out later? In which case this book is badly in need of an update, or sequel.
Also I realized I really miss the avclub comments section peanut gallery. The avclub commenters and their endless jokes really add a lot . I'd like to see a revised version of this book that includes highlights from the comments. er and you could make yr book electronic, and serve it off a big computer somewhere that has a database of every interview ever. And you could view or "browse" the interviews from anywhere, via some kind of "browsing" program . Man that would rule. IN THE YEAR 2000...
Also I realized I really miss the avclub comments section peanut gallery. The avclub commenters and their endless jokes really add a lot . I'd like to see a revised version of this book that includes highlights from the comments. er and you could make yr book electronic, and serve it off a big computer somewhere that has a database of every interview ever. And you could view or "browse" the interviews from anywhere, via some kind of "browsing" program . Man that would rule. IN THE YEAR 2000...
June 12, 2012
To be honest, I didn't have a chance to read this whole book because I started getting threatening letters from the CLC library that included quotes on replacement costs.
However, I picked the interviews that interested me the most--Joss Whedon, Elmore Leonard, Martha Plimpton, etc. Though most of these interviews were done between 1995 and 2003, it was fun to learn things about musicians, authors, etc. that I didn't know. My favorite moment was when Elmore Leonard mentioned how he was intrigued by this character he had created-one Raylan Givens. Hmmmm.
As you may have figured, this was a collection of interviews--all originally published by the Onion's AV Club and the list of people interviewed ranged from Ray Bradbury to Henry Rolllins and lot of interesting folk in between. It's definitely worth picking up and you can pick the people that interest you the most.
[The one thing I love is that whoever catalogued this for the CLC library put the sticker on the spine in such a way that the title read The Tenacity of the C**k. Perfect!]
However, I picked the interviews that interested me the most--Joss Whedon, Elmore Leonard, Martha Plimpton, etc. Though most of these interviews were done between 1995 and 2003, it was fun to learn things about musicians, authors, etc. that I didn't know. My favorite moment was when Elmore Leonard mentioned how he was intrigued by this character he had created-one Raylan Givens. Hmmmm.
As you may have figured, this was a collection of interviews--all originally published by the Onion's AV Club and the list of people interviewed ranged from Ray Bradbury to Henry Rolllins and lot of interesting folk in between. It's definitely worth picking up and you can pick the people that interest you the most.
[The one thing I love is that whoever catalogued this for the CLC library put the sticker on the spine in such a way that the title read The Tenacity of the C**k. Perfect!]
April 24, 2019
This book stayed on my nightstand so long. But finally, having only skipped a handful, I finished it! Yay, completism. It's short interviews, so I'd occasionally read one or two or three, and then leave it untouched again for months. And though it's getting pretty dated, published in 2002 and including interviews dating back years prior, the assortment of less-than-super-famous folks they talked to was interesting.
December 23, 2011
A collection of interviews from the Onion’s A.V. club. A very worthwhile collection, with something to entertain and inform in nearly every interview. As the title says, the subjects are mostly entertainers who’ve maintained their popularity over some duration without ever going totally mainstream: Tom Lehrer, Berkeley Breathed, Dr. Demento, Henry Rollins, Harlan Ellison, KRS-One, etc. There are few exceptions: what is cultural blip Vanilla Ice doing here?
Some of the interviews interested me especially, for various reasons. Ian MacKaye proves himself to be a man of deep intelligence, which I already knew, but more than that: he possesses a strong, pragmatic view of the world. Rather than railing (rather shortsightedly) at the evils of record companies, as several of the subjects in this book do, for example, he sees that they exist to make a profit, and those musicians who wish to make their own profit by signing onto them shouldn’t be surprised when they’re used as dollar-generating tools rather than as artists. As he says, he doesn’t want to destroy the world, just create his own little world that can co-exist within the larger system. Andrew WK, whom I envisaged as some head-thrashing meathead based on his music (and song titles), turns out to be an introspective young man, honest and full of enthusiasm for all life has to offer. He’s a bit like Brian Wilson: meticulous, fragile, but wanting to bring joy to people with music. Who knew? KRS-One also turns in a surprising interview, with some rather unusual comments about the state of hip-hop culture and how the black population is hurting it. And there’s David Lee Roth, whose interview is a splendid olio of self-aggrandizing, stream of (semi-)consciousness, disjointed logic, and outright nonsense. The man’s brain must be fried. But all the subjects have something of value to impart (except perhaps Russ Meyer, whose answer to every single question involves his need for well-endowed women), even if a streak of the curmudgeon runs through most of them. Good fun.
Some of the interviews interested me especially, for various reasons. Ian MacKaye proves himself to be a man of deep intelligence, which I already knew, but more than that: he possesses a strong, pragmatic view of the world. Rather than railing (rather shortsightedly) at the evils of record companies, as several of the subjects in this book do, for example, he sees that they exist to make a profit, and those musicians who wish to make their own profit by signing onto them shouldn’t be surprised when they’re used as dollar-generating tools rather than as artists. As he says, he doesn’t want to destroy the world, just create his own little world that can co-exist within the larger system. Andrew WK, whom I envisaged as some head-thrashing meathead based on his music (and song titles), turns out to be an introspective young man, honest and full of enthusiasm for all life has to offer. He’s a bit like Brian Wilson: meticulous, fragile, but wanting to bring joy to people with music. Who knew? KRS-One also turns in a surprising interview, with some rather unusual comments about the state of hip-hop culture and how the black population is hurting it. And there’s David Lee Roth, whose interview is a splendid olio of self-aggrandizing, stream of (semi-)consciousness, disjointed logic, and outright nonsense. The man’s brain must be fried. But all the subjects have something of value to impart (except perhaps Russ Meyer, whose answer to every single question involves his need for well-endowed women), even if a streak of the curmudgeon runs through most of them. Good fun.
December 18, 2007
The Tenacity of the Cockroach: Conversations With Entertainment's Most Enduring Outsiders was a Christmas present that took me just about 6 months to get to.
It's quite the eclectic mix of interviews - I at least recognized the names of most of the subjects. Some of the interviews (Henry Rollins & Mr.T) gave me new insights; while other interviews (Gene Simmons & Russ Meyer) just reinforced the attitude I had towards the person. I would have liked to have seen more women interviewed, and maybe more authors, but I've got a couple of new-to-me artists I want to follow up on now.
If you're interested in reading about a fairly wide range of artists besides those seen on MTV, the cover of People & gossip columns, pick this book up.
It's quite the eclectic mix of interviews - I at least recognized the names of most of the subjects. Some of the interviews (Henry Rollins & Mr.T) gave me new insights; while other interviews (Gene Simmons & Russ Meyer) just reinforced the attitude I had towards the person. I would have liked to have seen more women interviewed, and maybe more authors, but I've got a couple of new-to-me artists I want to follow up on now.
If you're interested in reading about a fairly wide range of artists besides those seen on MTV, the cover of People & gossip columns, pick this book up.
August 7, 2007
The best thing about The Onion is that it's really two great publications in one: there's The Onion proper, which is one of the best sources for news satire ever, and The Onion A/V Club, which fills about a hundred different pop culture niches at once, and does them all well. The best part of any A/V Club edition is generally the interview, and this collects a bunch of the best, featuring people from all walks of artistic life. Not that I remember any of the actual names now, but trust me, they're interesting people with interesting things to say. I really need to go back and finish this off one of these days.
January 3, 2008
I received this book in an office gift swap a few years back, I chuckled as is the custom with parties of that nature. I read the interview with David Cross and then laid the book on a coffee table- it was then moved to a shelf- then to a box, and finally over 3 years later I sat down to read it cover to cover. The interviews are wonderfully done, they avoid the boring and vapid questions. Tom Waits, Joss Whedon, and George Carlin lead the pack as the most memorable words. A question comes up though, does Jello Biafra know how much of an ass he sounds like? He always sounds to chomp away at even his own supporters, he sells himself just as the ones he hates in suits sell themselves.
April 18, 2015
Interesting to read interviews of people who have survived a long lived but not necessarily always successful career in film, tv, music. Many of the interviews were quite enjoyable, upbeat and refreshing and I learned something new about people I have just taken for granted because they have always been around. There were several people that I didn't know anything about other than hearing their names mentioned before. And there are others who I wondered why they were still doing what they were doing if they were so jaded or disgruntled.
February 12, 2014
The Onion is always funny, but how many people actually read the serious part of the publication, The AV Club? This is a fascinating book of interviews from the AV Club's archives. The best thing about them is that they are from stars usually described as "has beens," so they are unusually thoughtful and interesting. The title comes from a quote in Henry Rollins' interview, a guy who is funny, incendiary, controversial, pretty astute in any interview he ever gave. He is hilarious or infuriating, but never boring. The whole book is like that.
October 12, 2011
Timing is everything, and the culture pendulum is more like a gyroscope. Many of these people have become more or less accessible since printing, and the ones that are forever on a C List vary from humble to longing to jerk off that great hit machine one last time. It was funny, sad, offensive, and definitely a worthwhile engagement.
November 9, 2012
Intervjua til AV-klubben er jamt over gode, og her har dei vore flinke til å finne interessante typar å spørje om ting. Utvalet er ikkje styrt av kven som var aktuell med ny bok/plate/serie, men av kven journalistane hadde hug til å snakke med.
Tilrådd: på avclub.com intervjuar dei film- og tevefolk ved å nemne prosjekt dei har vore med på for dei. Dette gir svært ofte svært gode resultat.
Tilrådd: på avclub.com intervjuar dei film- og tevefolk ved å nemne prosjekt dei har vore med på for dei. Dette gir svært ofte svært gode resultat.
February 12, 2013
I really liked some of these interviews. There were some people in here who I have not heard much from. I liked the five Mr. Show interviews from all the periods of the show the beginning to the end and then an extra one from making them movie.
December 15, 2007
An interview book that's actually worth your valuable time.
January 28, 2008
Brilliant.
September 26, 2008
I read all of these interviews in Mich and Clark's bathroom while temporarily living in their attic in Milwaukee over the course of the summer months of 2006.
October 4, 2008
HOLLA TO MY AV CLUB PEEPS
Read
November 24, 2008Recommend "All I Did Was Ask" by Terry Gross instead.
January 6, 2009
Collection of interviews from The Onion AV Club. Some really cool, non-mainstream celeb selections.
April 17, 2009
didn't read every interview, but good stuff, nice bathroom reading. the mr show interviews are really nice.
February 25, 2011
Seems like a hundred interviews, some people no longer in the spotlight today. But the best interviews are Joss Whedon and Robert Forster.
September 29, 2011
Finally read this gift from Robert ca. 2002.
March 2, 2013
I went to a book signing in 2003 for this book. An interesting hodge podge of popular culture. A fun read and also the foundation of the term "pop culture debris", a phrase I still use today:)
July 15, 2020
Not something I would read cover to cover, but makes a great coffee table book that you can grab and read an interesting interview to pass the time. It probably took me a year before I actually finished the book.
The long-form interview has mostly been replaced by the podcast, but reading these lengthy interviews lets the responses slowly simmer and sink in, giving you time to really understand the entertainer's thought-process. I also really like that the focus of the interviews is on longevity, not just a casual conversation. The people interviewed in the book are really surprising and not people you typically think of when you think star-power, yet they are always present and relevant.
The long-form interview has mostly been replaced by the podcast, but reading these lengthy interviews lets the responses slowly simmer and sink in, giving you time to really understand the entertainer's thought-process. I also really like that the focus of the interviews is on longevity, not just a casual conversation. The people interviewed in the book are really surprising and not people you typically think of when you think star-power, yet they are always present and relevant.
January 5, 2021
This is a book with a number of articles from a number of people from different members of the entertainment industry. In depth, some articles are spread out over a few different sections of the book. Very informative read for industry fans.
June 28, 2015
I read this for the #paperbacksummer challenge.
This compilation of A.V. Club articles from THE ONION is certainly eclectic (an interview with Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister is immediately followed by one with Bob Barker). The shortness of the interviews can be maddening, and the groupings of the interviews seem a little arbitrary. While I really like MR. SHOW, the five-part David Cross/Bob Odenkirk interview seems excessive. Having "Weird Al" Yankovic contribute analytic sidebars on various interviewees is a nice touch, though. I found REN AND STIMPY creator John Kricfalusi's interview to be the most unexpectedly eye-opening. (I knew that David Lee Roth's would be intriguing, because I loved his book so much!)
This compilation of A.V. Club articles from THE ONION is certainly eclectic (an interview with Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister is immediately followed by one with Bob Barker). The shortness of the interviews can be maddening, and the groupings of the interviews seem a little arbitrary. While I really like MR. SHOW, the five-part David Cross/Bob Odenkirk interview seems excessive. Having "Weird Al" Yankovic contribute analytic sidebars on various interviewees is a nice touch, though. I found REN AND STIMPY creator John Kricfalusi's interview to be the most unexpectedly eye-opening. (I knew that David Lee Roth's would be intriguing, because I loved his book so much!)
January 5, 2009
A great book with interviews from some of my heroes and other super-intersting people!
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews