Best Thing From: Volume 1

by Kevin Chapman, Richard Bass

Kev and Steve met on their first day at university in 2009. The conversation went something like this:
Steve: “Hi, I’m Richard.”
Kev: “I already know a Richard, I’m going to call you Steve.”
Steve: “OK”

Within a year, they’d started the Best Thing From Podcast because a man named Allen claimed to have the best potatoes in Lincolnshire (he didn’t).

Best Thing From is a weekly interactive comedy podcast hosted by Kevin Chapman and Richard 'Steve' Bass. Every episode features listener questions on a randomly selected topic, ranging from Crisps to Doctor Who, and passing through Twitter, Football, Banking and lots more on the way.

In Best Thing From Volume 1, Kev and Steve answer all the best questions from the first 20 episodes of the podcast, along with some all new, never answered before questions, in all new written format.

Genres: Comedy, Humor, Biography

166 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2014

About the author

Kevin Chapman spent the early part of his twenties holding down a sensible grown up job as a financial advisor and living a sensible grown up life with his wife and kids. He left his job when the financial crisis happened in 2008 and shortly after, got divorced, became a minor internet celebrity, moved his new partner in, got a first class honours degree in computing, became a teacher and started writing books about it all. He claims it's not an early onset mid-life crisis. He lives in Peterborough, UK with his fiancee, three kids, a cat and a dog called Dave.

He is the host of popular comedy podcast Best Thing From and the UK's Number 1 independent videogame podcast The Mature Gamer Podcast.

Reviews

[Tom Donaghey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently received a review copy of BEST THINGS FROM – VOLUME 1 from Goodreads. This is a written transcript from a podcast by Kevin Chapman and Richard Bass. These guys are British and their cast is from England. As a consequence their humor is British and their references are British and this whole thing does not translate well from the English to the American language.
A few weeks ago I reviewed a book called HOW TO SPEAK BRIT and suggested it could have used far more examples of current British slang. A good place to start would be with the language used in this book.
Tuck Shop I got but Haribo not so much. Curly Wurlys and Cornettos are things you eat but I’m stumped as to what you would have to do to eat a MOJO, and what is Mad Bants anyway? There are so many puzzlers I feel abashed with the thought of displaying my ignorance to the world (yes I know I can look them up on the internet but that takes some of the fun from trying to both figure out what these things mean and trying to get a mind picture of somebody doing a Curly Wurly or whatever.)
They talk about crisps (potato chips on this side of the Atlantic) and display their depth of breeding by declaring Prawn flavored the best and also the worst tasting chip around. They assail gambling and theme parks (all in England leaving me scratching my head), football (soccer) and their absurd loyalties to teams in leagues which have the great possibility of being rigged, sweets (don’t even start me on this), wrestling (I mean, com’ on already) and many other topics, threatening another avalanche of weirdness with Volume 2, 3, 4, etc…
I’d be upset with all this if I didn’t find it so much fun. These guys are like most guys when they get together and talk about stuff. That is, they are relaxed and try to make a joke out of most things that don’t really matter. That translates into any language. And helping things is the fact that Bass and Chapman are funny guys. At least in print. In person, maybe not so much. I don’t know, I never met the guys. But I do look forward to Volume 2.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Received my copy free through GoodReads FirstReads*

I found it very funny in some parts, but pretty meh in others. Some of the jokes were kind of tired. I may have found it funnier if I were British and got all the references they made. I might check out the podcasts sometime, I think I might find them funnier in that format.

[Rhi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The "meh"est book I've read in a while.
If you're not already a fan of these guys via their podcast I'd probably give it a miss.
It's like two slightly dull blokes holding court in a pub, without the pub. You need the pub because that's where the alcohol lives, and you will want to be a smidgen drunk to get through this.

When they're talking about things they know and/or care about then it gets ok, but that's probably only a quarter of the book.
The rest is randomly picked topics which results in stuff like a whole chapter on Doctor Who, where one of them doesn't particuarly like Doctor Who (yet does not passionately hate it in an amusing way) and the other "only watches it when it's on". I bet you want to read their brainfart responses to twitter questions on that topic eh? Fucking fascinating.

I think I see what they're trying to do, the random topics can be a good springboard for comedy, but sadly even when they're talking about things they know they are not funny.
They're not unfunny, which many people will take as funny from "blokes in a pub" types, but there's little to actually make you laugh here.

But as I implied I don't listen to their podcast. Perhaps it's amazing for fans.

[Debbie Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never heard of these guys before I was introduced to their podcast by a twitter friend. The book was laugh out loud funny with so many relatable topics and their humour is warming and familiar just as if you are listening to your mates chatting.
I am now an avid twitter follower, blog reader, podcast listener and book reader (not quite stalker level) life will never quite be the same....and im glad :)

[Vivienne Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a laugh out loud funny book. Although I hadn't seen the Podcast, I soon got into the humour and thoroughly enjoyed Kevin and Steve's quirky answers to the questions posed by their audience. It is one of those books that you can pick up and dip into for a quick chuckle. Pickled egg in your crisp bag anyone?
I rated it four stars simply because there were a few football references that went over my head! Skipping that it is a 5 star read.

[Scorach · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the preview is anything to go by this is a guaranteed success

[Callum Elcombe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing writing.

You have to read this. There is no option. Also listen to Mature Gamer podcast. Also what happened to Bits and PC's Kev?

[Dee-Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this would be funnier. It was a bit 'meh' for me.