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The Comedy Keeper
Only a Comedy Keeper can save laughter at its source! In this novel for serious class clowns, 12-year old Josh Markowitz must travel back to 1908 to convince an unruly family of very funny Marx brothers to fulfill their comic destinies. Will they go through their lives as Julius, Adolph and Leonard or break through to become Groucho, Harpo and Chico, the famous Marx Brothers of stage and screen fame?
It starts when Josh, the Class Clown of Patton Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon gets in trouble (again) for being a little bit too funny in school. The detention he receives threatens to ruin his baseball season. His friends Omar, Amy and the fabulous, fake English exchange student Elizabeth Walcot Woolcott all sympathize, but the evil Stevie San Pedro thinks Josh deserves his punishment.
Josh goes to the old magic shop on the wrong side of town where an ageless clown named Slivers makes Josh a deal: Convince some old friends of his to become comedians, and Slivers will get him out of detention. The friends are the famous Marx Brothers – Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo -- long before they would begin their careers as comedians and movie stars, and they need a kick-start from history. As a Comedy Keeper, Josh must convince the funny brothers to take up comedy, or be forever lost to history. Without a boost from him, Slivers explains, there would never be Marx Brothers movies, and without that there would be no Saturday Night Live, Jerry Seinfeld or Simpsons. The future of comedy depends on Josh!
Josh activates The Great Wandini – a magical fortune-telling machine that can send people careening through time, and he is transported to the streets of New York City in 1908, where he is befriended by none other than Julius, Arthur and Leonard Marx.
The brothers Marx don’t even know they’re comedians yet; they have a singing act in vaudeville theaters with their mother, Minnie, and have no intention of changing it. But after witnessing much hilarity between the brothers at their cramped apartment, Josh convinces them that their future lies in comedy. To convince Minnie to change the act, Josh will have to go onstage and start the comedy ball rolling.
Meanwhile, in the present, Josh’s friends try to figure out how and why he disappeared and have some adventures of their own in Slivers’ Magic Shop and with the Great Wandini. Through a magical interface with the old New York Evening Standard newspaper, they can “text” Slivers to find and rescue Josh from the past.
Before that happens, though, and before he can return to his own time, Josh is nabbed by an evil “bull” –a corrupt policeman who conscripts children into slave labor in the textile mills of upstate New York. Josh is dragged away to the Oneida Textile Mills and what looks like a life of hard labor.
But the Marx Brothers intercede in a very funny way – by pretending that Julius is “the African Explorer,” Adolph and Leonard are natives, and they need a boy to take back to the dark continent. Josh is rescued, but the brothers still aren't sure about him until Josh reveals that he was sent by Frank "Slivers" Oakley, a real clown who was the toast of Broadway in the early years of the 20th century. The Marx Brothers finally believe his story and agree to fulfill their destinies as comics. With Josh in tow, they head to Coney Island in time to perform, bring the house down with jokes and antics, and set the brothers on the course of becoming famous.
“The Comedy Keeper” is many things: A rollicking, funny, fast tale, a tribute to classic comedy, a historical novel with period detail of 1908 New York City, and an introduction for young readers to the Marx Brothers, with authentic details of their lives and careers. Best read with a hard-boiled egg . . . or two.
It starts when Josh, the Class Clown of Patton Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon gets in trouble (again) for being a little bit too funny in school. The detention he receives threatens to ruin his baseball season. His friends Omar, Amy and the fabulous, fake English exchange student Elizabeth Walcot Woolcott all sympathize, but the evil Stevie San Pedro thinks Josh deserves his punishment.
Josh goes to the old magic shop on the wrong side of town where an ageless clown named Slivers makes Josh a deal: Convince some old friends of his to become comedians, and Slivers will get him out of detention. The friends are the famous Marx Brothers – Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Gummo and Zeppo -- long before they would begin their careers as comedians and movie stars, and they need a kick-start from history. As a Comedy Keeper, Josh must convince the funny brothers to take up comedy, or be forever lost to history. Without a boost from him, Slivers explains, there would never be Marx Brothers movies, and without that there would be no Saturday Night Live, Jerry Seinfeld or Simpsons. The future of comedy depends on Josh!
Josh activates The Great Wandini – a magical fortune-telling machine that can send people careening through time, and he is transported to the streets of New York City in 1908, where he is befriended by none other than Julius, Arthur and Leonard Marx.
The brothers Marx don’t even know they’re comedians yet; they have a singing act in vaudeville theaters with their mother, Minnie, and have no intention of changing it. But after witnessing much hilarity between the brothers at their cramped apartment, Josh convinces them that their future lies in comedy. To convince Minnie to change the act, Josh will have to go onstage and start the comedy ball rolling.
Meanwhile, in the present, Josh’s friends try to figure out how and why he disappeared and have some adventures of their own in Slivers’ Magic Shop and with the Great Wandini. Through a magical interface with the old New York Evening Standard newspaper, they can “text” Slivers to find and rescue Josh from the past.
Before that happens, though, and before he can return to his own time, Josh is nabbed by an evil “bull” –a corrupt policeman who conscripts children into slave labor in the textile mills of upstate New York. Josh is dragged away to the Oneida Textile Mills and what looks like a life of hard labor.
But the Marx Brothers intercede in a very funny way – by pretending that Julius is “the African Explorer,” Adolph and Leonard are natives, and they need a boy to take back to the dark continent. Josh is rescued, but the brothers still aren't sure about him until Josh reveals that he was sent by Frank "Slivers" Oakley, a real clown who was the toast of Broadway in the early years of the 20th century. The Marx Brothers finally believe his story and agree to fulfill their destinies as comics. With Josh in tow, they head to Coney Island in time to perform, bring the house down with jokes and antics, and set the brothers on the course of becoming famous.
“The Comedy Keeper” is many things: A rollicking, funny, fast tale, a tribute to classic comedy, a historical novel with period detail of 1908 New York City, and an introduction for young readers to the Marx Brothers, with authentic details of their lives and careers. Best read with a hard-boiled egg . . . or two.
181 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2015
About the author
Jim Gullo
14 books2 followersOregon author Jim Gullo's tenth book, THE COMEDY KEEPER, is a historical comedy for serious class clowns! In this book intended for a 10-15 year old reader (and their parents), 7th-grader Josh Markowitz gets sent back in time to convince some very funny brothers named Marx that their futures lie in being comedians. Groucho, Chico and Harpo need some help from the future to begin their famous careers, and The Comedy Keeper is just the kid to help.
Gullo has been writing funny, engaging stories for over thirty years, with a career that has included travel writing, novels, journalism and the memoir about teaching baseball to his son, TRADING MANNY: HOW A FATHER AND SON LEARNED TO LOVE BASEBALL AGAIN.
Previous books include FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH,” a novel about overcoming loss; guidebooks and non-fiction books for middle-school readers.
Gullo’s comic voice and insightful reporting have been displayed as the “How-to Guru” columnist for Premiere magazine, the “Video Vagabond” reviewer for the Chicago Tribune for several years, and as a columnist for Diversion and Wingspan magazines.
As a travel writer and journalist, Gullo searched northern Thailand for noodles for Saveur; chronicled the feats of Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaii’s greatest athlete, for Sports Illustrated; played the golf courses of Scotland as a P.G. Wodehouse character for Islands; asked his butler to bring pizzas and Yoohoos to his St. Regis hotel suite for Virtuoso Travel Life; and written about Microsoft millionaires, Mexican resorts and scuba-diving in Indiana sloughs for Town & Country, Bon Appetit and Aqua, respectively.
Gullo grew up in Penn Yan, New York on Keuka Lake, where his father, Dr. Joseph F. Gullo, was a professor at Keuka College. Gullo studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Arizona and has taken writing workshops at the Field’s End program on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he lived for several years.
He now resides in McMinnville, Oregon, in the heart of Oregon's wine region with wife Kris and sons Joe and Henry; his son Michael is a professional jazz singer and producer in New York City. When not writing or sampling Oregon wines, Gullo is an avid baker and author of the PastryRanch.com baking blog.
www.jim-gullo.com
www.pastryranch.com
Gullo has been writing funny, engaging stories for over thirty years, with a career that has included travel writing, novels, journalism and the memoir about teaching baseball to his son, TRADING MANNY: HOW A FATHER AND SON LEARNED TO LOVE BASEBALL AGAIN.
Previous books include FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH,” a novel about overcoming loss; guidebooks and non-fiction books for middle-school readers.
Gullo’s comic voice and insightful reporting have been displayed as the “How-to Guru” columnist for Premiere magazine, the “Video Vagabond” reviewer for the Chicago Tribune for several years, and as a columnist for Diversion and Wingspan magazines.
As a travel writer and journalist, Gullo searched northern Thailand for noodles for Saveur; chronicled the feats of Duke Kahanamoku, Hawaii’s greatest athlete, for Sports Illustrated; played the golf courses of Scotland as a P.G. Wodehouse character for Islands; asked his butler to bring pizzas and Yoohoos to his St. Regis hotel suite for Virtuoso Travel Life; and written about Microsoft millionaires, Mexican resorts and scuba-diving in Indiana sloughs for Town & Country, Bon Appetit and Aqua, respectively.
Gullo grew up in Penn Yan, New York on Keuka Lake, where his father, Dr. Joseph F. Gullo, was a professor at Keuka College. Gullo studied journalism and creative writing at the University of Arizona and has taken writing workshops at the Field’s End program on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where he lived for several years.
He now resides in McMinnville, Oregon, in the heart of Oregon's wine region with wife Kris and sons Joe and Henry; his son Michael is a professional jazz singer and producer in New York City. When not writing or sampling Oregon wines, Gullo is an avid baker and author of the PastryRanch.com baking blog.
www.jim-gullo.com
www.pastryranch.com
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