Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny

by John Wenzel

Mock Stars traces the evolution of indie comedy from the underground music circuit into mainstream America. Through candid interviews with major players, including David Cross, Patton Oswalt, Neil Hamburger, Maria Bamford, Fred Armisen, Aimee Mann, and dozens of others, John Wenzel reveals how comedy is becoming relevant—and dangerously funny—again.

Genres: Comedy, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

About the author

John Wenzel first got the indie-comedy bug watching HBO's Mr. Show, a sketch comedy program with which he's still obsessed. He currently writes about music, comedy, and new media for The Denver Post and has written for websites and magazines such as Rockpile and Shredding Paper.

Reviews

[Eric Gardner · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book. Key word is was. I normally wait to buy books until they are under $5.00 used, but when I saw this book I made an exception. I love stand up comedy, so much so that I wish there was some way to better articulate it to you. I SIMPLY LOVE IT- There, I resorted to all-caps. I own all of Patton Oswalt's CDs, same for David Cross. I even have multiple bootlegs for both. I bought Live in Nerd Rage and own every thing Zach Galifianakis has ever done. I own every Comedians of Comedy thing produced. So when I saw that a book was being made about the very thing that I love I bought it instantly.

With all of this in mind, here I am with $12 less in my pocket and disappointed. One of the old adages of writing is to show the audience, not tell it. The author should take this in mind. The book is 300 some odd pages of him telling us how funny, interesting and creative the people involved are, and then retelling their standup bits and sketch ideas. Here's a tip, instead of telling us (mostly in his old words) about a certain sketch or routine, show us how it came about. He brings up Patton's disappointment with MadTV, but then tells us that it wasn't the producers who were to blame but rather the network for cutting down sketch ideas. What were these sketch ideas? I feel that if you decide to write a book about someone and they felt creatively hampered; why not tell what they wanted to do differently then the network? A sketch idea that got cut would have been far more interesting then simply reciting his IMDB profile over 5 pages (which the author routinely does.)

Instead of simply telling us that Patton Oswalt found a like minded person in David Cross, show us why they are like minded. There has to be some interesting story about when they both realized that they could form a bond. The author obviously went through intensive interviews with the comedians (how else would anyone know who the head of a comedy labels inspiration and mentor was) he should have told stories about the behind the scenes stuff. I'm pretty sure that at one time most of the comedians were roommates, why not tell stories about that experience? Almost anything would have been better then simply the author retelling his favorite routines.

I guess I am just disappointed that a book that should have been a behind the scenes look at an upcoming art scene seemed like it was simply a generic and bloated college newspaper piece, and a poorly written one at that. A good 1/3 of this book is simply worthless information that seems to be written only for the author's ego.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is familiar with alt comedy, Mock Stars didn't teach me much about the subject, but it did gather a lot of the history into one single book. Wenzel also managed to have some nice interviews with the big names on the scene.

The book is hindered by writing that sounds like ersatz Nathan Rabin, with flashy, pay-attention-to-me prose that never is as funny as it tries to be (fortunately for the reader, the worst writing is contained within an extraneous essay by Andrew Earles). Despite these faults, if you are looking for a love letter to the comedy scene that emerged over the past ten years, this book is perfect for you.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't use Goodreads the right way. See, I read a book and then post it as "read". I should put it in "currently-reading" and THEN read it. I totally negate the interactive application of this thing.

I think this book could just be called: "I love Mr. Show and here is a book that proves it by John Wenzel". I didn't really learn anything from this. I would give this 2.4 stars. If you don't know anything about David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Eugene Mirman, Patton Oswalt (or their ilk) then this book is for you. This thing is so loaded with quotes from comedy records it makes me crazy...

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about comedians like Patton Oswalt, Neil Hamburger, David Cross, etc.. Not essential, and the author tries to keep it light, but there's not much here for people who are ultimately already fans.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

A huge contrast between the subject matter and its exposition, the author's writing style is dry without being the least bit amusing. I'm about half-way through and so far each chapter has been a slog; this book is just not clicking for me.

I believe I will never finish reading this book.