Some comedians are naturally funny writers. Jon Stewart’s Naked
Pictures of Famous People is funny, and Woody Allen’s first three
books are classics. If I had to make a bet, I would bank on Michael Ian
Black, of comedy groups Stella and The State, as one of those gifted
writers; his sense of humor tends to be slightly subtler than his
peers, which often translates more effectively into print.
Sadly, I would have lost that bet. Black is, at best, a mediocre
comic author. The 50 essays in My Custom Van hinge on one joke
apiece: One essay is titled “A Series of Letters to a Squirrel,” and it
offers no surprises at all. Other one-note essays involve handlebar
mustaches, perms, and jug bands—and then they drag along for
pages, not investigating the concept any further, before they dutifully
end. One essay riffs on the idea of finding a DJ name, and all the
choices (DJ Sandra Bullock Fan, DJ Animal Lover, and DJ LOL) are
exactly the same kind of dopey-white-guy funny.
Black is funnier on the internet. He’s been featured on the
McSweeney’s website, and his own blog (www.michaelianblack.typepad.com)
is frequently hilarious. His long-running, one-sided jealous feud with
David Sedaris, culminating in a reader contest to Photoshop Sedaris
into a comic-book-style villain, shows the sort of inventive leeway
that a book doesn’t seem to provide him. His posts about scabies are
also funnier than just about everything in My Custom Van. The
interactivity of the internet seems to stimulate him, but Black’s
straight-faced surrealism, a kind of cross between Bob Newhart and
Steven Wright, dances for a moment and then drops dead on the page.
Michael Ian Black reads Tues July 22, Third Place Books, 6 pm,
free.