So far as interviews go, "I don't know," was not a bad take on the whole interview process with Penn Jillette. I complicate things, of course, because I prefer to speak to someone face-to-face. This meant that until literally the day before I was to do the interview, I had no set place or time to do it.
I understand the necessities. Jillette has a huge following from his Vegas magic act and his Showtime Series, Bullshit. Writers who work in all forms of media, whose stories go out across all sorts of platforms, are getting booked to the hilt. Moreover, they're dealing with all sorts of interview types. They may be putting in five minutes here, or answering questions about their show there, to someone who might not have seen the book at all.
Then there's me. The only time I've seen Penn Jillette live was when he introduced the Residents for the Mark of the Mole tour. I've not seen any of the magic, any of the visits to the talk shows, nor watched a single episode of Bullshit. (I don't subscribe to Showtime, kind of a stopper.) But I actually read the book, filled it with stickies and was well-prepped for the interview, which I found out was to be at 9:00 AM.
Thus, I found myself flying up the freeway just after oh-dark hundred, with the idea of making it to San Francisco in time to get parked and to his hotel for what to many people might be an early appointment.
None of this was easy — beyond reading the book, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The trap with interviews for books such as this is that you can just get slotted into asking, "What about Commandment 1?" and so on down the line. I tried to take different approach, and once Jillette and I got our words lined up right, off we went for a screamingly quick thirty minutes. You can hear just about every second by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
08-31-11:Nick Mamatas Reads at SF in SF on June 11, 2011
"I will try to read more slowly."
—Nick Mamatas
Before he read at SF in SF back in June — it seems so long ago now! — Nick Mamatas inveigled us with an anecdote about reading aloud at another gathering, and receiving a complaint about reading too fast from an audience member. "And then I married her," he told us.
To be honest, he didn't seem to exactly be hitting the brakes when he read this time around from his fascinating new novel 'Sensation,' in which our world is watched over and occasionally messed with by intelligent, near omnipotent wasps (insects, not humans). That said it's hard to go wrong with such a premise, to my mind. And when you hear the reading, all I can say it that in the aftermath, just blame the insects for manipulating you into buying the book.
08-30-11 UPDATE:Podcast Update: Time to Read, Episode 7: Writing About Slavery: Alan Cheuse, Song of Slaves in the Desert
Here's the seventh episode of my new series of podcasts, which I'm calling Time to Read. The podcasts/radio broadcasts will be of books worth your valuable reading time. I'll try to keep the reports under four minutes, for a radio-friendly format. If you want to run them on your show or podcast, let me know.
My hope is that in under four minutes I can offer readers a concise review and an opportunity to hear the author read from or speak about the work. I'm hoping to offer a new one every week.
"...this guy went on to be a private investigator for years and years and he still does it..."
—David Levien
David Levien (lev-VEEN, yes I mispronounced it at first as well) is exactly as down-to-earth as you might expect the author of the Frank Behr novels to be; which is to say, utterly, totally, salt-of-the-earth down-to-earth. I was privileged to speak with him while he was in town for a whirlwind tour that sounded pretty difficult; one of those one-city-a-day deals that I'm certain gives book tours the allure of a forced march.
But given the forced-march aspect of his appearance here, he was remarkably cheerful, and we had a great conversation about his books, his movies and his path to the Frank Behr books. This is the sort of conversation that is better heard than described, so I'll keep the spoilers for the interview to a minimum. Still, there are some things I do feel comfortable letting readers know.
The first is that there is another Frank Behr novel in the works. To my mind, any time after tomorrow would be good, but the chances are we will have to wait. But Levien makes sure that the books are worth the wait, so I'm content to do so. He also talked about his next movie, which is based on 'The Game' by Neil Strauss. The book is about the "secret society of pickup artists." Given that all movies these days seem to require a boy-meets-girl plot, well, at least we have here a book wherein that is essential to the plot instead of thrown in as an obligatory sub-plot.
05-16-12: Commentary : Mark Sundeen Pays Out 'The Man Who Quit Money' : Over the Edges
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Mark Sundeen and Daniel Suelo : "What would happen if we actually practiced this stuff?"-Daniel Suelo
05-15-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War' : Impure Life
05-08-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Clive Barker 'Abarat' : Reading in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Mark Sundeen : "...over the years, I had heard through my friends that he had stopped using money and was living in a cave..."
04-30-12: Commentary : Christopher Moore Follows 'Sacré Bleu' : A Story in Color
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Christopher Moore : "...it often isn't efficient to tell a story in chronological order..."
04-27-12: Commentary : Lisa Lutz on 'Trail of the Spellmans' : Meta-Fiction is Fun
Agony Column Podcast News Report: SF in SF from February 11, 2012 : Panel Discussion Moderated by Terry Bisson and Interviews with Rudy Rucker, K. W. Jeter, and Jay Lake
04-26-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Emmanuel Carrere 'The Adversary' : The Enemy Within
04-23-12: Commentary : T. M. Luhrman Listens 'When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship With God' : Science and the Supernaturaly
04-18-12: Commentary : Gregg Jones Stirs Through 'Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dreams' : A Dream Of Today From Yesterday
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Gregg Jones : "The Philippinos would welcome us with open arms and greet us as liberators."
04-17-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Caleb Carr 'The Alienist' : Subterranean History
04-16-12: Commentary : Richard Zacks Visits 'Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York' :The Wild, Wild East
Agony Column Podcast News Report: A 2012 Interview with Richard Zacks : "Roosevelt and Riis were out looking, and if they did find a cop, he was talking to a streetwalker."
