Chris Elliot chatted, signed books
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/ourtown/4_5_JO18_ELLIOTT_S1.htm
.. In Naperville: Comedian-turned author entertained
By Dennis Yohnka
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD NEWS
Tired of pompous authors on tour? Fed up with movie stars with
over-inflated
egos? Heard enough from vacuous TV celebrities?
Then, step right this way and meet Chris Elliott, the latest guest at
Anderson's Bookstore in Naperville. The comedian-turned-author read from
his
ludicrously inaccurate historic crime drama, "The Shroud of the Thwacker."
And then he entertained his assembled fans with a very unpretentious
question-and-answer session during his recent visit.
Just how refreshing is Elliott's style? Well, on a recent Monday night he
showed up on time, wearing jeans and a plaid shirt that looked like the
clothes any 45-year-old might wear when he wants to be comfortable. If a
question might have taken the more sophisticated guest off on a boring
tangent, Elliott was quick to turn things around.
The writing experience
Is writing a soul-searching challenge that tortures the body and spirit?
"Actually, this book is pretty much the same crap I was doing in high
school," Elliott said, with the crooked smile he first trademarked in his
recurring roles on David Letterman's late-night show. "You remember those
book reports you wrote when you really didn't read the book? It's like
that.
I found out right away that research really slows down the writing
process,
so I didn't do any. Everything in this book is pure fantasy or totally
inaccurate."
And the craft of the cinema ... what does it feel like to create a
masterpiece?
"I like to refer to 'Cabin Boy' (his much-scorned movie debut/flop) as the
next generation's 'Wizard of Oz.' And 'Home Alone' ... that wasn't me.
That
was Daniel Stern. But people still come up to me and tell that was some of
my best work."
And your adjustment to the small screen ... how do you cope with the
limitations of TV?
"Well, they tell me I spent a year on 'Saturday Night Live' (in 1994), but
I
don't remember any of that. And the 'Get a Life' series ... we didn't
think
anybody was watching that, but I hear now from a lot of fans who loved
that
show," he said. "It was on the cusp of that whole man-child-idiot thing
(that made a hit out of) 'Dumb and Dumber.'"
A sincerely insincere jerk
Elliott walked in the room to a rousing ovation and seemed taken back by
the
outpouring of something that bordered on a cult-like reverence.
"Honestly, I didn't know I had fans like this," he said. "I thank you,
seriously. This means a lot to me - and I know all that sounds strange
from
a guy whose entire career is built on playing this insincere jerk. But I
mean it."
His audience would have been just as pleased to have been the butt of his
jokes, but it was clear as he signed books for more than an hour: the real
Chris Elliott is more like one of your offbeat neighbors than the
psycho-loser he plays so well in projects such as "Something About Mary"
and
"Snow Day."
Most fans know he is the son of radio legend Bob Elliott of "Bob and Ray
(Goulding)" fame, but he offered a few new insights for the Anderson's
crowd. "I didn't go to college, but I guess that's pretty obvious,
especially if you read the book," he said.
"I was working for PBS when I got the offer to be a production assistant
on
the Letterman show. The pay was less than I was already making and I
wasn't
going to take it until Dad encouraged me. He knew I wanted to be in comedy
and I needed to get started."
Elliott eventually advanced to become one of "The Late Show" staff
writers.
That's where he met Adam Resnick, with whom he collaborated on the "Get A
Life" series and the ill-fated "Cabin Boy," among other projects.
The "Thwacker" idea actually was the second literary effort for the
devoted
father of two. His first, "Daddy's Boy," was a take-off on the "Mommy
Dearest" tell-all.
"But I really had nothing bad to write about, so I just made things up.
Dad
thought he deserved some rebuttal time, so he got a chapter every so often
to tell his side. The 'Thwacker' is different though: there really is a
story in there."
Parody
The book is a parody of Caleb Carr's "The Alienist" and some of the works
of
Patricia Cornwell. It involves time travel, a serial murderer in 1880s New
York City and cell phones that work on whale oil. Oh, and, by the way,
Teddy
Roosevelt is the mayor of New York in this version of history.
The reviews note that the gags-per-page hits 5.6 and sometimes distracts
from the story-telling. In fact, Elliott himself was surprised by the
length
(360 pages).
"When I hit page 290, I started thinking that I got to wrap this up."
The critics call it "relentlessly silly," "more fun than the sum of its
cliches" and "extremely funny in a very strange way." No review was quite
as
alarming as the "Nostradamus prophecy" Elliott included in the book: "An
idiot will his first novel compose, and the popular opinion will concur
that
it blows."
It should be noted that the prophecy might be at work when Barnes and
Noble
reports that the book ranks 1,489th in sales these days. But Elliott notes
there are still "nibblings" out there to put it on the big screen.
"I could see it as sort of a 'Young Frankenstein'-type movie, but that was
a
parody of a movie. This is a parody of a book, so I don't know if it would
work," he said. "I would want a very realistic look, so that might be
expensive to make. And, you know, I was writing it and it occurred to me
that this might be made into a movie, so about halfway through it, I wrote
myself into it, just to make sure I get a role."
Comments such as those drew a hearty response from an audience conditioned
to laugh at Elliott's quirky style. They were steadily amused by this
random
musings:
"All this praise is great - I just wish my kids were here. They're 18 and
15, and they think I'm a drag. They would be impressed tonight."
"People ask me if I'm going to start my own Web site, but I think that
need
is being pretty well met out there. I have heard of some folks who want to
establish a church based on me. That, I might look into."
"A reunion for the 'Get A Life' series? No, I'm not the eye-candy I used
to
be. But I do still see my dad now and then, if that's what you mean." (His
father played his dad on the show.)
"I thought the book was coming along pretty good when I heard my wife
(Paula) in the other room. She was doing the editing for me and she was
actually laughing - and that says a lot because she's not a fan of mine.
Really."
12/18/05
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