So I Had This Idea For a Book …

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Ten years after Chicago saw its first full-time comedy club open, the landscape was decidedly different. “Stand-up comedy has exploded in the last couple of years,“ a club owner told the Chicago Tribune in 1985. “That’s the only way to describe it:  exploded.” It was truly a comedy boom, as many as 15 full-time clubs served 3 million people, and it lasted nearly a decade before fading, taking with it some of Chicago’s oldest clubs including the Comedy Cottage, Comedy Womb and Who’s on First. Still, stalwarts like Barrel of Laughs (south) and Zanies (north) persevered. That part of the story is known. Overlooked is the fact there was a comedy boom, period. The question of how stand-up comedy in Chicago went from nothing to what one Chicago Sun-Times writer called “Chicago’s atomic comedy blast” has never been asked. That is, until now.

… And I Happily Gave a Second Idea Away

Author Mike Thomas: “Like many of my best ideas, the notion to write a biography of Phil Hartman came from someone else – namely, scribe and former stand-up comedian Vince Vieceli. A former comic and co-author of the recently published ‘Stand-Up Comedy in Chicago’, Vince emailed me one day in late 2010 and said he’d like to read a book on Phil. ‘That’s a great idea,’ I replied, ‘and a subject I love. Phil was the tops.’ So a massive thank-you goes to Vince for getting my creative juices flowing again after a frustrating dry spell.”

Vince: The above is an excerpt from the ‘Acknowledgements’ section of the book. Upon reading it for the first time, I was flattered and humbled because Mike didn’t have to mention me, but that he did is a testament to his character and integrity, and I couldn’t be happier for him because the book is fantastic. Please buy a copy today. It’s available wherever fine books are sold.

Per Goodreads.com: “Both joyous tribute and serious biography, Mike Thomas’ You Might Remember Me is a celebration of Phil Hartman’s multi-faceted career and an exhaustively reported, warts-and-all examination of his often intriguing and sometimes complicated life–a powerful, humor-filled and disquieting portrait of a man who was loved by many, admired by millions and taken from them far too early.”