Every Comedian Needs to Write a Book

I am in the middle of a phase. Not a strange fashion phase where I only wear clothing made of mink (death to all minks! [Totally joking, PETA, don't send your assassins for me]) or a depressive, Gothic phase (that already happened). It is a literary phase, in fact, that initiated when I decided to listen to Amy Poehler's book Yes Please on CD in the car. Her book was amazing, and essentially changed my life. She shows her vulnerability in this lovely chronicle of her life, admits to mistakes she has made, relishes in the joys she has experienced (motherhood, her career, etc.), and shares emotions that we all feel constantly (celebrities feel insecure too?! WHAT!?), all while making the reader/listener laugh out loud throughout (unless the reader/listener has no sense of humor whatsoever). After the final words on the final CD sifted through the speakers, lingered for a moment in my mind and disappeared, I suddenly felt motivated to read another comedian biography.

Thankfully, there are many. So, this phase may endure for quite some time, making my brief Gothic phase seem like a mere blip on the radar of life (also, can someone tell me if Gothic is capitalized??). My next choice was actually my first choice, but they were out of it at Barnes And Noble (it should be Barnes N' Noble, in my opinion, it's a bit catchier. Whatever, they will probably go out of business soon. Not like I'm hoping for that). So I apologize to Amy Poehler- her book was my second choice after Tina Fey's Bossypants, only because everyone in my life ranted and raved about its unparalleled excellence on the hilarity scale.

I have to say, however, before moving on to the Bossypants reading experience, that I am so freaking happy that I read Yes Please because it re-motivated me to watch Parks and Recreation, the hilarious show in which Amy Poehler is the main character, from season 1 to 7 and I loved every second of my binge watching experience.

Anyways, I have to admit that reading Bossypants was an immensely enjoyable experience, I laughed so hard that it I attempted to read it while drinking the beverage would have shot through my nose (if that actually happens). To be honest though I wish I had gotten it on CD. Not that I am lazy, but I imagine hearing her actually read the words would have been fantastic, as it was in Amy Poehler's book.

Upon closing the back cover I once again felt that void that could only be filled by a book written by a comedian. Since I was watching Parks and Rec, I decided to check out Aziz Ansari's new book titled Modern Romance. I was taken aback at first noticing that it was not simply a comedian recalling life experiences or making observations about life but a research piece on how the dating world has changed so drastically over the recent years. I was irritated at first thinking that it would be like reading a dry research essay- I bought a comedian's book so I could LAUGH, damn it! But to my pleasant surprise, it was a gut buster as well as extremely informative. I closed the back cover literally minutes ago and loved every page. Another life changer.

What's next? Nick Offerman's book, of course!

Lyrics: Useful, or Mental Clutter?

The other day, I was scrounging around in my parents' house for a blank CD and came upon the Mount Everest of CD stacks. They were not blank, however, but a collection of mix CDs made throughout my middle and high school years. I decided to go down memory lane and popped CD after CD, some terribly scratched, into my car's CD player. The vast majority of the tracks I hadn't heard in years and years, and yet I noticed that I had the majority of the lyrics memorized word for word. On some occasions, I began singing along to a song perfectly and could not even remember its name or who was the singer or group.

This got me thinking...

The storage space in my brain dedicated to 80's, 90's and early 2000's music including that of Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Seether, Bush, and Lifehouse (to name a very select few) along with soundtracks from various movies, classic rock tunes, and some numbers from famous musicals must be the absolute largest of all mental storage spaces in my brain. I mean, how is it fair that I can remember all the words to "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge without hearing it for years but I can't remember information from my nutrition class one week ago?

Maybe the key is just to put all information I wish to truly store forever into a catchy tune. Honestly, that would probably work. One of my elementary teachers had us sing multiplication tables to kids tunes and I can STILL remember that almost twenty years later. So all you professors out there, perhaps it is time to conduct your lectures entirely in song. If nothing else, it would be incredibly entertaining.