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The Funny Man

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John Warner

October 2011

David Breithaupt

With a title such as The Funny Man, I was expecting John Warner’s novel to be about the dark side of comedy. I sensed some sort of irony. Having known a few local comics while living in NYC, I was surprised by the flip side of their comedic faces. Many of them were depressed, bi-polar, damaged by childhood abuse or simply born unstable. All, it seemed, were self-medicating with humor.

With a title such as The Funny Man, I was expecting John Warner’s novel to be about the dark side of comedy. I sensed some sort of irony. Having known a few local comics while living in NYC, I was surprised by the flip side of their comedic faces. Many of them were depressed, bi-polar, damaged by childhood abuse or simply born unstable. All, it seemed, were self-medicating with humor.

The book did not let me down in that regard, though the plot line kept jumping in unexpected directions and sucked me in. The Funny Man has no name and is known through the book only by his title. His story begins with his court trial in which he is charged with shooting an unarmed man six times and finally killing him. It isn’t until the end of the book that we learn the true details of this event. His lawyer pleads him “innocent by reason of celebrity.” As the trial proceeds, we learn of the rise and fall of The Funny Man’s career. We read of how he grew to fame with his tag bit, stuffing his entire fist in his mouth while mimicking perfectly a bevy of popular celebrities. He becomes weary of this act but it’s all the crowd wants to see. He hires on to a movie, which in the end he deems so bad he wants to hide. The film, however, turns out to be a smash hit.

Now his marriage begins to fail. He is falsely accused of a tryst with his love interest in the film. A therapist prescribes him some wonder pills which he abuses, thus curtailing his parenting abilities (he has a small child), all of which earns him bad press while his trial continues. The Funny Man’s stock begins to plummet.

Enter the “White Hot Center.” The Funny Man, while under house arrest during his trial, receives a mysterious invitation in the form of a business card which appears out of nowhere. He calls the number on the card only to be asked “if he is ready.” Ready for what? He isn’t sure. Shortly thereafter he is escorted from his building by two men who place him in a van and drive him to an unknown destination. The Funny Man spends the next few weeks in a sort of new age Shangri-La where his addictions are removed and personal defects eliminated. This is the world called the White Hot Center.

So is this real? Has the Funny Man lost it? I’ll let you decide. I enjoyed this excursion to non-reality. I think I need to go there. So what could be better than getting your personality dry cleaned? Finding love. The Funny Man meets a celebrity female tennis player who is also doing time at the WHC. The two of them hit it off and grow close. The Funny Man begins to fall in love.

Upon his return to the real world, The Funny Man finds that his wife has divorced him and his therapist doubts the reality of his time at the WHC. He is left to follow the exploits of his new love interest, whom he watches zealously on the Tennis Channel.

It’s a sad story overall and the moments of comedy within fall into the category of black humor. Yet for me it was a believable story of an unbelievable life. You feel for The Funny Man; he reminds me of a tragic Shakespearian character, but his ups and downs are the story of Everyman. I won’t tell the ending. If you are interested, take the plunge with The Funny Man. I’m glad I did.

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