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BOOKS
Funny by association
Deep in the heart of Chelsea
Nothing new in Ellen’s latest,
hut it’s still a laugh riot
Comic achieves mixed results
through use of extrem es
by
E ls D ebbaut
by
llen DeGeneres has put a delightful spin on
history quite a few times. In 1986 she was the
first (and only) female comic on The Tmiight
Show who Johnny Carson asked to sit down
with him after the performance, and in 1997 her
character in Ellen was the first openly gay leading
d l e n
role in prime time. (Perhaps you heard about that.)
e n e r e s
Many awards later, DeGeneres is chairing her own
daytime talk show and kids and adults alike have
adopted her Finding Nemo screen persona Dora’s cheery
anthem “just keep swimming, just keep swimming..
Now the bona fide lesbian icon has published
her second btx>k, appropriately called The Funny
Thing Is... (Simon & Schuster, 2003, $23 hardcover).
The title, as the author explains, is designed to hixik the everyday kx)k
buyer, and this took a lot o f laborious thinking. She went from testing the
concept of asking stores for a nameless book, to experimenting with simple
one-word titles such as funny! (like, she notes, Madonna’s sex), to finally
deciding on The Funny Thing Is... because “when you hear it, you know
you’re going to hear an entertaining story. Perfect for essays written by a
comic or even a bxxik on the state of Social Security."
This latest Ellen-in-print is, like her performances, a collection of essays
made up of keen observations on a number of mundane issues— spniced up
with a whole lot of wit and imagination and served in DeGeneres’ trade
mark style o f endlessly wandering associations.
The kx)k is not, she warns, for readers kxiking for “never-before-
revealed insights into who I am .... If so, here’s a gixxJ one for you, right off
the bat: If anyone knows me at all, they know I enjoy the smell of a freshly
washed monkey.”
This is your first hint that you’re not going to get the latest dish on her
girlfriend, her show or whether she makes crank phone calls to Anne
Heche. It’s all about the next punch line.
Chapters include guidelines on how to have bninch with Paula Abdul,
Diane Sawyer, Gloria Steinem, Donatella Versace, Ed Begley Jr. and
Eminem (all at the same time), ponderings on the ups of prison life (time
to: collect pen pals, work out abs, get a Ph.D.), rescue tips for embarrassing
moments like forgetting people’s names or accidentally flipping off John
Travolta, recollections of her fondue and Chablis afternoon with G<xl and
rantings about nruxlem technology. (“Just try and find the start of that toilet
paper roll.... You think, surely I’ve gone around once or twice by now.”)
The cover does mit lie: The book bursts with hilarious stories. Unfortu
nately, though, a lot of them are echoing the comic’s latest live show. I was
hoping for less déjà vu and more fresh.
I was also struck with the uncomfortable feeling of peeking into
DeGeneres’ manuscripts. The essays are clearly formatted for stage perform
ance. Lines only really come into their hill effect with the addition of
DeGeneres’ gestures, pauses, expressions, little dances and perfect intonation.
You can try to add these yourself as you make your way though the
book, but why not just rent the next HBO special instead? Still, if you like
to read more than watch, buy The Funny Thing Is.... It’s all a little pre
dictable but still great fun. J H
E
E ls D erraü T is a Portland free-lance writer.
Hawthorne
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L isa B radshaw
like an impatient television sitcom, ends are tied up pretty
elcome to the first collection of Chelsea Boys
quickly, often with the use of cheesy, heavy-handed dialogue.
(Alyson, 2003, $13.95 softcover), a collaboration
Still, the creators do a generally gtxxl job at poking fun
between New York gay writers/illustrators Glen
at their own community while simultaneously paying
Hanson and Allan Neuwirth, who’ve been pen
homage to it, which is a difficult task at best. And they
ning the strip since 1998.
nail multicultural and multisexual issues and conflicts dead
Set in the Chelsea district of New York (and titled
on without batting an eye.
with a ncxl to Andy Warhol’s famous film The Chelsea
The collection includes some stand-alone, color, fanta
Girls), the narrative stories center around 40-something
sy cartoons of Soiree in The Adventures o f Super I)iva and a
Nathan, a short, Jewish, Barbra-obsessed gay man, and his
Soiree cutout paper doll, both of which are hilarious. (The
two roommates, the young, studly art student Sky (whose
other color strips are rather tasteless and pointless.)
muscles are bom of yoga, not bench presses) and Soiree,
Hanson and Neuwirth reportedly are working on an
one of the area’s prima queens.
animated Chelsea Boys television show, which would be
Although it takes a little rime to enjoy the company of
the first all-queer animated series. Should be pretty inter
these three and their array of extremely kxly-conscious,
esting considering all the graphic sex. J H
rather self-serving friends, slowly do Hanson and
Neuwirth draw you past the facades and into their real
L isa B raiwiaw is the Arts & Culture Editor o f Just Out.
worlds of crappy jobs, casual sex and love found and lost.
The draw
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SN O W FRO M C O SSA C K S AN O
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sweatshops,
corporate snobs
and even the
&
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bians— is mag
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nified 100
times in the
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THAT W A S M Y S I S T E R ON
HE SAID M E D E S P I S E S fM R S R A . . . MOW S O I R E E -
YOU D O N 'T B E T I T — I T 'S NOT
to examine
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J U S T A BO U T N E W Y E A R 'S . . .
WMAT is
M E THAT M V FA T H E R - -
WITH SOMEONE WHO F S ΠTHAT W AV?
T 'M S T A R T iN B TO T H IN K STEV E»
queer identity.
IT , MAN ?
WHO X HAVEN'T HAD ANY
ANO T M A Y B E FUNDAMENTALLY
CONTACT W ITH
IN C O M P A T IB L E
Which is
DO YOU
IN * 4 - Y E A R S - ■
U N D E R ST A N D
part of Chelsea
i S D Y Í kk S . . .
MOW S E R IO U S
A N ' ME
T H IS iS j / f
Boys' success—
W AN TS TO
EE ME
and part of its
downfall. Plots
going one way
then jet so far
the other, the
reader winds up
a little lost. And,
W
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(jifts and
furnishing:
Qreat Selection o f ‘Treasures from Tost a n d Present
including ‘TraditionalSlandBloum glass ornam ents
,
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