Whatever You Do, Don't Kill His Cat
We called Elliot Bay Books last week in advance of John Hodgman's reading, and asked whether they thought it would be crowded. Should we show up early, now that he's all famous and whatnot? Not a bad idea, they said, maybe 7pm. The reading was to start at 7:30. We strolled into EBB as the clock struck 7, and our heart sank into our feet as we spied the line at the bottom of the spiral staircase, making its own spiral all the way through the cafe next to the reading room in the basement. Luckily, Seattlest Jack and Audrey were wiser than we are, and had arrived even earlier, securing our seats three rows back, just left of center.
What a difference some TV ads will make. The man wrote an incredibly funny little book, and when he came to town for that first book tour, the room was barely half full. The man sells some Macs and pays Jon Stewart to let him on the Daily Show and now you people can't get enough of him? (OK, we lied about that Daily Show part--we're certain Mr. Stewart was as smitten with him as all the people at Elliot Bay were, and begged him to be on the show.) As you can see, his hands move faster than human sight, so maybe that explains his popularity. The place was absolutely packed, we'll hazard a guess of at least 200-250 people there, jammed into every standing-room-only nook and cranny (hey Frizelle, how was the standing?).
He covered some of the same material from his last reading, notably the hobo lore that is still so popular. Johnathan Coulton stood by sporting his cap and fringed suede jacket, playing the theme song as well, but he had to cut out early to make it over to the Jewelbox Theater for his own show (which we promptly arrived at just as it ended). Before leaving, he played an acoustic version of "Code Monkey" which was wonderful on its own for its sparingly accurate portrait of the soulless side of software development, but made far sweeter when an aging man who was looked like he could be a code monkey himself gave Coulton a standing ovation at the end of the song. He was the only person with a seat actually standing.
Our favorite reading snippet was the attack ad on Coulton, about the unfortunate incident that transpired when Hodgman went to Montreal and Coulton didn't feed his cats, despite what Hodgman considered to be a clearly-articulated request for him to do just that. We know this is a schtick act between the two, and we love it; apparently they're also carrying this one along the whole tour. For those who missed it in Seattle, you can listen to this great podcast from The Sound of Young America--look for the "bonus" podcast for more background on the whole cat fiasco.
Hit the jump for more highlights. Also: brandy.
Other highlights: the charming woman who carried on a conversation over brandy with Hodgman in the background while we listended to a recording of Paul Rudd reading horribly unfunny jokes from the book, contrasted with the slightly scary guy sitting right next to Seattlest who was runner-up for getting the brandy (Hodgman asked who'd donated to KUOW that morning, when he was on the show), probably because he was just to overeager. Later, Hodgman took pity on him and let him hold the walkie-talkie radio next to the mike during Q&A, which didn't go so well and Hodgman eventually abandoned the radios.
The Q&A was hysterical, in part because people had much more to ask him this time around, and because he displayed even more swagger than at the previous reading, talking some pretty amusing smack back to his inquirers. A few thoughtful, genuine questions provoked surprisingly direct answers (especially from the man who asked how Hodgman feels about the government's trafficking in fake "facts"), but the best moment by far was the skewering he gave to a woman who started her "question" by informing him that she was from his hometown and went to his alma matter. Oh honey, you may be from Brookline and we have no doubt you went to Yale, but he's still much, much smarter than you. And, he likes hotdogs.
