WoB - My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face by Michael Ian Black

My Custom Van:
And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays
That Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face

Michael Ian Black

Publisher:
Simon Spotlight Entertainment

Release Date:
July 15, 2008

Genres:
Humorous

ISBN:
eBook
No ISBN
Print
9781416964056
Kindle
No ISBN

Bookmark Rating:

Reviewed by
Jennifer Ray

Review Posted:
September 2008

What do you get when a particularly offbeat comedian puts his inner thoughts to paper? Why, you get Michael Ian Black’s MY CUSTOM VAN: AND 50 OTHER MIND-BLOWING ESSAYS THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ALL OVER YOUR FACE.

WARNING: Do NOT – I repeat – do not try to read this books while eating. Seriously. I made that mistake and it nearly cost me my life. If you must read it while eating, alert a buddy who knows the Heimlich maneuver beforehand.

CONFESSION: I am twisted and wrong. I readily admit it. I must be, because Mr. Black’s new book fits that description to a ‘t’ and I hungrily ate up every minute of it!

If you have seen Michael Ian Black’s various television appearances, you have a good idea already of what to expect, given his very left-of-right sense of humor and deadpan delivery. If that is what you are expecting, you won’t be disappointed with MY CUSTOM VAN: AND 50 OTHER MIND-BLOWING ESSAYS THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ALL OVER YOUR FACE. Nay, you will be delighted, much as I myself was, to find that same wit infused in every page, only without the need to be mindful of TV censors.

Mr. Black’s book is a collection of ‘essays’ on myriad topics comprising each chapter. I have to say there wasn’t a bad essay in the bunch, but my very favorite chapters include:

- ‘What I Would Be Thinking if I Were Billy Joel Driving to a Holiday Party Where I Knew There Was Going to Be a Piano’

- ‘One Day, I’m Going to Open a Scented Candle Shoppe’

- ‘Taco Party’

- ‘Vampires – Good for the Economy?’

- ‘My Custom Van’

- ‘Why I Used a Day-Glo Magic Marker to Color My Dick Yellow’

- ‘How to Approach the Sensitive Question: Anal?’

- ‘A Series of Letters to a Squirrel’

A list of titles like that makes you more than curious, doesn’t it? Come on, you can admit it. It’s just us here…

You won’t want to read this one in public, either, unless you are prepared to stop and explain what you are laughing about every other minute. Every time you read another gut-buster, every nosy person around you will want in on the joke. I speak from experience, believe me. Of course, it is so funny you will WANT to share the joke, but that will only slow down your own enjoyment of it since it will prevent you reading the next essay.

Michael Ian Black holds nothing back in this book, and with every paragraph, his trademark earnest delivery is evident, making the wild thought-process all the more hilarious. After reading this book, Mr. Black tops my list of celebrities I most want to have a conversation with.

MY CUSTOM VAN: AND 50 OTHER MIND-BLOWING ESSAYS THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ALL OVER YOUR FACE is the kind of book that will have people talking, but it is not a book you will readily lend out, for fear of it not being returned. Do what I do – buy your friends their own copy. It would make a great stocking stuffer… Assuming your friends are as twisted and wrong as I am.

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