"Todd Barry has always been hysterical, but he has never gotten filthy rich off a book. Let's make that happen!"
Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg
One Comedian's Tour of Not-Quite-the-Biggest Cities in the World
Description
“With this charming, sardonic debut, stand up comedian and actor Todd Barry makes readers laugh as hard as the audiences at his shows” (Publishers Weekly) in this hilarious book of travel essays from his time on tour in the US, Canada, and Israel.
Hello. It’s Todd Barry. Yes, the massively famous comedian. I have billions of fans all over the world, so I do my fair share of touring. While I love doing shows in the big cities (New York, Philadelphia), I also enjoy a good secondary market (Ithaca, Bethlehem). Performing in these smaller places can be great because not all entertainers stop there on tour; they don’t expect to see you. They’re appreciative. They say things like “Thank you for coming to Hattiesburg” as much as they say “Nice show.” And almost every town has their version of a hipster coffee shop, so I can get in my comfort zone.
My original plan was to book one secondary market show in all fifty states, in about a year, but that idea was funnier than anything in my act. So, instead of all fifty states in a year, my agent booked multiple shows in a lot of states, plus Israel and Canada.
Thank You for Coming to Hattiesburg is part tour diary, part travel guide, and part memoir (Yes, memoir. Just like the thing presidents and former child stars get to write). Follow me on my journey of small clubs, and the occasional big amphitheater. Watch me make a promoter clean the dressing room toilet in Connecticut, see me stare at beached turtles in Maui, and see how I react when Lars from Metallica shows up to see me at a rec center in Northern California.
I’d love to tell you more, but I need to go book a flight to Evansville, Indiana.
Reviews
"Few comedians have mastered sarcasm with a dose of warmth the way the great Todd Barry has. Also Todd would not have ended the previous sentence with a verb."
"Todd Barry is not just one of my oldest friends in comedy but one of my favorite comedians, and this book captures his bone-dry subtle genius to a T."
"No one else has mastered the art of at once self-deprecating and self-aggrandizing like Barry, and his trip through America is irresistibly funny...one of the funniest comics working today."
