- "The Show" is the second most widely-read column in Sports Illustrated, after Rick Reilly, who will write one of the book's introductions. Sports Illustrated has over three million subscribers, the third highest magazine circulation in the United States, and is read by 23 million adults each week. - The Best Of "The Show" will appeal to fans of Rick Reilly's Life of Reilly (Total/Sports Illustrated, 2000) and Bill Geist's Fore!Play (Warner, 2001), both of which were bestsellers. - Scheft was the Emmy Award-nominated head monologue writer for David Letterman for 13 years and routinely appears on the air with him. He is a frequent guest on the talk show circuit and on sports radio programs all over the country.
'The Untelling is the story of deep hurt and slow realization, injury and recovery, and the way people genuinely change their lives. I love it' Dorothy Allison, author of Cavedweller 'Tayari Jones is a remarkable novelist, able to face down the tragedies of life with the clarity and beauty and even the dark humor of a true artist. And she has unerring storytelling instincts. The Untelling is a wonderful book and Tayari Jones is a flat-out brilliant writer' - Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
About the Author
Bill Scheft was the head writer for Late Night with David Letterman for 13 years. A former stand-up comic, he graduated from Harvard University in 1979
Novelist, columnist, television writer. During the last two decades, Bill Scheft has established himself as a versatile, singular and influential comedic voice.
His latest and most ambitious novel, EVERYTHING HURTS (Simon and Schuster), was published in April. In EVERYTHING HURTS, self-proclaimed "self-help fraud" Phil Camp, who accidentally achieved international acclaim writing under the pseudonym Marty Fleck, tries to seek relief from his unexplained chronic pain through the aid of another self-help guru, Dr. Samuel Abrun. Publishers Weekly raves: "Scheft scewers physical and emotional pain with a mercilessly comic touch and a bit of poignancy." And Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Russo marvels, "How rare it is for a novel to be both hilarious and profoundly moving."
Scheft's critically acclaimed first novel, THE RINGER, the story of a 35-year-old hired gun softball player whose life changes when he has to take care of his infirm sportswriter uncle, was optioned for film by United Artists, for whom he wrote the screen adaptation. His second novel, TIME WON'T LET ME, chronicled the chaotic resurrection of the prep school garage band The Truants, whose members try to reunite 30 years after learning the album they recorded in 1967 is worth $10,000. TIME WON'T LET ME was a finalist for the 2006 Thurber Prize for American Humor, the nation's highest honor for literary humor.
In addition to his long-form fiction, Scheft was widely known for his weekly humor column, "The Show," which appeared in Sports Illustrated for three years. A collection of his columns, THE BEST OF THE SHOW, was published in 2005.
After twelve years touring as a stand-up comedian, Scheft was hired as a monologue writer for Late Night with David Letterman in 1991. He was with the program for its last two years at NBC, then moved over to CBS in August, 1993 to work on Late Show with David Letterman. He served as head monologue writer for the Late Show until 2004, and during his 18 years with Letterman has been nominated for 15 Emmys. Which, ah, means he's never won.
Scheft has contributed humor essays and short pieces to the New Yorker, New York Times, Esquire, TV Guide, George, Talk, Slate, Modern Humorist, the collections Mirth of a Nation, 101 Damnations, May Contain Nuts, Howl, The Enlightened Bracketologist and a few other places that may or may not exist anymore.
A 1979 graduate of Harvard College, where he majored in Latin because he "thought the church was going to come back," Scheft began his professional career as a sportswriter for the Albany Times-Union before he came to the realization, "Hey, what the hell am I doing in Albany?" He moved to New York City in December, 1980.
He still lives in Manhattan with his wife, comedian Adrianne Tolsch,and the voices in his head.
In this collection, Scheft has gathered some of his best material, along with adding some new jokes, to create a collection that has some ups to go along with too many downs. Too many of the jokes just fall flat (you can almost hear the little drum kick after some of them), and some of them already feel dated. There are some great lines, but they're unfortunately too few.
Scheft, a former writer for David Letterman, now writes what I consider to be one of the weaker elements of SI - a humor column that isn't often funny. I don't doubt that Scheft is funny, especially given the fact that Larry David sings his praises. However, that humor just doesn't come through in this book, and much of it can seem monotonous.
I think this may have worked better if the book was shorter, given that they could have been more selective about choosing material. Or perhaps they should have waited longer, until Scheft had enough quality jokes to justify the length of the book.
This is a fun book to flip through for a few minutes, but certainly not an essential read.
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Bill's a pretty funny guy and I well remember his stand-up routines during those long cold nights at the Albany Times Union where he was a young sportswriter, but it doesn't come across very well here. He's at his best doing stand-up. His SI column has never worked either.
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