Renowned humorist Bill Scheft stretches comedic singles into stand-up triples through the oddest of couples in this hilarious debut novel.Morton Martin Spell, a once-brilliant, now-infirm seventy-five-year-old writer has begun to slide into a state of delirium. He thinks Mount Sinai Hospital is an exclusive golf course and his catheter is a gym bag. His only link to reality is his terminally unambitious thirty-five-year-old nephew, who makes his living as a hired gun for thirteen softball teams and still goes by the name College Boy.But College Boy's body has begun to betray him -- almost as much as his lack of ambition. (His only legitimate paycheck comes from a once-a-week gig as an in-studio laugher on a drive-time morning radio show.) Not only that, The Dirt King, a small-time gangster who controls all the replacement soil in Central Park, is after him. As their lives collide, College Boy takes refuge in the arms of Sheila, his uncle's cleaning woman and a part-time call girl. And then it gets weird.
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.
