I have been a fan of Dave Barry’s since middle school. I own just about all of his books, many of them signed and personally inscribed, and have been lucky to have met him several times and had some correspondence with him over the years since. When he hand-wrote me a letter when I was a sophomore in high school and asked him about his career, he solidified my choice to dedicate my life to the written word and helping others to be lifelong readers and writers. This stranger that eventually recognized me when he saw me and appreciated my presence at events, introduced me to Arthur Golden once, and is all around a truly quality guy who I could tell truly believed in me, of all people.
It comes as no surprise that one of the things I wish I knew more about – besides what he occasionally disclosed in his columns – is how he got to where he is and what his personal life is like. This was a healthy obsession, stemming from admiration and a true wish to try to make similar choices in getting to be where he is and make a living from my words. I took a similar path, writing a humor column, working for a newspaper, getting a bachelor’s, master’s, and MFA in English, and connecting and networking with other writers to create friendships, workshops, publications, and peer support. It has been a different ride – I mean, the newspaper industry is all but dissolved – but it has been a wonderful one that really came from his great advice over the years to a random kid who wanted to be a writer.
I was excited to learn that he finally wrote a memoir, and I devoured it. It is a funny look at his life from childhood to his current 77-year-old self, and mainly discusses the route his professional career has taken to get to retirement. From torturing frogs and smoking corn cob pipes, to his college days, to how he got started in the newspaper business and made a variety of remarkable career choices that could have flipped on a dime had he made others, to touring the country and world as he earned syndication, this was the type of material I was always looking for learning about him growing up. His personal life is mainly left out of the story, another thing that I always wanted to know more about, but he is a respectfully private person and lets his work speak for itself on its own terms and for a hardworking someone with a family who is in the public eye, that’s pretty commendable and understandable. That said, one of my favorite jokes in the book mentioned his wife buying shoes for the Oscars when he was writing for Steve Martin.
A great memoir from one of the great humor columnists of the 20th century. Barry certainly has entered the pantheon of great columnists such as Erma Bombeck, Art Buchwald, and Andy Rooney, but has also been a man of multiple talents, weaseling his way into Hollywood, music, standup, and even the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile. I am looking forward to what he accomplishes in retirement – self-described here as only taking on and working on projects without deadlines and too much travel – and I am forever grateful for his motivating me to follow my writing dreams and making the diversified career I absolutely love in adulthood. The only piece of advice he gives that I disagree with is ‘you should not confuse your career with your life.’ See, he helped me understand that if you live your life the way you want to, and somehow you are lucky enough to have a career that is everything you want your life to be, and you can be paid to do what you love, then your career doesn’t even feel like work. I got that lucky, and I am thankful to him for helping me realize it.
Class Clown is scheduled for publication on May 13, 2025 from Simon and Schuster.
Garrett Zecker 