Funnymen - by Ted Heller (Paperback)

About the Book

What Woody Allen did for Broadway in "Broadway Danny Rose, " the author of the critically acclaimed "Slab Rat" does for nightclubs, Hollywood, the Catskills, and the early days of live TV in a wildly inventive novel about a Martin and Lewis-like comedy duo from the 1940s and 1950s.

Book Synopsis

Sigmund "Ziggy" Blissman isn't the best-looking, sanest boy in the world. Far from it. But this misfit child of a failed husband-and-wife vaudeville team has one thing going for him: He can crack people up just by batting his eyelashes. Vittorio "Vic" Fontana, the son of a fisherman, can barely carry a tune or even stay awake while attempting to, but he, too, has one thing going for him: Women love to look at him. On their own, these two men are failures. But one summer night in the Catskills, Ziggy and Vic step onstage and together become the funniest men -- and hottest act -- in America.
Written as a fictional oral history and filled with more than seventy memorable characters, Funnymen is the wildly inventive story of "Fountain and Bliss," the comedy duo that delighted America in the 1940s and 1950s. The episodes recounted here by managers, wives, children, mistresses, friends, fans, and foes -- and the truths Heller reveals about human ambition, egotism, and friendship -- make Funnymen not only a masterpiece of storytelling, but also a thoroughly hilarious read.

Review Quotes

Maxim [A] laugh-out-loud-funny show-biz satire that¹ll knock you on your tuchis.

Chris Power The Times (London) Funnymen is one of the most satisfying books I have read in years.

Karen Valby Entertainment Weekly A bighearted new novel...Heller proves he can write about the bite of the young as well as the wisdom of the aged.

Mel Brooks Wonderful reading, a great journey, and all true...I was there.

Mel Brooks Wonderful.

About the Author

Ted Heller is the photo editor and a senior writer at Nickelodeon magazine and is a contributing writer for GQ. He lives in New York.