The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne

Sarah of the Sarah's Bookshelves podcast picked The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne on her podcast in the Spring Preview episode. Then she had the authors on an episode (episode 222). I ordered it from my library and it came in right away, so I must have been one of the first people to get it because the release date was April 7.

This book, told in a mixed media format, is a fictional oral history of The Midnight Show, a late-night sketch comedy show in the early 1980s. Madeline Cohen is a freelance author for The Rolling Stone who wants to write a cover story about the mysterious death of Lillian Martin, a comedian who rose to fame on the first seasons of The Midnight Show. We read mostly Madeline's interviews, but we also get press clips, emails, and transcripts. 

I've never watched a single episode of SNL and I was riveted by this book. It's really just an exploration of a creative workplace in the 1980s, filled with sexism, drug use, toxic relationships, and found family. Could I have done without the endless talk of drug use? Probably, but the book didn't glamorize it in any way, so it gets a pass from me. 

Much like in Good People, one of my favorite conceits is that none of the interviewees are not reliable narrators. It is so fun when the authors put two contradictory retellings of the same event right next to each other. The characters are complex and you start to figure out really quickly who is always telling the story to put themselves in the best light, who is tell the story to put Lillian in the best light, and who doesn't give a shit about any of it. Much like Her Many Faces, the book is centered on a woman, but we don't hear from Lillian herself outside of a handful of journal entries and everyone has a different perspective on who Lillian was and what her priorities were. It depends on who is talking if you think she's an introvert, a junkie, a super star, a victim, a beloved friend, or a thief. It's absolutely fascinating.

(Okay, fine. I saw the twist coming, but I actually like to think it's because I'm a good reader who was putting together all the clues that the good authors laid out for me. Or maybe it was too obvious. Regardless, what happened to Lillian to cause her death was not really the point of the book any more than listening to the Doughboys is about their restaurant reviews.)

Anyway, if this sounds like something you'd be into, you should read it! 4.5/5 stars

Line of note:

I will remind you once more that Wally Winters was a beloved star. We were three young women in 1980 who barely had our feet in the door, and the second you complain, that's all you are. You become the problem, not him. We were expendable, and we knew it. (page 109)

I loved the sections about overt sexism in the workplace. I mean, it's so complicated, isn't it, when you're a minority? 

Things I looked up:

Viola Spolin (page 15) - an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be focused in the present moment and to find choices improvisationally, as if in real life. Her book Improvisation for the Theater, which published these techniques, includes her philosophy and her teaching and coaching methods, and is considered the "bible of improvisational theater." 

commedia dell'arte (page 15) - translates to "comedy of professional artists," is a form of popular theatre that flourished throughout Europe, particularly in Italy and France, from the 16th through the 18th centuries. It is characterized by masked stock characters, improvised performances based on pre-established plot outlines (scenarios), and a focus on physical comedy

Cantinflas (page 15) - a Mexican comedian, actor, and filmmaker. He is considered to have been the most widely accomplished Mexican comedian and is well known throughout Latin America and Spain

Radio Rochela (page 15) - a Venezuelan television sketch comedy and variety show, created by Argentine producer Tito Martinez Del Box

montsuki (page 94) - formal Japanese kimono adorned with one to five family crests, signifying the highest level of formality

opera seria (page 128) - Italian musical genre that dominated European stages from the 1710s to the 1770s. It is characterized by noble, historical, or mythological themes, featuring dramatic plots centered on virtue and duty. 

opera buffa (page 128) - genre of comic opera originating in Naples in the mid-18th century. It developed from the intermezzi, or interludes, performed between the acts of serious operas. Opera buffa plots center on two groups of characters: a comic group of male and female personages and a pair (or more) of lovers.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (page 162) - an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement.

Basquiat's drawing of art critic Rene Ricard, Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984)

Hat mentions (why hats?):

business hat (page 25)

floppy hat (page 64)

You know that expression "all hat, no cattle"? (page 65)

old hat (page 103)

there's one more hat mention on page 328, but I'm not going to write it because it's a spoiler

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How about these lovely epistolary novels I've been reading lately? Do you have a favorite in the genre?