Nate Dern is a keen observer of the world and society of his times. A brilliant sociologist with a razor sharp wit and an entrancing storyteller.

Funny people tend to figure out how to be funny, regardless of the medium in which their humor is being expressed. Now, that doesn’t mean that a great comic writer is a great comic performer or that a great comic actor is a great comic improviser. It just means that funny finds a way.

And Nate Dern is funny.

Dern is a senior writer at Funny or Die and a former artistic director at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater; that’s a one-two comic punch that you don’t often see. His new book “Not Quite a Genius” is a collection of nearly 50 pieces – personal essays and invented correspondence and short stories and weird lists and even a one-act play. All of them short.

And all of them funny.

“Not Quite a Genius” is divvied into four parts, each titled after one of the pieces contained therein.

“Which One Are You?” kicks off the absurdity, offering up such brief delights as “Before We Begin Our Yoga Practice, a Few Words About Our Other Offerings and That Hissing Sound” – where an unorthodox yoga class introduction addresses the elephant (so to speak) in the room – and “Flowers for Ai_One,” a funny and surprisingly poignant take on the classic “Flowers for Algernon.” “Bruce Lee Novelty Plate” is a delightful bit of weird, while “How Many Farts Measure a Life?” – the section’s longest piece – belies its title by being thought-provoking as well as silly.

Part 2 – “Predator Prey” – is highlighted by the comedic take on internet culture inherent to pieces like “YouButBetter App Review” and “Negative Visualization” and “Transcription of Internet Video ‘DEER STUCK IN SWING FREED AND YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!’” Other highlights include the goofy juxtaposition of “An Intrepid Explorer Discovers a Man Cave” and the layered, nuanced (and still funny) “Predator Prey.”

In Part 3, titled “Not Quite a Genius,” a decided hint of realness eases in, courtesy of a pair of clearly autobiographical stories - the titular piece and one called “Chap Sticks in a Mailbox” - that bookend the section. But there’s more weirdness, too. There’s a Kafka riff titled “The Transformation.” A bizarrely thorough escape plan in “In Case of Fire.” The aptly (and wonderfully) titled “Weather.com Headline or Creative Writing MFA Thesis Titles?” Oh, and the delightfully on-the-nose “I’m Not an A**hole, I’m Just an Introvert.”

Finally, Part 4 – named after the one-act play that closes the book and whose title I’m not going to write here – leans even harder into the absurd for the home stretch. There’s a spin class taught by Walt Whitman. There’s a letter to Christopher Columbus from Leif Erickson and a letter from a disgraced politician to his constituents. “The Show of LIFE!” takes reality television to an interesting and unexpected extreme. And the titular one-act features, among other things, Neil deGrasse Tyson playing Isaac Asimov.

There’s a lot going on here – much to the reader’s benefit. Nate Dern is an undeniable talent, gifted with a finely-honed understanding of the absurdity of banality. Or is it the banality of absurdity? Either way, he has a unique viewpoint on the world; this book allows us to get a glimpse of it refracted through the cracked prism of his perspective.

The only qualities consistently shared by these pieces are the fact that they’re short and they’re funny. Turns out my man Polonius was onto something when he said “brevity is the soul of wit” – and Dern’s work is plenty brief and plenty witty. Jokes are allowed just enough time to play out; there’s no needless padding or stretching. We get to the funny bits precisely when we’re supposed to. And while it might prove difficult to take your time with this one, the book’s nature also allows it to be consumed easily in fits and starts. All at once or one piece at a time, there’s no wrong way to read it.

“Not Quite a Genius” isn’t bound by any particular convention. Dern roams hither and yon with regards to whether something is truth, fiction or somewhere in-between. The collection is funny, obviously, but it is also smart and thoughtful and honest. There’s a lot of genuine feeling here – and the best comedy comes from a place of truth.

Charming and clever and occasionally crass, “Not Quite a Genius” is a whole lot smarter than its title lets on.

Nate Dern, a comedian who has spent time at UCB and Funny or Die, wrote this compilation that is a blend of memoir and fictional, sometimes absurdist, pieces. I’m not gonna lie, it took me a while to warm up to this collection, in the same way it takes an audience member to warm up to a stand up comedian spewing jokes on a stage. Before stumbling across this book, I had never heard of Nate Dern and wasn’t familiar with any of his comedy bits. This also meant that his humor wasn’t easy for me to access initially because I was completely unfamiliar with his style. Reading Not Quite a Genius was the opposite of my experience reading Simon Rich’s The Last Girlfriend on Earth, a collection that is somewhat similar in style, but from a writer I was familiar with and thus was more easily able to dive into his kookier bits that may have been inaccessible otherwise. In the same way that an audience member must be warmed up at a comedy gig, it took me a few chapters to habituate to the writer’s humor and style, but once I did, I laughed to myself multiple times.

For me, the collection picked up about a third of the way through… or that was how many pages it took to successfully warm me up to Dern’s humor. I thought the funniest bits were when Dern shifted more into humorous memoir territory (the first chapter is brilliant as he details his gawky young adult years). While the fictional bits were less my speed, I giggled several times while reading the “Bruce Lee Novelty Plate” and “How Many Farts Measure a Life” chapters.

That said, some of the funny bits just didn’t come across for me in print at all. In my head, I could imagine the fictional scenarios having more ~umph~ if I were hearing them performed live, but I experienced a disconnect while I was reading (specifically the chapter “I Like All Types of Music and My Sense of Humor Is So Random”). That’s the thing about these types of compilations: while this chapter was a swing and a miss in print for me, it might be a grand slam for a different reader. For any reader seeking a comedic collection, there will be a piece in Not Quite a Genius that is a grand slam for you. If you’re already a fan of Dern’s comedy, you’ll probably witness several grand slams.

Not Quite a Genius will be released at physical and digital U.S. bookstores on August 8, 2017!

Disclaimer: I was provided with a digital copy of this book for free from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in the review are my own and have not been influenced by Simon & Schuster or NetGalley.

Nate Dern has a great storytelling voice, and he seemed to gladly reveal stories that other people may have felt embarrassed to tell--but in Dern's hands, the stories make him endearing. The book has chapters of autobiographical essays, and also chapters of short fiction. I preferred the essays, but some of the short fictional chapters were truly enjoyable. Highly recommended!