Dave Barry has once again proved himself-not that he was trying. I read this book over a long weekend and laughed out loud by myself. The background info on his parents dealt with sad situations with real life humor. I think this is the key to Dave's appeal for me-he feels like a guy I grew up with.. that funny guy. the book generally traces his career and name drops (in a good way) all the interesting/famous/cool people he has encountered in his life. The political side was a bit long but still funny and kept my interest. From a counselor perspective, this is a fun book to recommend to students thinking about journalism is a major/career. Most kids like to laugh but also remember if the message is clear. Dave's message to me was there were highs and lows, he loves what he does and he has just made it work. That writing is hard but the rewards can be worth it. And that he can make a joke out of just about anything.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the digital copy of this book; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Back in the old days (1980s and 1990s), I used to read the newspaper. And one of my favorite syndicated columnists was Dave Barry. I was so pleased to see he wrote a sort-of memoir. And his humor is still intact! This is a light-hearted, self-deprecating look back on his life and work, but not an official “memoir” in the strictest sense.

Barry recounts his life as a journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald, starting at a relatively young age. Some of his writing will make you laugh out loud, he’s that good, and it shows how he maintained the role of columnist for 30 years. He was syndicated in 500 newspapers at his peak.

The author’s personal life is not all sunshine and full of laughs, though. His clergy father was an alcoholic, and later on, his mother committed suicide. As a child of an alcoholic, I, too, always chose laughter because things were not so great at home. The originality and rawness of his feelings in the first chapter alone is worth the price of admission.

For the rest of the book, Barry recounts some of his favorite columns and expands on them, telling us why they were some of his favorites and quoting from them. It brings me back in time when newspapers were so important to communities, when columnists like Dave Barry and Erma Bombeck were part of the fabric of newspapers across the country, providing respite from the doom and gloom from the front page.

The coolest thing about Dave Barry is that he is in a band with other authors, the most famous of them being Stephen King. A bunch of Boomer authors unwind by playing music together. How cool is that?

This book gets an extra star from me for the pure nostalgia.

Review published in Charleston Gazette-Mail, Saturday-Sunday, May 24-25, 2025.

CLASS CLOWN - THE MEMOIRS OF A PROFESSIONAL WISEASS: HOW I WENT 77 YEARS WITHOUT GROWING UP by Dave Barry, May 13, 2025, Simon & Schuster, 204 pages.

“I began my education at Wampus Elementary. ‘Wampus’ comes from the Native American word ‘wampus’ which means, as far as I’ve been able to determine, ‘wampus.’”

And we’re off with the autobiography of Dave Barry from childhood on. There’s some not-so-funny stuff - his dad was an alcoholic, his mom died by suicide - but Barry is always hysterical, so the Miami Herald’s”columnist’s wit always shines through.

Take, for instance, his story about how he was in the “control” group for the first polio vaccines and only got a placebo and, therefore, had to get a second set of shots: “I had to get TWICE AS MANY SHOTS AS MY SISTER. I think this at least partly explains why I ended up being an atheist.”

He worries he might not be famous enough to write a memoir. He notes that in Barbra Streisand’s recent 970 page behemoth of an autobiography (which I, personally, have been listening to for about a year and I think I’m only on chapter 12. It is 48 hours long. Will I finish it before I’m “finished”? Betting pool currently open.) she questioned whether she slept with Warren Beatty, then decides she probably did.

Barry is certain he’s never even MET either Streisand or Beatty, but notes, several times, that he’s been in a rock band, the Rock Bottom Remainders (“remainders” are books that don’t sell) with Stephen King for about 30 years and he hopes that brush with fame is enough to get him over the threshold.

Oh, Dave…I think you get in just under the wire.

His parents were Democrats but had good friends who were Republicans and they all went to loads of cocktail parties (the thing to do in 1960 - not that I haven’t been to a few in my day) where people talked politics and disagreed, and even got “emotional, sometimes angry. But never nasty. At the end of the night everybody hugged everybody because they were friends and they understood that they could disagree about politics without believing the other side was evil. Mistaken, maybe. Evil, no.”

Also in his early years , Glenn Close was in his eighth grade homeroom. And he was at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington in 1963. And he WAS voted male class clown. He went to Haverford College where he was in rock bands and wrote an occasional humor column for the college paper.

The book moves through his work history. He did not have a meteoric rise to greatness, but was eventually discovered by the Philadelphia Inquirer and then the Miami paper came calling and he remained with them through his retirement, winning a Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He could write about pretty much whatever he wanted and one of the delights of the book is reading about some of his favorite columns.

He went to the 1984 First Annual French Wine Sommelier Contest in New York and participated in tastings. “‘Much too woody,’ said one journalist. ‘Heavily oxidized,’ said another. ‘Bat urine,’ I offered.

I made so many notes for this review I’m having to leave out some of the best material, but you’ll see it all when you read the book.

Dave Barry is now 77. He no longer writes his weekly column, but he does an occasional bit for the Herald. He’s as sharp as he ever was and he has a seemingly unlimited supply of great potential band names: Fugitive Squirrel and the Clearly Disturbed Beavers and Earl Piedmont and the Dipthongs are, at press time, both still available.

I have been a fan of Dave Berry for about 25 years now. A teacher in high school gave us one of his columns, if memory serves it was about applying to colleges, and had us try to write a funny reactionary piece to it. I'm relatively sure mine wasn't funny, but my local paper published his column and I read it every week. I own many of his books, fiction and nonfiction, and got to meet him and Ridley when they were on a Peter Book tour (I think it was for the second book). I tell you all of this to say that I don't know that I can give an impartial reaction to this book.

That being said. I did very much enjoy the book. I liked getting some more info about his childhood, I didn't know about his mother and I think that part was discussed well. I wish Dave all the best in his retirement and will look forward to the movie scripts he's writing that will never be made into a movie.

Although many of Dave Barry's books have drawn from the events of his life, this is his first actual memoir. It covers his childhood, early career as a journalist, and decades as a humor columnist. Parts of it are poignant (including the serious discussion of his parents' struggles with mental health and sobriety) and most of it is funny. Some sections are both serious and funny, for example the chapter on Barry's political reporting and mock presidential campaigns. All of it is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I grew up reading Dave Barry in the Miami Herald, which is probably the only reason I read a newspaper. I started reading his books and was hooked. I love the humor he brings to everything. Getting to read this biography was like sitting down with an old friend.

I'm going to keep my review Short And Sweet. I recommend this Book to all who enjoy a Good Laugh and a Good Story.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Publishers for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You may think you know Dave Barry, but this book tells all. Dave takes readers from the beginning to the not-so-end. You'll laugh (a lot) and even shed a few tears, but what a ride he has had & I for one am thankful that he was able to pull if off.

As a fellow Floridian, "Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland", is my all-time favorite book, but this is a must read for anyone that wants to laugh or learn more about the glamour life of a newspaper columnist.

I received this advance review copy from NetGalley & the publisher for my honest review.

There aren't many authors that I can name whose books are guaranteed to make me laugh out loud. Dave Barry is one, and we have been fans for decades. His appeal probably isn't universal, although I think most people find him hilarious. Yes, as he admits, some of it is sophomoric, but it also provides a common denominator of the things that we all find funny.

This biography is not, strictly speaking, a humor book. Naturally, there are some excruciatingly funny parts - his colonoscopy column evidently is in wide circulation, even among doctors and the medical community. But the book begins with his childhood and young adulthood, which include his father's alcoholism and his mother's suicide. He deals with his parents with empathy, some regret, and a nice balance of the happy and the sad.

Although I have read him a lot, I didn't actually know much about him. It was interesting to find out his background, which includes bookkeeping, teaching clear writing techniques to business people, and conventional journalistic news reporting. But once he became a humor columnist, he knew he was in the right place. There is a midwestern modesty about Dave Barry, a desire to never take himself too seriously. This doesn't stop him from being wildly irreverent about most everything.

This was an enjoyable read, humor balanced with some down to earth attitude. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I have been a follower of Dave Barry's writings for many, many years. I even had a "quote-a-day" calendar by him. This book is a heartfelt autobiography of Dave's crazy life as a humor journalist. All the illustrations are excerpts from old columns, and they provide many a chuckle.

Although this is not a "laugh out loud" book nor is it supposed to be, I appreciated his honest evaluation of his life and career. Recommended to his fans!

I cannot strongly enough recommend his four book series co-written with Ridley Pearson, "Peter and the Starcatchers" telling the story of Peter Pan before he met Wendy.

Dave Barry books are always a great to read. I love his hilarious anecdotes! This is a fantastic memoir and I recommend it to everyone looking for a humorous and interesting book.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S CLASS CLOWN ABOUT?
It's really all there in the subtitle: it's Dave Barry's memoirs about his career as a professional wiseass—primarily through his humor column, but he's found other outlets for it, too.

Here's some of the jacket copy to help beef that up:

America’s most beloved wiseass finally tells his life story with all the humor you’d expect from a man who made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything.

How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people?

In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).

He began his journalism career at a small-town Pennsylvania newspaper where he learned the most important rule of local journalism: never confuse a goose with a duck. His journey then took a detour into the business world, where as a writing consultant he spent years trying, with limited success, to get corporate folks to, for God’s sake, get the point. Somehow from there he wound up as a humor columnist for The Miami Herald, where his boss was a wild man who encouraged him to write about anything that struck him as amusing and to never worry about alienating anyone...

Class Clown isn’t just a memoir; it’s a vibrant celebration of a life rich with humor, absurdity, joy, and sadness. Dave says the most important wisdom imparted by his Midwestern parents was never to take anything too seriously. This laughter-filled book is proof that he learned that lesson well.



HIS ORIGIN STORY
The first four chapters are the most autobiographical part of the book—a little less than 50% of it. Here we cover his parents, his childhood, schooling, and early career—from his first newspaper job, his detour through business education, and then finding his way back to journalism and becoming a humor columnist.

This is all the nitty-gritty stuff—what were his parents like? (nothing like you'd guess) What did his childhood entail? (bad jokes and throwing things) What did he write before making money with booger jokes? And so on.

This was the more educational—in a good way, I stress—part. He wrote about is parents, in particular, with warmth and humanity. He was open about some of their struggles, but with sensitivity. I really appreciated the way he talked about his marriages—past and present—very briefly, yet definitively. There is some humor, but it's largely self-directed, or at the culture he and his parents were in.

This is really the kind of thing you come to a memoir for, and Barry did it well. He quotes some of his more serious (and some of his less-serious) columns here to show what he's said about these things in the past.

TOPICAL MEMORIES
A little over half the book is devoted to what I'm describing as "Topical Memories"—he has a chapter on things like "My Readers," "Politics," and "Books, Music, and Movies." In these, he relates a collection of stories and anecdotes from all over his career along these lines.

So we get stories about the great things his readers have sent him—and some of the less positive things they've said. Scandals he created—inadvertently or not. How he was involved in Obama's first inaugural parade, or had Bruce Springsteen sing backup for him, how he accidentally offended an audience of Russians by screening one of his films. I particularly enjoyed him talking about his feud with his Neil Diamond-loving readers (I'm a pretty big Diamond fan, but thought Barry's jokes were good and deserved, for what it's worth)

There are several extended quotations from his columns here—and we get a lot of the stories behind the columns, too. Not the nuts-and-bolts of how he wrote them, but what led to them.

If the Origin Story chapters were educational—this was recess. Just a lot of fun and goofing off, telling wild stories and recounting past glories (and blunders). It was exactly the kind of thing that Barry readers pick up his books for.

THE APPENDIX
I don't frequently talk about appendices; they're supplemental material, and I prefer to focus on the main portion of the book, but every now and then, one comes along that demands attention.

For example (as you might have guessed), this appendix. It was a hoot—its title is "A Good Name for a Rock Band." Barry (like many of us) will frequently pick up on a phrase from something he quoted and say it would be a good name for a rock band (also known by the super-easy and memorable acronym WBAGNFARB). After discussing this practice a bit, Barry gives a non-exhaustive, but extensive list of some of those bands.

I think reading them in context is best—but you definitely can appreciate them in a different way with no context whatsoever. They are definitely more ridiculous that way.

It's worth picking the book up from the shelf at your local bookstore/library just to read those few pages. (Of course, you'd be better served by reading the whole thing). Even people who don't have a background with Barry will find some laughs there.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT CLASS CLOWN?
I'm fairly certain at this point in my life that I'm hardwired to enjoy Davy Barry's writing, and that I don't have the neuroplasticity to change that. No matter what apps for seniors I try. So maybe take this with a softball-sized grain of salt.

I really enjoyed this book. A lot—and on several levels.

Part of me would've liked a little more depth, a little more digging into details of his life, maybe his approach to writing. But it'd just feel strange knowing that much about Barry—and we all know what happens to a joke when you dissect it, knowing too much about how his sausage is made might not be that entertaining. Really, for Dave Barry—this is about as deep as we want. Every time I started to say "I wish he'd given us more about X," I stopped myself and realized that no, this was just the right amount.

So no, it's not as self-revealing as say, Patrick Stewart's or Matthew Perry's books—and that's good.

This is a great way to get to know Barry a little better—given the nature of his work, a lot of us have had a para-social relationship with him before that was a phrase people used. It's nice for us to deepen that relationship to a degree—before we get back to jokes about exploding cows, questionable song lyrics, or whatever.

I heartily encourage readers of Dave Barry to pick this up—even casual readers will have fun with this, you don't have to be a die-hard like me. He's one of a kind, and it's great to bask in that for a little while.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Simon & Schuster via NetGalley in exchange for this post which contains my honest opinion—thanks to both for this.

Class Clown, by Dave Barry, is a combination of memoir from childhood, career progression, clips from columns, and reflections of the current state of the world from the vantage point of an aging Boomer. Perhaps because I am also an aging Boomer, I found his memoirs of childhood and career boring. On the other hand, his clips from his columns and his reflections on life and the world are truly hilarious. I laughed our loud so many times my family banned me from reading in the common rooms and I was forced to seek privacy! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5. Highly recommend to other Baby Boomers! Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Shuster for the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy myself!

Dave Barry has long been known as one of our country’s favorite humorists. His weekly columns ran for decades in hundreds of papers, back when that was a thing. He has written novels, been made into a television show, written for the Oscars, written about politics, co-wrote YA books that were turned into a Broadway musical, written books that became major motion pictures, and won a Pulitzer Prize. And now he’s written a memoir about it all.

Told with the same tongue-in-cheek snark that made him so popular as a columnist, Class Clown starts with the beginning and goes right on through to the now. Barry talks about growing up the son of a Presbyterian minister and a mother with a wicked sense of humor. He and his brothers and sisters didn’t have a perfect childhood, but it was happy. He talks about being in a band in college and then writing for a small newspaper, where he got a chance to write an occasional column.

From there Barry went on to work for the AP, and then taught writing to executives, where he had to become comfortable in front of groups of people. But he kept writing those columns, finding his voice and starting to find an audience. Eventually, he got a job writing a weekly humor column for the Miami Herald, which became his home paper. He wrote columns about news items and about boogers, about exploding toilets and the music of Neil Diamond. He wrote about the birth of his son and the death of his mother. And he wrote a lot about beer.

And that’s just the start of the long list of things Barry has done. Class Clown is his story, told in his words, sometimes with clips from old columns that he wrote. He talks about growing up and his first newspaper job, about his family and his writer friends. He name drops Stephen King and Steve Martin and Oprah, because if you can, why wouldn’t you? But really, he’s pretty humble about all of his accomplishments and hard work. Through this book, Barry strikes the perfect balance of celebrating his past and understanding what’s really important in life. Entertainment matters, laughter is important, but those are not the things that matter the most.

I have been a big fan of Dave Barry for many, many years. There are some of his old columns that I still think about and laugh. I love Mr. Language Person, and I could watch Big Trouble a hundred more times. So it’s not going to be a big surprise that I loved this book. I thought it had a lot of heart, but it’s also smart and funny, with visits to some classic columns as well as stories about his life experiences. He speaks fondly of his friends and his family, with warm humor, and even thanks those who were not fans but wrote to him throughout his career. I think longtime fans of Barry will nod along with these stories, and those who are new to his writing will find an entertaining story about a life well lived.

Egalleys for Class Clown were provided by Simon & Schuster through NetGalley with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.

This memoir is full of laughs, references from "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" to Keith Richards to the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, and of course, Florida. Dave Barry finds himself in the center of many cultural zeitgeist moments. Every page is a treasure, with so many laugh out loud moments. I loved it. He's a gifted writer, first to admit he just ended up in the right place at the right time, with a lot of wiseass-ness and humanity.

Because if you can't laugh at life, the alternative kind of stinks. Thank you Dave Barry for the hysterical and heart-warming walk down memory lane.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the Advance Reader Copy. (pub date 5/13/2025)

Dave Barry is a national treasure. I’ve been reading his work, both fiction and nonfiction, for longer than I care to admit and the man never fails to make me laugh. Heck, I be willing to bet he could rewrite the phonebook and it would be amusing. (Dang, I mentioned the phonebook, I guess that hints at my age, lol) Now finally after all this time he has delivered an autobiography of sorts. And it has definitely been worth the wait. Sharing stories (in his own particular style) Dave takes us through his childhood to his start in the newspaper business, and into this great success. And while it’s true the book is packed with plenty of amusing tales, he’s also shares some touching and brutally honest looks at his life, especially in terms of regrets around his mother. I for one am glad Dave never grew up…and hope he never does!. I’d like to thank Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Class Clown.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R18JFZDXBMXGQ3/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It came along at a time when I needed it- delightful, funny (in the very particular way Dave Barry is funny), charming, insightful and also warm and endearing.
While I’m at the younger age of his generation, so much resonated and he’s just so wise and funny.
And it was so welcome to laugh out loud while reading.
Any Dave Barry fan will thoroughly enjoy! (And according to him, there are at least a few of us left!)

I received an advance reading copy (arc) of this book from NetGalley.com and the publisher in return for a fair review. Dave Barry is, without a doubt, one of the funniest people on the planet. This memoir addresses many of his adventures--some hilarious and some sobering. He writes openly about his parents--his dad's bout with alcoholism and his mom's suicide, which I found very touching and honest. His escapades as a writer, however, were often laced with his unique sense of humor. He considers himself terribly lucky, but there is also a lot of talent involved. His stories about covering politics and visiting small towns across the U.S. are too funny. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. If you are looking for a light read that will tickle your funny bone, this may just be it. I hope Dave Barry continues to write for the next 77 years!

I really like memoirs/autobiographies because you see the journey someone took to find the success that they have. It's never an easy journey and it's good to be reminded that every "successful" person has usually gone through their share of unknowns and trials. What a journey he has had, the pain he has suffered with what happened to his parents, his personal journey through jobs and relationships, but to come through it with grace and humor. It was also fascinating to hear the different jobs he had that took him to where he ended up - who knows what the things we say yes (or no) to will lead. Thank you for this reminder that we should all be open to different opportunities and doors that open when we least expect it!

Maybe I was expecting it to be really funny because it was Dave Barry, sorry for the assumption (!), but I didn't feel as drawn in as I had hoped, even though I still found it interesting! There are no half stars, and might change as I reflect more but I want to rank it 3.5 stars right now, though it's hard for me to do that for someone's story/memoir!!

“Atomic war was part of the school curriculum in the fifties… aside from polio and nuclear war, elementary school was a pretty good experience,” Dave Barry writes in his memoir Class Clown.

Of course, he finds the humor in everything. Puberty. Politics. Great Literature (which he read thirty percent of as an English major). Hawking your books. The dangers of fire-starting Barbie Dolls. Did I mention politics?

Barry’s memoir shares his childhood, which was a pretty good one. His high-minded clergy dad ran an inner city nonprofit while building their house in a small town. Barry credits his mom’s sharp, dark, humor for his own sense of humor. But his parents had their dark sides; his dad’s drinking turned into alcoholism and his mom’s depression, in the end, won out.

In high school he found his niche, and was elected Class Clown.

What surprised me was his early newspaper career as a serious journalist at small papers and the AP, and as a business writing consultant,teaching writing to businessmen.Through these jobs he honed his skills in writing and public speaking. Teaching writing “made me a better humor writer,” Barry admits. During this time, he was also sending out columns to a small paper, which eventually led to the Philadelphia Inquirer hiring him full time, and then his move to Miami Herald.

Barry inserts excerpts from his columns as he shares his career highlights. We read him back in his Philadelphia Inquirer days, and when our son was growing up his syndicated column kept our whole family in stitches.

His career included a TV show inspired by his life, movies, playing in a band, co-writing a spoof novel, and authoring books for adults and kids.

To conclude, he shares his advice for all of us aging boomers.

It’s a laugh out loud book with genuine heart.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

There are a couple of things I need to confess before starting this review: First - I loathe memoirs; second - I adore Dave Barry’s books. So I approached this book with trepidation. I was truly worried it would be the first Dave Barry work that I’d read and hate. Fortunately, that was not the case.
Turns out this book lacks the thing I dislike most about memoirs - pretentious navel gazing. Barry has never taken himself too seriously in any previous books and he didn’t take himself too seriously in this one. And it was loaded with the things I’ve always enjoyed in a Barry book - it’s mostly very funny and occasionally, out of the blue, poignant and wise.
Warning for people who DO like memoirs. Dave Barry is and has always been fairly private about his private life, so this memoir is more about his working life than his personal life. Which was fine with me. But if you’re looking for weepy shirt-rending, you won’t find it here.