The subtitles for Dave Barry's latest book, Class Clown, say it all: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing up." This well-loved humor writer and I graduated from high school a year apart (I'm two years younger), and he spent some years in suburban Philadelphia, where I grew up. So I could definitely relate to his references about fallout shelters, the polio vaccine, high school cliques (I'd forgotten about the "hoods"), the Twist, Sputnik, Davy Crockett, home ec (girls only) and shop (boys only), and hippies, not to mention the Vietnam War and the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK,

Although Barry has written countless columns and about 40 books, this is his first memoir, and he covers his education, family life, friendships, and all phases of his career--including how he morphed from writing consultant and traditional journalist to humorist. There are some serious stories, but most of the book is written with his trademark dry (and often outrageous) humor, sprinkled with many entertaining excerpts from his newspaper columns. I was particularly tickled by the way the public reacted to his writing. On one hand, many readers sent in suggestions for future skewering, funny articles, and positive reactions to his writing. On the other, it is hilarious (scary?) how many readers actually took everything he wrote as serious and flayed him for making what they thought were falsehoods and inaccuracies in his writing. Some even decided to shun him because of his views on Neil Diamond songs and the Hoosier State.

If you're not familiar with Dave Barry, you might not know that he won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, was a guest on Letterman, Carson, and Oprah, "ran for President" every 4 years starting in the 80s (slogan: It's Time We Demand Less!), and has long been a member (guitarist/singer) of the rock band, Rock Bottom Remainders, that also includes such authors as Stephen King and Amy Tan.

Personally, I love Dave Barry's sense of humor and his writing and often want to read it out loud to whoever will listen, if I can contain my giggles. Right now, I most appreciate his philosophy of life: It's gonna be OK. My favorite book of his is Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs (he says it's now out of print, but look for it at the library), and I love this one as well.

My sincere thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

I loved reading Dave Barry's column in the 80's and 90's. He addressed everyday situations with a very dry wit. I really enjoyed hearing from his point of view how some of these stories came about. More importantly the childhood that created this humor. It was fun reading about the rock band he has been a member of with various other authors. I can only imagine what those jam sessions were like. I was disappointed that he didn't enjoy the Dave's World sitcom. I guess I thought the character was like the real Dave. If you followed and read Dave's column through the years you will really enjoy this book and the humor within. And I will never look at the Hilton towel sign the same way again.

I have read a few of his humor books and most of his novels, and have enjoyed his style. So, when I saw this memoir, I was immediately interested.

It was a quick read and cool to read how he got started in the newspaper business and how it evolved to writing a weekly humor column for the Miami Herald. Scattered throughout the book are snippets from some of his columns.

I did have a quite a few LOL moments as I read it and one of them was from an article he wrote about New York (after the New York Times wrote an article called “Can Miami Save Itself”).

At 3:14 a.m. I am awakened by a loud crashing sound, caused by workers from the city’s crack Department of Making Loud Crashing Sounds During the night, who are just outside my window, breaking in a new taxicab by dropping it repeatedly from a seventy-five-foot crane.

He talked about how he got started writing books, tv appearances (his first time on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson), and movies.

My favorite chapter was titled: My Readers. It was a huge kudos to them as well as stories about them, letters from them (both good and bad), and his assistant Judi who was hired in 1990 to help him with his fan mail!

Another chapter was titled: Politics. And, it was his humor that got him through it beginning in 1984 and ending in 2016 (he stopped because of COVID, he is older, and it’s not fun for him). There are quite a few cool stories of him and politicians. I had to look at a YouTube video of Barry marching as part of the World Famous Lawn Rangers during the Obama 2009 inauguration.

Overall, I enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
I grew up listening to my dad read Dave Barry's newspaper column to my mom. I think he even wrote a piece about a family member back in the 90s.
This book is typical Dave Barry humor. Some parts are serious but most of it is humorous. There are excepts from some of his writing that tie nicely with the backstory of what was going on in his life at the time.