Kasher in the Rye

"In the midst of my teenaged idiocy, I remember thinking, If I make it out of this alive, this will make a great book. Even as a drug addicted youth, I had my eye on entertaining. Such a mensch."

Rising young comedian Moshe Kasher should be dead. The psychoanalysis began at age four and the drugs started when he was twelve, with pot and Everclear margaritas (he'll explain later). By the time he was fifteen, he had dropped out of junior high school, been locked in several mental institutions, drifted from rehab to arrest to therapy to...you get the picture. But this is not an "eye opener" to the horrors of addiction. This won't be a literary version of an after-school special. This won't be the most ridiculously tragic story ever told but it might be the most tragically ridiculous. It's about the absurdity of it all. And it's funny.

Moshe moved to Oakland as the result of what would nowadays be called a kidnapping. His mother took him on a trip to the west coast and never returned. That's where the real fun starts--in the war zone of Oakland public schools. Moshe soon became a feral child, so his mother literally walked him around Oakland on a leash, which he chewed through and ran away. Also, both of his parents were deaf. Again, it's important to remember this is a comedy. Moshe's early years read like part Augusten Burroughs, part David Sedaris, but all Jew. In fact, he is later dropped into the Brooklyn Hasidic community his father joined. Then came all the institutions...

Told in his extremely funny and brutally honest voice, Moshe's first literary endeavor finds a way to make even the most horrifying situations hilariously resonant.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Moshe Kasher is a stand-up comedian. He lives alone in Los Angeles. In 2009 he was named Comic of the Year by Itunes. He has been featured on Comedy Central's John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Chelsea Lately, and has performed at many international comedy festivals including the prestigious "Just For Laughs" festival in Montreal, "South By Southwest" and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.