The Comic

Trying something new, something Canadian. But first, wheel of fortune time…complete the following name in Canadian comedy…S*** Rog**. No, not Seth Rogen, go figure, Stan Rogal, The Comic. Apparently a fairly accomplished author in his native Canada who in this book takes on the comedic arts and political correctness…with varying results. Rogal’s protagonist is the classic sad sack of a man…an occasional English teacher with no friends, no passions and a cheating wife. So he decides to do stand up and his schtick becomes the deriding of the modern PC mentality, which is indeed a fascinating subject and has arguably gone too far, but is it enough for a fascinating stand up act and how far can it take the comic. I mean, there are other subjects addressed in the book, mainly freedom of speech, commercialism, personal integrity, authenticity, selling out, etc…but political correctness is the star of the show. The one the author via the protagonist decides to beat to death and frankly, I’m not sure the heavy handed approach works here. A lot of it, maybe even most of it, has to do (just like the art of comedy itself) with the delivery. Maybe the stand up acts here need to be heard and not read, but on a paper they are flat and not that or not at all funny. It’s mostly just one man spiraling out, while the society’s reaction to his spiraling is lampooned for moral’s sake. That might have still worked had the protagonist been more compelling…but he isn’t. The thing with sad sack stories is that you need to care about them and this one is just not that compelling, to continue with the stand up thing…not much of a stage presence. Yes, he can talk his way around things relatively cleverly, but that’s about it. No inner resolve, no redeeming qualities, his spiral is so one directional and determined, it’s almost like the guy jumped down the drain disposal after pressing the switch himself. No one around him displays any likeability either, the female comic he makes friends with is even more of a mess. No one to arrest his downward trajectory, no one to even try. This sack is sad indeed. But what that means for a reader is that the novel doesn’t offer as much as one might have hoped for, it’s a satire, it’s a clever at times satire, but nowhere near as comedic as the title might imply nor as entertaining as a proper comic act. It mostly comes across as a passively angry (is that a Canadian thing) rant. And the comedic timing is all off. Were this a typical Netflix special, you might get tired of it third of the way in or so. The material doesn’t really vary, the tone doesn’t really shift. You constantly want more than what is offered. But then again it read very quickly and was mildly entertaining, so there’s that. Decent, not great, leaves a lot to be desired. I seem to be the first to read and review this one, wish I loved it more, but want to be fair. I suppose for readers tired of the oppressive PC of the modern day and age this might be fun to read and nod along to. Thanks Netgalley.