Bostonist Interviews Eugene Mirman

Eugene Mirman is a comedian. He has done several wonderful things. This coming Wednesday—Feb. 25th, for calendar nerds—at 7PM, he will be reading from his new self-help book The Will to Whatevs at the Brookline Booksmith.

Bostonist: Set the scene for us. How'd the book come into being? Who were the players? Outside of Ms. Westfall-Tharp, did you try bits of the book out on anyone as the work progressed?

EM: I’ve done an advice column on my site for a while and when I toured with Modest Mouse, I turned the column into little books that I’d sell on tour. Around the same time I did an online column for the Village Voice, a popular weekly in New York City, where Spiderman lives. Because of my column I got a few e-mails from some literary agents, including Rebecca Sherman, an agent at Writer’s House, who became my agent. Then we sold the advice book to Harper, but they wanted it to be broader than just answering people’s questions, so it sort of morphed into what it is now. And I showed parts to various friends. I gave a very early unfinished draft to Matt Savage. I gave some other early drafts to Ben Dryer and Yuli Friedman. They all live in the Boston area. Some revisions I worked on at a café with my Siberian friend Konst and I’d bounce pop-culture references off of him. I would also frequently meet with my editor, Allison Lorentzen (who is from MA as well!), and she gave me lots of feedback.

Bostonist: I understand that Mr. Hodgman gave you a haircut at the beginning of this book tour. Did you ask for anything specific?

EM: I did not know that. What you heard is untrue. However, yes, I have lots of celebrity friends and we all give each other haircuts all the time. It’s why I live in New York.

Bostonist: Given that it's a book tour -- and given the floating meme of you, Patton, and others opening up for Indie Bands—have you thought about asking bands to open up for you? To cash in your chips and/or turn the tables? Doesn't a bookstore deserve to be rocked?

EM: No, a bookstore does not need to be rocked. It is already dangerous to have a reading with a comedian instead of a regular author. Adding rock and roll could start a fire — or ignite an orgy the size of which Brookline would never recover from. On a side note, I have had bands open for me. My first tour that I headlined I had Langhorne Slim open for me.

Bostonist: Favorite type of animal underwear?

EM: Would you believe I don’t have one? It’s weird. I have so many lists at home of favorite things, but this is not on it. Can I say a Griffin? And then can I add that the Griffin is Jewish?

Bostonist: You mention god-awful nightclubs in the downtown area in the book. Call it a wild guess, but they wouldn't happen to be in an alleyway on the way to City Place, would it? (And is it okay to put that many nightclubs in an alleyway?)

EM: No. I don’t think it was in an alley. I don’t remember it’s name or where it was. But I remember its layout very clearly if I were to go back — which I would only do on a dare — if the prize was to pass a new law in Boston that lasted for one day. Don’t worry, nothing as unruly as “No Pants Suicide Wednesday” (where everyone would go in the street without pants and attempt to kill themselves — good news — I just came up with the next M. Night Shamalan movie), but not as easy as people eating donuts and yelling “Wicked donut, chief!” A law that’s in between the two.