Humor books by popular comedians are a tricky proposition—reading the routines can rarely compete with watching the performance—and Sykes's gathering of jokes and rants suffers from its medium. Her introduction, in which she claims that she's only writing the book for the money, could be either clever sarcasm or amusing defiance ("let's face it, right now, I'm on fire; did you see Pooty Tang
?"), for example—but it's funnier as the former. The rest of the material—short takes on Clinton's affair, vanity license plates, Martha Stewart, love, and professional sports—is mixed. Good lines can get lost on stale topics: there are jokes about last year's California recall election and complaints (recently rendered moot) that no one had seen the 9/11 Commission's findings. Time-tested race relations jokes include suggestions that a black man could never steal as much money as a white executive, because "[t]here are just not that many liquor stores in the country," while observational humor includes the likes of "[a]n ugly man with a six-figure salary becomes 'kinda cute' to most women," and "[t]o some women, marriage is really the wedding." Sykes's irreverence can be refreshing, but some of her jokes need that same energy. Agent, Mel Berger at William Morris.
(Sept.)
Forecast:
Sykes's starring role in a Comedy Central show this fall could give this title a boost.
