Veteran comedian Brenner (Soft Pretzels with Mustard) serves up a voluminous collection of shtick and anecdote. An inhaler of current events and contemporary life, Brenner can wring humor—sometimes inspired, sometimes hokey—out of a wide range of topics, from sex and marriage to sports and dentists. He declares that Californians supported the Green Party's Ralph Nader because they thought they'd get green cards. Now a parent, Brenner will get laughs for his account of how parents unconsciously let baby talk slip into their professional life. The material relating to the post-September 11 United States is hit-and-miss and can verge on the non sequitur. But his anecdotes about airline security snafus hit home because they're based on personal experience, such as when his six-year-old son's baseball cap lining was ripped open. Brenner can be amusingly hardheaded—the best time of your life isn't "right now," it "never gets better than twenty-one." The book can be didactic; Brenner regularly provides "here's why this is funny" commentary, or lectures on finding the humor in small traumas. But he often can do that, such as when he comforted a child distraught by an emergency plane landing by gently needling her, "I heard this is entirely your fault." It should be a good value for Brenner's many fans. (Oct.)
