Chapter 7: The Night of the Lithuanian Chupacabra

Mitch goes to Edinburgh, and then London with his new one-man show, an attempt to reckon with the political fallout surrounding his alter ego, Wade Dinklington, and helps crack the case of the most infamous crime spree in history along the way.Endnotes:Stewart Lee, How I Escaped My Certain Fate; The Life and Deaths of a Stand-Ip Comedian, (London, Bloomsbury House, 2011) p.223, Capsule Review: Interesting, well-written history of the British Alternative Comedy Scene and Lee’s place in it. Autobiographical passages are interspersed with full transcripts of stand-up performances, which, while largely autobiographical themselves, still feels like cheating. Slack Score: 4; Snark Score: 12.3 Overall FCA ranking #30Romesh Ranganathan, Straight Outta Crawley; Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human Being (London, Penguin/Random House, 2018), p149. Capsule Review:  Very heavy on British slang makes for somewhat challenging reading. Semi-interesting story about how Romesh went from school-teacher to semi-famous stand-up. Lots and lots of hip hop references and adulation. Slack Score: 9 ; Snark Score: 3.6; Overall FCA ranking #290Johny Vegas, Becoming Johnny Vegas (London, HarperCollins, 2011) p 67. Capsule Review: interesting read about (real name) Michael Pennington's life;  formative years, sojourn in a seminary as a child, and studying ceramics before moving to stand-up. Creation of JV character has interesting parallels with Wade Dinklington, an out-of-control alter-ego that’s hard to define or reign in. Slack Score: 8.5; Snark Score: 4.4 Overall FCA ranking #87unstoppablefarce.com #comedy #standup #speculativefiction #speculativememoir #neilhamburger #longmontpotioncastle #elephantgraveyard #edinburgh #onemanshow