"When I was in high school, I was editor of the paper, and we did an April Fool's issue that was all fake news. I look back at that and look at what I'm doing now, and I realize just how little growth there's been in the last 30 years."
Andy Borowitz is discussing his career and being more than modest considering his status as one of America's elite satirists. Many know of Andy through his website, BorowitzReport.com, where he parodies topical political idiocies in concise fashion ("250 words is the far reaches of my genre. Once I hit the 250th word, then it's like I'm writing Anna Karenina"). Others might be familiar with him from his stand-up comedy or from contributions to The New Yorker (he penned what is acknowledged as one of the magazine's all-time classic humor pieces, "Emily Dickinson: Jerk of Amherst"). Those who know of Andy only from these sources might be surprised to learn he also created The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air television series.
This will be Borowitz's third Miami Book Fair appearance (he also admits to having once come down "for Super Bowl weekend, but not for the Super Bowl. The less said about that the better."). One might assume the author would read from the recently reissued "Bernie Madoff Edition" of his Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison. But Andy insists, "It will be much more fun than that." He is doing a duet, it turns out, with fellow comedian Susie Essman (of Curb Your Enthusiasm and author of What Would Susie Say?). "We're friends from New York. We're going to interview each other. There are sure to be many intrusive, inappropriate questions asked."
Seriously, this is pretty much guaranteed to be the funniest program of the fair (unless you find Margaret Atwood a hoot). At the very least, as Borowitz puts it, "It won't be like some boring literary event."
