I’ve heard scattered references lately to Bill Maher’s 1994 novel, True Story—written just before Maher arrived as a cultural and commercial force as the contrarian host of Politically Incorrect—on several inside-comedy podcasts. This makes sense given the book’s primary themes: the tormented psyche of male stand-up comedians and the byzantine codes and rituals of the stand-up community. In that respect, True Story was way ahead of the curve in imagining that the tragicomedy of professional stand-up could make for compelling entertainment. Maher was canny (or hubristic) enough to imagine that others might find comedians as endlessly fascinating as comedians find themselves.
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