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Summary: Theodore White's "Making of a Political Humorist"
Review: Outstanding. A delight to read! Mark Katz takes readers on a wonderfully funny, honest, self-deprecating and a politically-enlightening literary journey of his natural evolution as a humorist ... starting from his own boyhood, after college, the "no wussies need apply" environment of the advertising business, followed by Michael Dukakis's unusual presidential campaign, and finally the Clinton Administration, probably one of the most interesting,eventful presidencies of the 20th Century and particularly loaded with anecdotes for political junkie gossip. While I enjoyed Peggy Noonan's story "What I Saw at the Revolution" describing her years as a White House speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, I'd sometimes wince at too many passages where she wrote how absolutely impressed she was with herself. But Mark Katz's tremendously funny story is built on his own wonderment, instead of his ego, at the fascinating life journey through humor that eventually takes him to the Oval Office and writing absolutely first-rate funny speeches for some of the most famous annual events in Washington like the Gridiron Club and the Washington Correspondents Dinner. His humility to laugh at much at himself as the really humorous lines he composed so perfectly for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and other famous powerful figures in Washington makes him real. He's just a fellow who appreciates humor in everyday life, and who possesses a natural gift ... one I certainly envy ... for creating lines that can make someone as powerful as the American President be humble enough to reveal that, sometimes, the emporer truly hath no clothes. "Clinton and Me" is also a great book because once you start, you never want to put it down until you're finished. That's really the mark of a fine literary story. I think the 2004 presidential campaign, already getting nasty, could use Mark's imprimatur of terrific humor to balance some of the incendiary rhetoric shooting back and forth so early in the campaign. For anyone who enjoys the inside story about what happens to form the words that enrich an American presidency, this is one of the best books they could read.
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Summary: For Clinton, the Jokes Start Here
Review: Unfortunately, we now live in a world flooded with one Bill Cinton book after another. And it does not matter the persuasion: a pro-Clinton book is just as repetitive (and thus annoying) as an anti-Clinton one. Because of this overwhelming litany, I have raised my standards, only reading books with subject matter unchartered. CLINTON AND ME is such a book. Author Mark Katz describes his rise from his Westchester-Jewish beginnings to the White House, where he worked for President Clinton as his glorified joke writer. Along the way, Katz shows us how he developed his "chops" on the Dukakis campaign and in the advertising world. Each chapter is written in a self-effacing style that is, above all, humorous and insightful. And never before has an author given such a hilarious peek into the White House's most underappreciated position: the speechwriter. It's an inspiring portrait of the profession, and I hope others (like myself) will follow it as their dream. Once considered a solemn office, the Presidency has evolved to leave room for humor in political discourse. After all, why deny what brings us joy in our everyday lives? Thankfully, CLINTON AND ME embodies that idea not only in the style of its writing, but in its lasting message as well.
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Summary: Making Clinton Fun
Review: Mark Katz has created an outline for self deprecating humor within the boundaries of the most ego driven portion of American public life. Through his crafted words, Mark Katz paints a picture of the inside of politics - writing for Dukakis, Madeline, Gore and many more including Bill Clinton. Within the brush strokes of his pen, he lets the everyday person, in awe of the office of the President, see just how fascinating the view is from inside out.
Politics is a better place due to Katz's use of an egg timer and well timed scripted verse. His spoken word in his writing and his written word, spoken by today's political elite, makes this book the factoid for the best job in politics.
Plus, he is done write/right funny.
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Summary: Read it and laugh
Review: Sometimes a book comes along that has you laughing out loud. This is one of them! From the principals office to the Oval office Mark Katz takes us along for his inside the beltway look at American politics. What I found most enjoyable about the book was learning about a very specialized group of people, who's talents are not often flaunted...the speech writer. Mr. Katz not only lets us sit on his shoulder during some incredible meetings, but he brings us inside the mind of the writer himself. Just how does one become a humor writer for people like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, et al? Mark Katz tells his tale with a very distinctive brand of humor and self deprecation that is priceless. Brighten your day...read this book!
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Summary: Hilarious, enlightening; dare i say 'Katzian'?
Review: This book contains the painfully funny adventures of President Clinton's in-house joke writer. Mark Katz, the son of an orthodontist, was the kid who cracked jokes from the back row of your seventh grade English class... but it was the Honors English class. He was the class clown to the elite, not the student body masses. He learned to self-edit all his jokes and only voice the best ones. He grew up to write humor speeches for nation's Chief Seventh-Grader, Bill Clinton, as well as a top FOB Hollywood celebrity, Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Albright and others. Katz's job was to write Clinton's funny responses to the crises of the moment. Lines that are funnier than "I did not have sex with that woman." This book opens like all good business and political biographies. There is a crisis the author must face. Once overcome, the book starts at the author's birth and works forward to the opening episode. In this book, the opening episode is stress-filled but humorously enlightening. President and Mrs. Clinton are perturbed; Clinton's speech is minutes away, and Katz's jokes are not to the President's liking. Will Katz buckle under Clinton's pressure or stand up for his jokes? And will Clinton find something to nosh on as they talk? When the story continues, we find Katz in his mother's womb. Yes, just as Clinton was influenced by JFK and shook the hand of JFK at the White House, Katz's life was affected by JFK, too. Katz was nearly prematurely born when his pregnant mother was startled by JFK's assassination in 1963. As a preteen, Katz was supporting McGovern in the way a kid could and rushing home from school to watch the Watergate hearings on PBS. In high school, his jokes were getting him in trouble with the princiPAL, and in college he was writing a humor column. In his book we learn about the life of a grunt volunteer on the Dukakis campaign, his struggle up the campaign staff ladder, and the back-story of Dukakis' photo-op with the tank. His stints in advertising in Manhattan and California, and his cross-country road trip are hilarious and bluntly honest. Some stories are too honest. How was Katz to know that his first boss would be the best friend of Katz's brother's litigious ex-fiancé, or that the sweater he borrowed from his brother for work was hers? As Michael Waldman's book, "Podus Speaks," verified, joke writers have strong egos and desires for exposure, in a world where copywriters and speechwriters are supposed to live in anonymity. Katz deftly balanced between anonymity and exposure most of the time. In mid-book, when Katz joins the emerging Clinton campaign and crashes on the couch of a guy named Stephanopoulos in Little Rock, we learn about the role of humor and the joke writer, the annual DC Winter roasts and dinners known, and gain insights into the machinations of the West Wing, OEOB, and VP's residence. Katz also lists the jokes that never made it into the recorded speeches. This is a delightful and necessary read during this primary and convention year.
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Summary: Best Book I've Ever Read
Review: Most books of this size take me 3 weeks to a month (or more sometimes) to finish. I'm not a slow reader - I just read a few pages every night when I go to bed. Not this time. I missed the snooze button and woke up to my boss's not so cheerful voice one morning because I stayed up half the night reading it. It's hilarious! It's not a dull dry political book you might think after the first three words of the title. Its not even especially political. From the time Mark and his brother danced up and down during Nixon's speeches as kids, to convincing Clinton to play Battleship with one of his Generals so everyone could see, you'll laugh out loud, snort, and maybe even need to change your sheets after every chapter. And for the softies out there, the ending is perfect. Goosebumps perfect.
If you like real life comedies, Clinton, or just can't find an original book to read next, pick this one up.
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Summary: Political Darkhouse
Review: I never expected the inside of the Clinton White House, as told by his chief speech jokewriter/humorist, to be one of the most insightful books about the Clinton Administration. But Clinton & Me is just that -- and laugh out loud funny to boot. The author wrote a terrifically entertaining and smart account of his 8 years writing for the President. Mark Katz is a true, neurotic New York Jewish comedy writer -- full of insecurity, angst, humanity and a brilliant sense of humor. He's also proof positive that the pen is mightier than the sword. His irreverance and talent helped Bill Clinton slog his way through crisis after crisis. Starting as basically an unknown, expendable cog in the administration's machine, Katz's sharp wit and pointed humorous speeches became more and more valued by the President & his minions. He was their go-to guy in crunch time. We don't just get a portrait of the President, but we get a real sense of Katz the man -- who, from the moment he was in his mother's womb, was destined to be in politics. In an hilarious chapter, he recounts his first real political assigment -- trying to find Michael Dukakis' funny bone during his depressingly unfunny '88 presidential campaign. Katz's experiences as an advertising copywriter are also amusing... especially memorable is the story about wearing his brother's ex-fiance's sweater to work. I'd recount it here, but better read his first hand account of it yourself. The book also gives us insightful glimpses into writing for Al Gore and Madeleine Albright in chapters that are also funny and breezy. Overall, the beauty of the book is that the author never loses his gee whiz sense of the opportunity he's been given as Clinton's funny man -- except when Katz gets a little carried away with his good fortune and grants an interview with a Washington Post reporter that he later regrets. The final chapter is my favorite, and the best written, when he captures the bittersweet emotion of leaving his plum position when Clinton's 2nd term has ended. It's touching amd emotional, as well as funny... and it was a perect way to end Katz's unique journey. 2004 promises to be an election lacking in wit and humor (now that Sharpton's out of the race). So if you want to have a good laugh, get an education in politics and know that the little guy can still win, read Clinton & Me.
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Summary: Katz for President!
Review: If you've ever been to Washington D.C., you immediately understand the tone Mark Katz sets in the opening pages of his book. There's an implicit understanding of hierarchy and a desperate fear of rejection that pervades life in the nation's capital. As Katz' hilariously recounts his rise to the upper echelons of political humor writing, it's the personal touches that keep the book from being a mere rehashing of the Clinton Administration. From the womb in Brooklyn to George Stephanopolous's couch in Little Rock to the Gridiron Club in D.C., Katz takes the reader on a journey filled with triumphs and tribulations familiar to any person who's ever struggled to fulfill his or her life's ambition against all odds. At nearly 400 pages long, the book is by no means a quick read, but it is an extremely enjoyable one that will leave the reader unable to put it down at the end of the night. Highly recommended for politicos and aspiring politicos alike, Katz's glimpse into the inner workings of a presidential administration will leave you looking at Clinton, and the very institution of the presidency, in a whole new way.
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Summary: "Clinton and Me"
Review: In "Clinton and Me," Mark Katz effectively and amusingly captures his days in, around, and near presidential politics. The book is no blind homage to Clinton, Gore, Albright, and the rest, but a clever, slightly removed, insider's view of days we have almost forgotten. Katz' writing is funny, self-deprecating, insightful, and heartrending. The Democratic Party is fortunate to have him, and the Republicans will not find an equal.
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Summary: From Quizzical to the Capitol- the Funniest Book Ever
Review: When my mother took my best friend and me out of school...to see Robert Kennedy at a campaign stop in my hometown, it was a defining moment in what was to become my life long interest in politics. Little did I know, I would begin living a parallel life with Mark Katz, political joke writer and author of "Clinton and Me." Mark Katz's book is simply the funniest account of the thought process as all-things-political were being shaped in his head and coincidentally, in mine. From watching the Watergate hearings as a child, working on campaigns, and then landing a job in advertising, the first half of the book is hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing as his life mirrors mine, but his life sounds way more fun. The second half of the book is an equally humorous account of Mark's rise to the position of White House Joke Writer. Anyone who has ever made a political joke, laughed at a political joke or just laughed out loud will respect this political joke writer's ability to share his insider's government experience in the most enjoyable way. And make sure to read every single footnote - they are a separate comedy routine all their own. One more bit of advice, this is a tough book to read on an airplane. I read it on a recent flight and boy! are my abs sore from trying to control my laughter. No matter what side of the aisle you're on - R/D/or I - "Clinton and Me" will make you feel you were along for the most hilarious and entertaining political flight of your life.
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