Teddy Wayne Recommends...

“There are all the usual catalytic suspects—music, especially—but once in a while I hit upon a new comedic genius who makes me want to duplicate his or her efforts somehow. Recently, I was tipped off to Comedy Central’s Kroll Show. It’s an intertextual sketch-comedy show in which comedian Nick Kroll plays a wide range of characters who star on different (fictional) reality shows, from the Jersey Shore-like Bobby Bottleservice to Liz, one of two publicists named Liz on “Publizity.” His impersonations (and the production values of the fake shows) are pitch-perfect, but so is the insight into class and gender through the filter of one of our most vapid and addicting mainstream art forms, the reality show. I’m interested in literary ventriloquism, in articulating yourself—and a cultural critique—through wildly disparate voices, and Kroll does it as well as anyone. If there’s any justice in the world, this show will get many more seasons and Nick Kroll will get to do whatever he wants creatively.”
—Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine (Free Press, 2013)