Not Quite the Classics

Colin Mochrie makes me proud to be Canadian.

I finished his book Not Quite the Classics over Canada Day weekend (seems fitting right?) and I fell in love with it.

You want to talk about comical genius? This guy is it. I’ve been watching Mochrie on Whose Line is it Anyway? for as long as I can remember. He pretty much has a direct line to my funny bone. Naturally I was INCREDIBLY jealous when my dad met him last year in Toronto and I didn’t. But, not the point.

I was stoked when I found out Mochrie had a book published, though a little skeptical at the same time. I know the famed comedian as just that, a comedian, not an author. But my undying love for him won out and shit, am I glad it did.

This is not a typical novel. It’s actually a series of short stories with a twist. Mochrie takes the first and last lines of famous classics such as The Great Gatsby, A Tale of Two Cities and Frankenstein and completely makes up the middle, turning them into stories that could clearly only come from his mind.

I laughed, I cried (from laughter), it became a part of me. Every story managed to illicit at least a chuckle from me…most of them got more. I never thought I’d read about the deep thoughts of Wile E. Coyote as he attempted to catch the Road Runner or read The Cat in the Hat as a tale about zombies. I can’t imagine what goes on in Mochrie’s head 24/7 but I’ve been lead to believe it’s pure comic gold.

This is the perfect book for comedy fans. So go read it…like right now.