Shameless Self-Promotion

No, I am not Kevin Nealon. Nor did I write this book. Or even ghost-write it, for that matter.

So it's not exactly (well, complete) self-promotion. It's more like indirect self-promotion by way of promoting someone else.

Whoa. Too much self. Too much promotion. Moving on.

What I did do, however, was write a review of his book for Variety. "Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me?" is a funny look at how this comedian copes with having a baby -- and all the joys (read: harrowing obstacles) that lead up to that moment -- at 53.

My friend and fellow Amherst alum Diane at work gave it to me to review this summer because she thought I could relate. Well, not to the 53-year-old man part, but, you know, the whole baby thing.

What neither she nor I knew at the time was just how much Kevin Nealon and I have in common. First, he and his wife, Susan, got married on the same day as Ian and I. Same month, same day, same year. Not only that, but their baby was born only about a month after C. And, not only that, but they named him Gable ... as in Clark Gable. Clark!

It's uncanny, and part of me wants to set up my baby with his baby. (Well, the same part of me that wants to eat 12 donuts a day but doesn't really.) In real life, I want to high-five him (that's coming back, you know) or make that motion with your two fingers, where you point to your eyes and then to someone else's eyes and then back to your eyes. The one that says, I get you.

What made me think of blogging about this, I should admit in another moment of shameless self-promotion, is that I just wrote another review for Variety, about Ethan Mordden's biography "Ziegfeld: The Man Who Invented Show Business". This book is also a great read but for different reasons. Mordden chronicles the life of Broadway uber-producer Florenz Ziegfeld and how he became a Rialto legend. It's filled with tons of well-researched material as well as juicy snark from the author. Luckily, so far, I've gone two for two.

But enough about me.