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Books & Books, Miami Book Fair and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts present…
A Virtual Evening with
MICHAEL IAN BLACK
in conversation with MERRILL MARKOE
discussing
A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son
(Algonquin, $24.95)
“I think about the subject matter of Michael Ian Black’s new book all the time. As a parent of both boys and girls, I find myself rebuffing the gender-based cultural assumptions that are foisted on them more frequently than I could have ever imagined. Thank you Michael Ian Black for challenging society’s antiquated approach to raising boys, and deepening the conversation about what we actually want for our kids. Sir, you are a good egg.”
—Samantha Bee, host of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
MICHAEL IAN BLACK is an actor, comedian, and writer who started his career with the sketch comedy show The State, on MTV, and has created and starred in many other television shows. Movie appearances include Wet Hot American Summer, The Baxter, and Sextuplets. Black is the author of several books for children, including the award-winning I’m Bored, I’m Sad, and I’m Worried, and the parody A Child’s First Book of Trump.
His books for adults include the memoirs You’re Not Doing It Right and Navel Gazing, and the essay collection My Custom Van. Black also co-authored with Meghan McCain America, You Sexy Bitch. As a stand-up comedian, Michael regularly tours the country, and he has released several comedy albums. His podcasts include Mike & Tom Eat Snacks, with Tom Cavanagh; Topics, with Michael Showalter; How to Be Amazing; and Obscure. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children.
MERRILL MARKOE was the head writer for the original The David Letterman Show; the live NBC morning show was recognized with a Daytime Emmy Award. She shared in three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for her work on Late Night with David Letterman. She engineered most of the original concepts and architecture for the ground-breaking late-night talk show and created the segment “Stupid Pet Tricks”, as well as “Stupid Human Tricks” and “Viewer Mail.”
We Saw Scenery: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoe (Algonquin, $24.95) is her first-ever graphic memoir, in which she unearths her treasured diaries, long kept under lock and key, to illustrate the hilarious story of her preteen and teen years and how she came to realize that her secret power was her humor. Wielding her layered and comically absurd style, Markoe takes readers back through her time as a Girl Scout, where she learned that “scouting” was really more about learning housewifery skills, to her earliest crushes on uniquely awful boys and her growing obsession with television.