Book Club Interview: Simon Rich

by Dan Haley | October 13, 2008 at 6:06 pm

IvyGate recently ran a review of Simon Rich's "Free-Range Chickens" for its inaugural meeting of the "IvyGate Book Club." In case you didn't catch the review, here's a quick bio of our man Rich: Harvard '07 alum and former Editor-in-Chief of the Lampoon, Rich has written two critically acclaimed collections of humor stories and is a staff writer at "Saturday Night Live." His father is Frank Rich, a guy who writes columns for the New York Times. Simon lives in Brooklyn Heights, where I met him at a restaurant for this interview.

And so it goes:

Simon Rich arrives. I'm already seated and I wave him over. Rich looks like a 16-year-old. But he's affable and confident. On the other hand, I'm nervous because Rich is around my age and achieving everything I want to be achieving. Amy Poehler is his co-worker. Amy Poehler is my dream girl. You get the picture.

Rich wants to change our seat because it's the Mets' last chance to make the playoffs and he can't see the TV. For the first twenty minutes of our interview, Rich's attention is divided between me and the Mets. Rich orders an iced coffee. I order a Diet Coke.

Why did you choose Harvard?

Because of the Lampoon. I always wanted to write for the Lampoon. Because I heard if you write for the Lampoon you could write for the Simpsons. And the Simpsons was sort of the center of my whole world.

I noticed a lot of people liked the Simpsons until around 7 years ago.

I still like it. It’s probably the single most important--not just the most important TV show but probably the most important thing in my whole life. It taught me not only most of what I know about jokes but also about the world in general.

After the jump, Rich discusses Harvard's dating life, vampires, and being Frank Rich's son.

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IvyGate Book Club: “Free-Range Chickens” by Simon Rich

by Dan Haley | October 2, 2008 at 12:43 pm

I know what you're thinking: "IvyGate book club? That's a great idea! I've always wanted to read book reviews written by IvyGate editors." Well, now you can. In what might be a recurring feature, IvyGate will review books by authors with Ivy ties. But that's not all. Ivygate wants you (yes, you!) to discuss the merits of the selected book in the comments. It's like we're all talking about this book together, in some type of....book club.

First up is "Free-Range Chickens" by Simon Rich. I first heard of Simon Rich when a girl I was hooking up with sent me a link to one of his New Yorker "Shouts and Murmurs" pieces. I was really impressed, and told her so. She said, "Yeah, I can't believe someone our age is writing humor pieces for The New Yorker." I agreed this was unusual. "I'm sure the fact that his father is Frank Rich helped him get published," she said. I wasn't sure who Frank Rich was but pretended I knew about him.

One and a half years later, I'm a reader of Frank Rich's New York Times columns and have been keeping up with his son's stories and sketches. In this same time, Simon, Harvard '07, went from being the editor of the Harvard Lampoon to writing a commercially successful, critically popular collection of humor stories, Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations. He's also a staff writer at "Saturday Night Live."

Did being Frank Rich's son help him get to this ridiculously enviable position? Yeah. Definitely. For sure. Is Simon talented in his own right? Yeah, he's talented in his own right.

There aren't many writers that cause me to laugh out loud. This is perhaps a function of my not reading enough. That being said, Simon Rich joins a short list of those who can get me to smile and even chuckle on the subway.

After the jump, I review "Free-Range Chickens."

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