Book: The Harmon Chronicles
Written by Harmon Leon (ECW Press)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

---

"Dying is easy. Comedy is hard," or so said famed actor Edmund Gwenn when he died in 1959. It is a truism parroted by (or sourced in the words of, depending upon who you believe) other famous funny men, Groucho Marx, Marcel Marceau and Oscar Wilde.

A book like The Harmon Chronicles tries very, very hard but falls way short in its quest to be outrageous. Poking fun at gun toting freaks and scientologists sounds funny, but here its delivery is not. Author Harmon Leon is no doubt a funny guy - probably a riot to drink beers with - but reading this is like transcribing the script to Airplane or a Seinfeld episode.

How funny would any line from those be without Cosmo Kramer's delightful simpers or the dry aside glances from Robert Stack? Not very, and what The Harmon Chronicles seeks to do is to replace that intangible with rhetoric.

Look at even a comic genius like Woody Allen, one of the funniest men ever, and how his books Without Feathers and Getting Even are so mixed in their effect. For a man who has won laughs with his pen for over 35 years - writing one liners for Henny Youngman at the tender age of 15 - his act on paper is absolute murder. You need to hear his nebbish renderings to appreciate their humor, not just read them. Successful comedy narrows the line between the joke's fantasy and life's reality and as a comic writer, Leon just cannot pull it off.

The Harmon Chronicles isn't without chuckles. His roommate schtick is great for anyone who has blindly answered an "Available Room" ad, as is the attempt at getting fired from a fast food job. There are moments - moments that intrigue me to perhaps listen if Leon is doing stand-up or watch if he writes a film script. Yeah, envisioning Tootie from "The Facts of Life" having sex is a funny suggestion, but not enough to pick up another book.

© 2003 - Erick Mertz