Mike Sacks’s new book of interviews with comedians, Poking a Dead Frog, hits the shelves June 24th, and as part of the lead-up, he’s re-released his first book in the series, And Here’s the Kicker. Originally published in 2009, And Here’s the Kicker features interviews with 21 big comedy writers, including Bob Odenkirk, Mitch Hurwitz, and the late Harold Ramis, and the re-release includes 200 pages of extra material including an interview with a canned laughter editor and one with The New Yorker’s cartoon editor.
Sacks calls the new edition of And Here’s the Kicker his “Directors Cut version. It’s the book the way I originally wanted it to be.†The edition also includes extended versions of all the pre-existing interviews, including how “Marshall Brickman was nearly killed at Terry Melcher’s house the night of the Manson murders. And Dick Cavett talks about the garbage man his family had when he was growing up in Nebraska as a kid, who was Charles Starkweather, the murderer who was the later inspiration for the character in Badlands.â€