Barbara's Bookstore
Chicago, IL
July 13, 2005


Paul Feig Signs Superstud

Report by Mark Eres

The reading/signing took place in a smallish room in the back of the store. There were about 80 or so chairs set up, 40 on either side of the room. At the front were two tables, and a podium in the middle. The room was packed, a huge turnout of Chicago “Freaks and Geeks” fans and “Feig Fanatics”. Standing room only. (The line for signing at the end of the night had two branches, with one of the branches being long enough to head out the door into the store itself.) A couple people had to sit along the wall. I had the best seats you could get, front row, on the right side.

The event began at approx. 7:32 with an introduction by one of the booksellers who proudly proclaimed himself to be a geek and then introduced Mr. Feig, to thunderous applause. The applause lasted about 25 seconds. He made a couple of introductory comments about how “Superstud” was “completely unnecessary” and jokingly apologized for the book. He told how his wife hates the book and how he loves Chicago, because he came there twice a year for the buying convention, which his dad attended because of the army surplus store. He announced that he would be reading from the book, would take questions (about whatever people wanted to ask him, joking “no Sabrina questions” and then even mentioned “Ski Patrol”), and then would read what he called a “deleted scene” from the book.
Mr. Feig read Chapters I, III, and half of VI from “The Rope Feeling Chronicles”.

His reading style was extremely energetic and he was really into it, a great storyteller who made the already funny stories that much more funnier. He sometimes stumbled over a couple words he was so energetic and was self-deprecating when he did, a nice “laughing with me” moment. He also sometimes ad-libbed if an audience member happened to say something through their laughter. (One lady gasped when he read the “What’s that in your pants?” line from Ch. III.) He summarized the other chapters as he went along.

The Q&A session lasted what felt like at least an hour, maybe more. The questions ran the usual gamut: Is “F&G” coming back? (No.); What would have happened in Season 2? (Kim Kelly would have been pregnant.); What are you doing next? (Stargirl); Who influenced you? (Steve Martin); How did you find Stephen Lea Sheppard? (He told “the story”, and added that he gave him the “freaks” part to read, about burying weed with explosives and blowing it up if the cops find it, which Stephen read in his inimitable style). Mostly the usual questions he probably gets at every stop on the tour. However, there was some “new” stuff.

He revealed that he doesn’t want to return to stand-up, he prefers being behind the camera now (although he trumped up the experience of being a stand-up earlier); he told that along with “Stargirl” he is working on a series of sci-fi comedy Young Adult novels, something he’d wanted to do for a while; “Nice Guys” was turned down by HBO in favor of “Entourage”, but may get some new life as it’s being shopped around to a couple of different companies; in conjunction with the question about Season 2 of “F&G” he also told how Neil would be in Swing choir and Sam would be in Drama Club. He said he wanted Sam’s drama teacher to be a horribly messed up person because his (Feig’s) drama teacher was an alcoholic, and Feig became her “caretaker” during his Junior and Senior years, having to leave school to pick her up at bars and bring her back. He said he didn’t want to write about it (or just didn’t) because it was “weird” (“Yeah, and the other stuff isn’t”, he said);

He also told an amusing, kind of sad story about how he finally met Steve Martin (the man whose routines he practiced every night for three years): He attended a script reading at a powerful producer’s house for the movie “My Fellow Americans”, that Steve Martin was also going to be at, which Feig learned of. He had heard that Martin was kind of a “dark” guy, as he described him. He tried to be as restrained as possible when finally meeting him, and was. When it came time for the reading, everyone laughed when Martin read his part, which Martin perceived to be a “con job”, even though it truly was funny. So, Martin grumbled something along the lines of “It wasn’t funny. Don’t laugh if it isn’t funny”. Later, in the middle of a long speech that Martin was reading, Feig’s friend started to fake snore, and Martin looked up at Feig with a look of disgust on his face. Feig tried to say it was his friend snoring, but he was frozen in the moment. Feig’s moral: “Never meet your heroes, because it’s all downhill from there”.

Feig also told about another of his heroes, Ryan O’Neal, who he worked with on “Good Sports” and who turned out to be an awful guy. He accused Feig of not being a good actor because he wouldn’t let him read off of his (Feig’s) script. Feig also said that when the book tour took him to Detroit, he was worried that people he mentioned in the book would confront him, but nobody did so he “dodged a bullet”.

Finally, the barrage of questions ended and as promised, Feig read what he described as a “deleted scene” from the book. “Superstud” was originally going to be about dating and work, but when Feig found enough material for the dating stories, he scrapped the work section. He read “The Big Red Shoe Diaries”, which can be found here: http://www.freshyarn.com/8/essays/feig_big.htm. That story got some of the most uproarious laughs of the night.

During the book signing, Feig was a great guy, always talking with each signee, for an extended period of time. He immediately made you feel comfortable, shaking your hand, knowing that everyone was talking to someone they considered to be a celebrity or even (in my case at least) their hero, (though I don’t think Feig himself considers himself to be a “celebrity”, per se).

He signed anything that a person had: many people brought their “F&G” yearbooks, DVD sets, and “Kick Me”s, in addition to “Superstud”.  He wrote personal messages in each book based on what kind of stuff you told him about yourself, or what aspects of the books or shows you liked. He even let you take a picture with him, if you had a camera.

All in all, it was a great evening. The kind of thing I would have paid money for, but got for free. Feig was very giving of himself: he could have cut off the Q&A session at least 7 questions before it finally ended, but he let it die naturally and was always into it. The readings were great. And it was awesome to actually get to talk to the man himself when it came time for the signing.

Feig also mentioned that while flipping channels he came across an episode of “Saved by the Bell” which portrayed a nerd in the typical cartoony way, making him all the more proud that “F&G” got it right. He said that his favorite High School/Teen movies are “Welcome to the Dollhouse” and “Napoleon Dynamite”.

Feig also explained the cover of the book, how he was in a tap dancing class for 6 years because he expressed interest in it one day. There was only he and 8 girls in the class, who he never once talked to. He said he only ever learned “ball, heel, change” over the entire 6 years. The white suit he is wearing is the one he used to practice Steve Martin’s routines in every night for 3 years.


Report by Mark Eres