Like many, I am an avid Parks & Recreation fan. So of course I love Ron Swanson. I've been reading a lot of biographies lately, especially in the comedy realm, so "Paddle Your Own Canoe" wasn't necessarily something I wanted to jump to. There were works of fiction that probably had higher priority on my list. But then I saw Nick Offerman promote the book on a re-run of Fallon and I saw him perform on Comedy Central's Meltdown show and just thought, "Why not?"
This book is Offerman's biography. It's not a Ron Swanson instructional manual. And while it's hard to believe, Offerman and Swanson are two different people. I love hearing about how people in the entertainment industry grew up and what pushed them into it. As someone who grew up in the suburbs of California, reading about Offerman's country Illinois upbringing was pretty interesting. He was an actor first and a serious one at that. He started off in the theatre. This isn't a world I'm all that familiar with and one that I wish I supported more. It's nice hearing about how he met his wife Megan Mullally.
He of course talks about interest in woodwork and physical activity and shit that I have no knowledge about. He suggests every human be able to, you know, build a chair or whatever, and I was almost inspired to do so for like a full 15 minutes or so. There's also plenty of parts of the book in which he speaks against intolerance, separation of church and state, a good diet and other such topics. It comes off a little preachy at first until you realize many people probably misconstrue the Ron Swanson character as very "America, fuck yeah!" and that both the character and the man behind the character must dispel that illusion.
No comments:
Post a Comment