Name: Book Club with the Boys | Nick Mullen on The Adam Friedland Show
Uploaded: 2023-07-18T22:21:01.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Book Club with the Boys | Nick Mullen on The Adam Friedland Show' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Book Club with the Boys | Nick Mullen on The Adam Friedland Show' from TAFS Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-18. Transcript available.

So we were talking about literature, great books.
What's the best book you ever read?
Best book I ever read?
So many.
You know, I really don't know how to answer that question.
Yeah, it's hard.
It's like, yeah, it's almost impossible.
Yeah, I don't know if I could answer.
It would have to be something I read as a kid that was probably bullshit.
You know what I've been thinking about a lot lately?
Yeah.
The White Mountains books.
I never read that.
What is that?
It's like just some War of the Worlds kind of bullshit.
Can I hit that?
Thanks.
It's like, it's about these boys and so basically the Earth's been like colonized
by these big like tripod aliens, like in War of the Worlds.
These big tripod aliens.
And on your 13th birthday, they like, you know, they like abduct you and they
do this thing called capping.
Bar mitzvah.
It's a bar mitzvah, basically.
But it's this like mesh metal cap that goes like onto your skull bone and then
it can like control your thoughts or whatever.
Yeah.
And then it's like this kid's capping is coming up and he doesn't want to do it.
So him and his three friends run away on the run from these fucking aliens,
basically.
But I remember reading that when I was a kid.
That was a series of books?
There were three of them.
Is that where the term capping comes from?
Yeah, no capping.
Amongst youth culture.
But I don't know.
You remember how it was when you were a kid and you'd have even like the
assigned summer reading.
I remember when I read I read Cat's Cradle, I was like, books can be really
cool.
Yeah, but that's like I found out about Von again when I was a kid.
I was like, wow, this guy is doing something different.
Even reading something like books used to be so immersive.
Yeah.
You know, I could like really get into them.
Yeah.
And now it only kind of works.
I'm never fully like just gone.
I read the last book I read that was like that I was like felt like that where
I was like, damn, is I read Penin.
Like, I think in the last year, beginning of this year, the Nabokov book.
And that guy is like that guy is fucking amazing.
But it's like the thing I like about his books is that they're a bit.
He's doing a bit, you know.
Yeah, because he's, I mean, I've only ever read Lolita, but I've like felt that
it was very like technically masterful.
You know, he's obviously a very good writer.
They say he had synesthesia.
So they say that like basically every word is kind of, which I don't know, I
don't think that's a real thing.
I think it's a lie.
That's what I mean.
It's like you can get an aesthetic appreciation out of it.
Yeah, but every word is very deliberate.
Sure.
And I didn't realize the first time I read Lolita that he was writing it in
English.
I was like, oh, they were like, oh, his mastery of language.
But like, you know, like when you watch a foreign film, right?
And then like, what's his name?
Wong Kar Wai made an English language movie and it was dog shit.
Yeah, well, he doesn't speak English.
Exactly.
Right.
So you watch like a French movie.
It's like, oh, how do I go bathroom?
Well, yeah.
I'm in love with the bathroom.
It was about eating pie or something.
My Blueberry Nights.
Have you seen it?
It's doo doo, right?
Pooh Berry Nights.
Yeah, My Pooh Berry Nights.
Yeah, and it was with Nora Jones.
Yeah.
I'll be honest.
His movies don't really do anything for me.
I like Chung King Express, I guess.
I like the gay one.
Happy Together, that one's good.
Yeah, I don't know.
Mood for Love is boring.
Whatever.
He's not my favorite.
But what I'm saying is when you watch a movie in a foreign language, you can't
really tell
if the guy's acting well, right, you're like, oh, if he was in English, if he
was saying
all this crap in English, then I would be evaluating it in a different way.
So for me to find out that Nabokov was writing it in English, because I heard a
Russian name.
I was like, oh, this is like Tolstoy or something.
Then I went back and had an appreciation for his placement of words.
No, I understood he wrote in English, because he's not really included in like
the Russians
when you talk about it.
No, no, he was American.
I mean, well, he wasn't American.
He was from there, but he wrote it in English.
Yeah.
Peninn's really good.
You should read it.
Okay.
Yeah.
Now, did you read it, though, or you listened to it?
I read that, actually.
Yeah.
I read that on paper.
Because that's the other thing with audio books.
I don't feel like it would be as immersive.
Sometimes you don't like the guy's voice.
Yeah.
But for me, it's like if I'm going through an airport or something and I'm on
the road,
or if I'm alone and walking through a city, I'm going to go get the taco that
you're supposed
to get in that city, then I'll just have something playing because I just need
some stimulation.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.