The startling debut novel from award-winning screenwriter and International Emmy nominee
BRENT BUTT
It’s 1994.
Three stand-up comedians begin a run of shows across a remote stretch of rural countryside. Dale is a 40-something comic from Chicago who’s on the back half of a mediocre career and thinking about quitting the business. Rynn is a 20-something fast-rising star from Dublin with a big Hollywood break on her horizon. The third performer is a local act, a late addition to the bill who has agreed to open the shows and do all the driving. Hobie is physically enormous, but his talent is not. He’s strangely eager, annoyingly enthusiastic, and brutally unfunny. Unfortunately, his brutality doesn‘t end there.
By the time Dale and Rynn realize Hobie’s true, terrifying talents, it may be too late — and the tour becomes less about getting laughs and more about getting off the road alive.
BRENT BUTT has been a fixture in the comedy industry for decades, so it may be surprising to discover his first foray into literature has taken a rather dark turn in this psychological thriller. But as he says, himself: "Comedy and horror often crawl out from the same seed. Really, they’re not-so-distant cousins."
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HUGE PRAISE
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“Darkly funny... but with an awesomely terrifying arc. Kept me reading way later than I wanted to.”
“A clever tribute to the craft of comedy. And the eerie itches it's used to scratch.”
“Full of ironic humour. But I still found myself scared. Like... ‘Silence of the Lambs’ scared.”
“Butt kills with a darkly comic thriller that could only be written by someone who knows there are worse things than dying on stage”
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