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Dave Barry

Class Clown: A Memoir

Date:
Tuesday, May 20
Time:
6:00 pm PDT
Cost:
$10- $35 Sliding Scale + Optional Book Add On
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Venue

The Wyncote NW Forum
1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)
Seattle, 98101 United States + Google Map

Event Format

In-Person

Note: Town Hall events are approximately 75 minutes long.

Book cover for Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass by Dave Barry. The cover features a vintage-style, colorized photo of a young Dave Barry in a Davy Crockett t-shirt, smiling with an illustrated clown hat on his head. The title is written in bold text inside a red speech bubble. The background is bright yellow with red doodles. Other text includes "How I went 77 years without growing up" and "New York Times Bestselling Author of Lessons from Lucy."
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Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up

Elliott Bay Book Company

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Outdoor headshot of Dave Barry (with fair skin, short grey hair) wearing a green t-shirt
Arts & Culture

You could argue that Dave Barry is the country’s class clown, but did you know that he actually was elected class clown in high school? It’s no wonder, then, that he’s made a career out of making fun of pretty much everything. So how in the world does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? Dave Barry will explain.

Barry draws from his latest book, Class Clown, to take us on a ride through his life so far, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. He began his journalism career at a small-town Pennsylvania newspaper and somehow wound up as a humor columnist for The Miami Herald, where his boss encouraged him to write about anything that struck him as amusing and to never worry about offending anyone.

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His columns were not popular with everyone: He managed to alienate a vast army of Neil Diamond fans and the entire state of Indiana. But he also developed a loyal following. Barry dives into all aspects of his life––the humor, absurdity, joy, and even sadness. Barry says the most important wisdom imparted by his Midwestern parents was never to take anything too seriously, which is a lesson that has served him well as a professional class clown.

Dave Barry is the author of more bestsellers than you can count on two hands, including Swamp Story, Lessons from Lucy, Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys, Dave Barry Turns Forty, and Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up. A wildly popular syndicated columnist best known for his booger jokes, Barry won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He lives in Miami.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle.

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