The last time I saw John Hodgman was at his booksigning during the release of the paperback version of his book The Areas of My Expertise. This time, his appearance is due to the release of the paperback version of More Information Than You Require, the second in his series of made-up trivia books, and in many ways, it was a continuation of that first event, although without Coulton and the Cognac break, the event lacked the charm of the October 2006 event at Cody's Books.
John Hodgman was on stage with Merlin Mann, and talked of his transition from being a literary book agent to becoming a minor television celebrity. This talk is part of City Arts and Lectures and should find its way on NPR within the next couple of months.
- He was a Literary Book Agent before he became a celebrity, and Publishing he says is a very Apprentice-styled industry. As a result, the industry is filled with lots of 20-30 year olds who really know very little, although writers would come up to them and say "What should I be doing?" And they answer something like "Vampire Detectives" and that is how those books get written, so he thought, why can't I do a series of
- As a Famous Minor Television Celebrity, he decided that he could wear anything he wanted. In the case of this appearance, he chose to wear a three-piece corduroy suit with sneakers, and made fun of Dean Kamen (inventor of the Segway) for wearing denim shirt with jeans.
- At TED, he gave a lecture on alien abductions, and Dean Kamen gave him his card. A year later, as he was searching TED for a Mac to use to check his email (because the battery on his iPhone was dead), the only place he found a Mac was in the Tech Support area of TED. As he is checking his e-mail, Dean Kamen comes up, and says "Hey, this is Tech Support, right? Can you charge my iPhone?"
- He was a big fan of Trevanian books when he was growing up.
- He figured that 700 names of Hobos was a really bad idea once he got to the four hundreds. It was the same for the 700 Mole-man names and their occupations.
- He feels really sorry for maiming Jonathan Coulton's hand by having him play Rock Candy Mountain for 55 minutes straight while they were recording the names of Hobos for the audiobook.
- Hodgman flew in the economy section once, and saw through the curtain the Verizon "Can You Hear Me Now" guy as they were deplaning. They had locked eyes with each other for that brief moment.
- Yes, Hodgman did kick the persimmon off Mann's head. That's why there is like a solid minute of applause afterwards. Sadly, I think this portion will be edited out of the NPR broadcast.
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