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Actor Edmund Gwenn is often credited with the deathbed quotation, "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." It's even harder to pull off in print when one doesn't have timing, voice, or the perfect facial expression to deliver the punchline. But author Marquess forges ahead anyway in this collection of remembrances. He assures readers that nothing is made up and that each "quickie" is distilled from his eighty years on this planet.
For example, there's the story of famous baseball broadcasters Jack Buck and Harry Caray involuntarily cracking up on air over one of Harry's outrageous gaffes. There's a prank involving a stolen headstone and a grave turning up in a neighbor's yard. There is singing in sign language on a train, wrapping a live lobster as a Christmas gift, rolling a bowling ball down a city street and into a busy intersection, and more. Other humorous anecdotes include watching the famous Duck Parade in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis with excessively wet pants, paying for three different hotel rooms in one night in Mexico, showering a movie audience with popcorn, making Burt Reynolds laugh, and tricking Henry Mancini into thinking his heartfelt conversation is with an old acquaintance when it's really with a man he's never met in his life.
Marquess' prose is conversational. and his fondness for storytelling is obvious. There's a human quality about his tales reminiscent of the Philadelphia newspaper columns of Pete Dexter or those of Chicago's Mike Royko. Of course, as a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan, he might not appreciate that latter comparison. But chances are he'd object only in a comical way. Those not averse to having their funny bones tickled will likely enjoy these quirky tales.