BIOGRAPHILE: What was your inspiration for writing the book – beyond, obviously, needing to pay for a bigger apartment?
JIM GAFFIGAN: I think any creative person secretly desires to write a book. Writing a book, it’s like having a trophy! For me, I spent a couple of years falling over how I wanted to approach writing about being a parent. Because, as I mention in the book, I’m not someone who should really be in charge of a houseplant – I’m a lazy guy, my career is a nocturnal, isolated, self-centered profession, so it seems unlikely that I would be a parent.
As a comedian, I wanted my material to have a universal appeal, so I found myself censoring discussing my kids in my act. I used to be that twenty-three-year-old sitting in the comedy club watching a comedian talk about their wife or husband and kids, and just not being interested. But Twitter contributed a lot; it opened an outlet to discuss what it’s like to be a parent, and for me to really find my point of view about parenting. I’m not one of these people who says, “I hate my kids,” and I’m not all sappy about my kids – I’m just kind of befuddled. Doing my best. Twitter really helped me find my way, but I didn’t want to do a book of tweets, I wanted it to be a book of substance, where if I picked it up, I would want to read it, and I would find it of value. I didn’t want it to be an exercise in narcissism, and I wanted some solid comedy in the observations.
For more: http://www.biographile.com/parenting-is-hilarious-a-qa-with-jim-gaffigan-author-of-dad-is-fat/17497/?ref=tumblr_corp_bio-jim-gaffigan
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