Devil’s Night with a Fellow Detroiter
I can still see in my mind’s eye the exuberant gyrations of Motown’s “Little Stevie Wonder” in that old black-and-white footage with his sunglasses, short hair, jacket and bowtie, pegged pants, harmonica.
He’s not so little anymore. As my dad would say, he hasn’t missed a meal in a while. But [...]

My astrological sun sign is Scorpio, which starts today. I can already hear some of you groaning, “Oh, no, not the zodiac! Who believes in that hogwash?” Guess what? I don’t have any time for people who are not at least somewhat “available” to the occult. (By the way, the YMCA now offers a Necromancy [...]

I spent the weekend hanging around New York, waiting for my friend Gabriel Delahaye to take the stage at Rififi as co-host of Max Silvestri’s monthly comedy revue, “I Like Attention.” And waiting, and waiting. I accomplished two firsts: Had a bad meal in New York, and got bored in New York (Sunday afternoon, walking [...]

I see famous people. Since moving to Washington, D.C., in September 2006, I’ve been spotting them at the rate of about one per month on average. Oddly, they’ve all been men, with the possible exception of Greta Van Susteren. This tally does not count the numerous times I’ve seen the presidential and vice-presidential motorcades go [...]

I’m accident prone. I think it started with the fondue-fork accident when I was about 10. We were having meat cubes in boiling oil, as a family. All the others had two or more pieces on their thin, sharp forks. I wanted more, too. So I cupped two raw meat cubes in the palm of [...]

You wanna know what? Do ya? After years of planning, the world’s first-ever accent contest will take place this fall in America’s Midwest.
This groundbreaking event will be sponsored by the National Association for the Study of American Linguistics (NASAL) and the prestigious Schwa Institute for the Study of Vowel Degeneration (SIftSoVD), both based in Washington, [...]

So, I read you were hand-picked by Amy Sedaris to play everyone’s favorite “little redheaded spitfire,” Tammi Littlenut, on “Strangers With Candy.” Please tell the story.
I was in a play where I had one scene, no lines. I just screamed and talked to myself, and was basically as weird as I could be, completely [...]

When I sit down to write, I often am gripped by “monomania.” Let me tell everything I can about this one narrow subject. Movie lines. Redheads. Being a Scorpio. I clearly need to develop my writing abilities to allow for some weaving in and around more than one topic. Show that my powers of expression [...]

Bennett Madison is the author of the indispensable I Hate Valentine’s Day as well as the novels Lulu Dark Can See Through Walls and Lulu Dark and the Summer of the Fox. I spoke to him about his first book in 2005.
This year I definitely count the Valentine’s Day card I get from my mom [...]