Crusie & Mayer: The Stand Up, Sit Down, Sign Books Comedy Tour

Yesterday evening I took our friend Anne over to the Desert Ridge Barnes & Noble where Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer were having a talk & signing for their first collaboration, Don't Look Down.

DLD is an odd duck, a lighthearted funny romance combined with macho "men's fiction" adventure action. Reportedly pretty good. (Haven't read it yet myself.)

But Crusie and Mayer are a pretty odd duo to find collaborating. (They met at a Maui writers conference several years ago.) Vivacious writer of funny modern-day romances, quiet ex-Special Forces guy who writes thrillers. Jeez, these two are a walking set-up for an odd-couple romance plot themselves. ("She writes love stories. He can kill people with one finger. They're protagonists!")

I thoroughly enjoyed the signing. The interaction between the two earned a comparison to the Smothers Brothers. Since Mayer is so quiet (at times his side of the conversation consisted of a raised eyebrow or an askance look), Penn & Teller also come to mind.

Jennifer Crusie is one of the funniest speakers I've heard in a long time. How funny is she? Let's put it this way: If she and Esther Friesner ever end up in the same room tgether, an entire city will be reduced to rubble in a jocular explosion.

(You can get some of the flavor of the event at Crusie's blogs. He Wrote, She Wrote currently features the ongoing saga of their book tour. Crusie's general blog is Argh Ink.)