We’re Not Worthy – Berkley Author Dives into 90s Sketch Comedy with New Book
(Mark H. Stowers, Oct. 5, 2023)
Berkley, MI – In the 1990’s televisions were ruled by sketch comedy shows from In Living Color, Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, The Ben Stiller Show and more. Each one was a launching pad for comedians and actors who became both small screen and big screen stars. Jason Klamm, a native of upstate New York delved into the topic and spent countless hours interviewing 150 people who were part of the ’90s sketch comedy world. Klamm, now a Berkley resident, found his way from New York state to Chicago for film school and then spent nearly two decades in Los Angeles pursuing his acting and writing dreams.
From those 150 interviews, Klamm created the 392-page book, We’re Not Worthy: From in Living Color to Mr. Show, How ’90s Sketch TV Changed the Face of Comedy. With family in Michigan, Klamm moved to Berkley a few years back. Like any good 90’s sitcom plot twist, the book ended up a happy sidetrack from his original plan.
“I originally pitched something quite different. For 11 years I did this podcast called ‘Comedy on Vinyl,’” he said. “It was all about vinyl comedy records and I interviewed people you’ve heard of, people you haven’t heard of, anybody who was interested in vinyl comedy records or who made them.”
After some back and forth discussion with his publisher, the idea was focused on sketch comedy albums and then sketch comedy TV shows.
“From there, I decided I’ll do the 90s. That’s what I grew up watching. And after a few weeks of research and interviews, I realized, ‘oh, this is actually the last and most prolific decade of sketch comedy because then reality tv destroyed it, because that was the cheapest thing you could make.”
Finding folks to interview, Klamm’s first big name he interviewed for his podcast was Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe. From there his cold calls and emails went out and surprisingly got answered.
“Somehow like 30 interviews in, Carol Burnett said yes. Then almost everybody said yes. I don’t why she said yes. I still don’t,” Klamm said.
The Zoom and phone call interviews stacked up and Klamm had enough information to start writing. He started the project after moving to Berkley. His writing background began in high school when he was first published.
“I’ve been published for a long time but this is my first thing of length or depth in non-fiction. A lot of my fiction is satirical non-fiction so it’s fake histories of things,” he said. “I’ve written a couple dozen screenplays.”
His top interviews for the book include an eclectic mix of talent.
“Carol Burnett is the biggest of the bunch. David Wayne of The State, who wrote the forward for the book. I interviewed Mike Myers. I got half an hour from him. Bob Odenkirk gave me an hour plus. I got Marsha Warfield who was on the Richard Pryor Show in the ’70s and asked her what led up to the ’90s. Kevin Nealon, Tommy Davidson from In Living Color, Wayne Brady – so many people.
“I lucked out,” he said.
Klamm started in May of 2022 and finished writing in February of 2023.
“It was a really fast turnaround. Two million plus words in terms of transcription,” he said.
On Tuesday, September 12 in the US and Canada and Thursday, September 14 in Europe, 1984 Publishing released the first hardbound edition of We’re Not Worthy in limited deluxe packaging that includes blue foil-gilded page edges and a white satin ribbon marker. Artwork is by Adam Koford, who has also illustrated for The Daily Show and MAD magazine. A promo video clip of the book is available here.
The limited first edition of We’re Not Worthy can be found at your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Bookshop in the US, Amazon or Waterstones in the UK, and Amazon in Canada. Wholesale inquiries can be made to Consortium, Ingram (UK and US), PGC (Canada), Baker & Taylor, and more. Learn more at https://jasonklamm.com/
