Review: Irreversible by Taylor Mason

Years ago, on a Disney Cruise, my wife and I went to the late-night performance of the ship’s comedian, a ventriloquist named Taylor Mason. I thought I had heard of the name before, and his primary character Romeo seemed familiar (as it turns out I may have seen him on an episode of “Rascal’s Comedy Hour”), but had no real prior knowledge of whether he was funny or not. It turns out, he’s hilarious. Years later, living in Atlanta, we saw that Taylor was coming to town and promptly bought tickets. It turns out the “comedy club” is really the banquet room of a diner, and only 20 people showed up. Nevertheless, Taylor put on an amazing performance, doing stand-up, ventriloquism, and music, while also doing “What’s your name? Where you from?” improv with all 20 of us and finding something hilarious about each person in the room.

In a world where Jeff Dunham can be one of the top-selling comedy acts, why is someone as talented as Taylor Mason still performing for only 20 people? Apparently it boggles Taylor’s mind too, because he just wrote a book about it.

“Irreversible” is a memoir of a pretty extraordinary life, of a multi-talented individual who put in hard work, cross-country travel, and literal character-building, all to grasp the brass ring of TV/movie stardom…and is still doing the exact same thing 30 years after he should have broken through.

After a few in media res chapters to give the reader a feel for what his life is currently like, Taylor provides a mostly chronological tale of his beginnings, from opening the sock drawer as a kid one day and seeing faces smiling up at him, to being pulled from a high school football game so he could take a piano lesson, to breaking his leg and becoming the Sigma Chi house DJ. He then takes the reader through the very beginnings of his comedy/ventriloquism/musical act, as well as the moment of truth – when he chooses the life of a travelling comedian despite having just graduated from Northwestern’s graduate program in advertising.

The most fun part of the book (besides the chapter on the show in the Bronx) is the story of Taylor’s run during the 80s comedy boom, where he goes from a Second City stint to emceeing Zanies to moving to New York and playing the big clubs there. Along the way he touches on the owners and promoters he worked for, as well as the other comedians he worked with, both the stars as well as the should-have-beens. As he himself wrote, by the dawn of the 90s he was just as positioned for a big TV/film break as any other comedian.

The last half of the book is by no means dour – Taylor provides reminders many times how much he loves his current life – but does hover over breaks not really going his way. It’s not 100% clear to us (and most likely to Taylor) why the breaks never go his way – it could be the “smart” routine, it could be having a home far away from NY/LA, it could be never basing a routine in the bathroom or bedroom, it could be manager promoter trouble – but Taylor’s life continues on in the same way up through today. For any other profession that could create a boring second half, but considering Taylor’s nonstop spots in clubs, cruise ships, colleges, professional conventions, Amish farms (!), you name it – it produces intriguing stories. Taylor to this day is still looking for that big break, and the last chapter, describing a recent rejection at an audition, could cast a pall on a book for any other writer, but is written to showcase the strength and confidence Taylor maintains to this day.

The many stories are very well-written, and Taylor really makes you feel the highs and lows on not only being on-stage but also navigating the offstage portions of his career (such as getting paid). Some stories make you cringe, like the college booking where he played outside a cafeteria and had to hope people would stop and listen, or the booking where he had to lead people to a company’s convention booth in any way possible. A few of the stories are glorious. The standout, in the “Bronx Tale” chapter near the end, is impeccable. Taylor chronicles a show in the basement of a burned-out building featuring three overweight bouncing dancers and really captures not only the emotional release in the moment, but also how moments like this make his professional life worth living. Also, the last line is a classic.

There are a few quibbles with the book. First, a few of the chapters (or just portions of chapters) were taken and repurposed from Taylor’s blog (as a reader of said blog, I recognized them). Whenever any author does this there is always the danger of chapters contradicting each other, if not in words then in tone, and this does happen in this book. The main culprit for me was that Taylor reminds us that he never had a big TV/movie break, but does mention from time to time a TV show called “Taylor’s Attic”. It is only near the end of the book that the reader finds out what that was. There are also times when the chronological order of the book is stalled so that a chapter on a different topic can be added in. This is also true with the chapters that open the book – the Al Franken chapter (which I definitely remember as a blog post) happens when Taylor is emceeing Zanies, so it feels like it belongs around the middle of the book.

Overall, this was a very entertaining book, and I’m looking forward to another one (he only vaguely hinted at a months-long arena tour he was part of, which would be a natural sequel) – as well as more shows in Atlanta! Recommended – eight out of ten hot dogs.