Overview
Stand up comedian Biff Kincaid shows us that life isn't always a laughing matter. While driving along Sunset Strip Biff hears his pager go off and looks at the number. It is The Comedysino in Las Vegas calling him to fill in as headliner that night because the person who was supposed to be there, Tiger Moore, can no longer do the show. Biff agrees to do the show, after they agree to his price, and he is on his way to Vegas. Once there, he is met by Rick who is in charge of The Comedysino. Rick takes Biff to his room, the one where Tiger was staying, but the room is blocked off with yellow police tape. Biff demands to know what is going on and Rick confesses that someone tried to kill Tiger the night before by stabbing him in the neck.
Biff cannot resist the temptation to see the crime scene and he is startled by what he sees. Not only is there blood all over the floor, but a message above the bed that reads "GET OFF THE STAGE. YOU SUCK." Biff soon finds himself looking for more answers and chasing the heckler.
Synopsis
Stand up comedian Biff Kincaid shows us that life isn't always a laughing matter. While driving along Sunset Strip Biff hears his pager go off and looks at the number. It is The Comedysino in Las Vegas calling him to fill in as headliner that night because the person who was supposed to be there, Tiger Moore, can no longer do the show. Biff agrees to do the show, after they agree to his price, and he is on his way to Vegas. Once there, he is met by Rick who is in charge of The Comedysino. Rick takes Biff to his room, the one where Tiger was staying, but the room is blocked off with yellow police tape. Biff demands to know what is going on and Rick confesses that someone tried to kill Tiger the night before by stabbing him in the neck.
Biff cannot resist the temptation to see the crime scene and he is startled by what he sees. Not only is there blood all over the floor, but a message above the bed that reads "GET OFF THE STAGE. YOU SUCK." Biff soon finds himself looking for more answers and chasing the heckler.
Publishers Weekly
This taut and consistently entertaining successor to Barton's Killer Material (2000) nicely supports Steve Martin's claim, "Comedy is not pretty." With the same fearlessness that marks a seasoned stand-up comedian, which he is, Biff Kincaid risks livelihood and life to track "The Heckler," a serial killer haunting comedy clubs from Las Vegas to Seattle. Whether delivering one-liners or karate kicks, Kincaid is as adept at disarming a hostile crowd as he is at disabling a would-be attacker. Barton skillfully blends crisp dialogue, deft punch lines and convincing action. His graphic descriptions of torture and disfigurement are strong stuff. Don't look here for poisoned cognac or clean bullet holes; instead think: cigarette lighters, pliers, serrated hunting knives. Barton also scores with his on-target skewering of tabloid TV ("Was George Washington our nation's first pothead? The story after this break!") as well as Hollywood superagents, white supremacists and comedians themselves. His portrayal of the insatiable Louie Baxter, a friend of Kincaid's who jumps from club dates to sitcom stardom, recalls the chilling self-destruction of real-life legends John Belushi and Chris Farley. Barton lends the story further verisimilitude by putting Kincaid in such familiar venues as the Comedy Store and the Improv. Make no mistake, though, the author's world of stand-up comedy is more gloom than glamour, the laughs and the brutality equally dark. Agent, Matt Bialer at William Morris. (Apr. 16) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This taut and consistently entertaining successor to Barton's Killer Material (2000) nicely supports Steve Martin's claim, "Comedy is not pretty." With the same fearlessness that marks a seasoned stand-up comedian, which he is, Biff Kincaid risks livelihood and life to track "The Heckler," a serial killer haunting comedy clubs from Las Vegas to Seattle. Whether delivering one-liners or karate kicks, Kincaid is as adept at disarming a hostile crowd as he is at disabling a would-be attacker. Barton skillfully blends crisp dialogue, deft punch lines and convincing action. His graphic descriptions of torture and disfigurement are strong stuff. Don't look here for poisoned cognac or clean bullet holes; instead think: cigarette lighters, pliers, serrated hunting knives. Barton also scores with his on-target skewering of tabloid TV ("Was George Washington our nation's first pothead? The story after this break!") as well as Hollywood superagents, white supremacists and comedians themselves. His portrayal of the insatiable Louie Baxter, a friend of Kincaid's who jumps from club dates to sitcom stardom, recalls the chilling self-destruction of real-life legends John Belushi and Chris Farley. Barton lends the story further verisimilitude by putting Kincaid in such familiar venues as the Comedy Store and the Improv. Make no mistake, though, the author's world of stand-up comedy is more gloom than glamour, the laughs and the brutality equally dark. Agent, Matt Bialer at William Morris. (Apr. 16) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.Library Journal
Stand-up comedian Biff Kincaid fills in for a Las Vegas headliner--only to learn that said headliner was murdered the night before. When he investigates, Biff learns of an earlier crime in which a young comedian was brutally beaten while onlookers did nothing. A solid sequel to Killer Material. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.A desperate Rick Partino calls stand-up comedian Biff Kincaid to plead with him to bail him out. Rick, the booker at the Palace Hotel's Comedysino, needs an act in five hours as his headliner Tiger Moore is in the hospital. After some fast negotiations, Biff agrees even if he is two hundred and eighty miles form the Vegas Strip.Upon arrival, Biff learns that Tiger has been stabbed to death following life-threatening notes from "The Heckler". The murderer has also singled out another comedian for death. Unable to resist an investigation, Biff begins to make inquiries into why the killer is giving the permanent hook to comedians. In his second appearance on the amateur sleuth stage (see Killer Material), Biff continues to engage readers with his detective skills rather than his comedic work. It is also why Heckler and its predecessor are amusing yet taut who-done-its. Dan Barton shows talent and intelligence as he allows his hero to employ humor as part of his responses to situations and people, but does not try to feed us Biff's stage act even if he is regarded as a professional by insiders. Sub-genre fans that want an amateur detective who could make a living from his "hobby" while starring in a strong story line should catch Biff's act because he is a clear headliner.
Biff Kincaid, the stand-up comic who delivers punchlines and punches with equal vigor, finds his inner sleuth aroused when he's asked to sub for Tiger Moore, a Vegas headliner who's been suddenly indisposed by a knife in the stomach. Who was the assailant? No one seems to know, but there is a clue. Spray-painted on the wall of Tiger's hotel room is a warning:"Get off the stage. You suck." Clearly, someone didn't think the defunct comic was a lot of laughs. Tiger, however, is not alone in failing to measure up. Pretty soon stand-up comics are dying all over the place without benefit of metaphor. Switching from jester's cap to deerstalker, Biff sets out to discover the why of it, convinced the why will eventually lead to the who. And soon enough he finds that the current round of Late Comics is rooted in the brutal killing of a young tyro some years ago who got involved with the wrong people. Or was that murder really murder? As he follows clues that take him from Vegas to L.A. and back again, Biff begins to wonder whether reports of Chad Karp's death aren't greatly exaggerated. And whether the heckler/murderer may not be putting together his own headliner: an act of vengeance. Too long, too far-fetched. As he did in his debut (Killer Material, 2000), Barton successfully evokes the bleak world of professional funnymen, but—to paraphrase the incisive Henny Youngman—take that world. Please.