More Stories to Tell

A Lawyer Turned Comedian Puts Everyday Life on Trial

Clarion Rating: 4 out of 5

Wink-nod chapter titles and conversational prose make this a keen and appealing comedic work.

On the heels of his well-received humor book Stories I Tell, Paul D’Angelo presents another compendium of comedy, More Stories to Tell: A Lawyer Turned Comedian Puts Everyday Life on Trial.

In More Stories to Tell, D’Angelo brings a trove of previously unpublished material to light, drawing from his stand-up comedy routines and L.A. Misérables, diaries written when the Massachusetts native spent several years in Hollywood during the late 1990s. More Stories to Tell is divided into ten chapters with wink-nod titles like “Here We Go Again,” “Keep Reading,” and “Hey, You Made It This Far!” In this and other respects, the book’s layout and design is very similar to Stories I Tell; the consistency should please those who enjoyed D’Angelo’s first book, though each can easily stand alone.

The book evinces a keen mind at work, and the author’s smarts come through in humorous stories and jokes shared casually and intimately. Expert use of punctuation to delay the punchline or otherwise control the pace of reading makes it feel like D’Angelo is right in the room, speaking the text into being.

The veteran comedian delivers quick jokes in print as well as he does on stage:

I was doing shows in Las Vegas and lost all of my money to a one-armed bandit. It was really embarrassing. He held a gun on me and I had to stuff the money into his pocket.

However, the text really shines most via its longer stories, including “The Videogame of Life,” a sixteen-page gem which imagines a father and son discussing the realities of life in the only terms the boy understands—as a video game, complete with hazards like “divorce,” “fatty foods,” and “bankruptcy,” finally ending with his son “pulling the plug.”

The book suffers from a few minor editing errors, like the use of “coincidently” instead of “coincidentally,” but these are easily overlooked amid the many laugh-out-loud moments. More important to mention is that More Stories to Tell is not for the easily offended; there are plenty of jokes that rely heavily on sex, cursing, or the occasional racial stereotype. However, D’Angelo comes across as genuine, charming, and good-hearted, which perhaps enables him to get away with more than the average comedian.

More Stories to Tell is a worthy sequel to comedian Paul D’Angelo’s first book and is every bit its equal in humor and intelligence.

Reviewed by Peter Dabbene

Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

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