Mike Nelson's Mind over Matters

This is the second book I've read from an MST3K alum, the first being Kevin Murphy's "A Year at the Movies." I love Mike and I love Kevin (their seasons on Mystery Science Theater are actually my favorites), but I'm starting to think they're riffer savants, or, at the very least, that their senses of humor somehow don't translate from the (grainy) screen to the printed page. At least not for this reader.Michael J. Nelson's "Mind over Matters" contains numerous essays, some of them insightful and funny (especially the autobiographical one about doing debt collection in a call center), and many, many more that either have a manic flop-sweat ranting quality to them or (even worse) feel like blog entries by someone venting spleen. When you can best be described as comedy club-era Jerry Seinfeld cross-pollinated with Dennis Miller, something has gone terribly wrong, and a miscalculation has been made somewhere.There were some laughs to be had (Mike has a brilliant comic mind, after all), but the ratio of chuckles to sighs and groans doesn't allow me to recommend this one, as much as I would like to do just that. Judge for yourself, though. Now let's see if Bill Corbett has written a book...

Mike Nelson's humor is like a mash up of Garrison Keillor and David Sedaris. A hilarious read, something for everyone ranging from a chapter on the history of TV to a chapter on the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. I highly recommend it. My only complaint, which is not the authors fault, is that a few pages were mixed up and the print on the page is not crisp. But I doubt many Authors are at the printing presses supervising for ink bleeds and collation errors, so its not really fair to judge the content based on technical issues. Aside from that, Mike Nelsons misadventures in Musical theater and electroplating make for a great read. Any Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or Rifftrax fan will enjoy.

Coming from someone who isn't a large fan of MST3K, I have to say this is probably the funniest book I have ever read in my entire life. And I mean that literally. I have never laughed out loud at a book ever until this one. I made the mistake of taking it with me to work and on breaks I would read it and I would get into such laughing fits, it caused all of my coworkers to look at me as if I had gone insane, but after following Mike's bizarre adventures in the book, I'm pretty sure I was nearly there.From his falling through the ceiling of his elementary school to observing (more like following) his wife Bridget as to why she has so many friends where he barely has any.If you know anything about Mike, you know these stories probably do hold water, at least a bit due to his rather unlucky nature when it comes to anything. Hopefully Mike will continue writing as he is very good at it and can keep even me entertained.Also: Kissimmee, FL is a real place there, Mike.

It may be a bit much to say that it was the best TV show ever, but I feel I'm on more solid ground when I assert that Mystery Science Theater 3000 was the best puppet show ever (sorry, Kukla, Fran and Ollie). During its decade-or-so run, Mike Nelson served as both a writer and as one of the stars of the show. I think it's probably safe to say that most people who want to read Mike Nelson's Mind Over Matters are MST3K fans; the question is, will these people (or those who are unfamiliar with the show) like what they read? I believe so.In MST3K, Mike and two robots were the audience who watched bad movies and made jokes about them. In Mind Over Matters, the concept is similar, except this time, Mike is alone and what he is watching is the real world. So we get Mike's amusing observations on such topics as men's clothes, performance art, the history of television and gourmet foods. In addition, just as MST3K would have skits that broke up the movie watching, Mike gives us written parodies, such as his Scarlet Letterish "Young Master Chillingshead" or an interview with a pair of shorts. (It is a sign of how much I associate him with his MST3K character of the same name that, instead of referring to him by his last name, as I do with the authors of most books I review, I can only think of him as Mike.)Of course, not every joke merits a guffaw or even a chuckle, but like in baseball, if you're successful a third of a time, you're a star. With that standard, and with a lot of humor on each of its 278 pages, you're sure to find this book to be quite fun (even if you've never watched MST3K).

I bought this after the recent Kickstarter for MST3K started, and I was not disappointed! Mike was the head writer and 2nd host on that show and his humour translates well to the written word. It certainly brightened up a bad couple of days sitting in the garage waiting for my car to get fixed twice!