Let's Start A Riot

How did Bruce McCulloch, a young drunk punk from Alberta, end up a pyjama-clad dad in the Hollywood Hills with a pretty wife, a child sommelier for a son, and a daughter who believes in the Bottle Fairy? If you hold Cancer Boy as a comedy hero and shout “My pen! My pen!” to colleagues over the top of your cubicle, or even if you only vaguely recall the legendary comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, Bruce McCulloch’s bitingly funny collection of personal stories, Let’s Start a Riot, will make you laugh, cry while laughing and cringe just a little. Who but Bruce McCulloch could take us from his teenaged plan to pummel his father in “The Beautiful Day You Beat Up Your Dad” to the squirm-inducingly funny but ultimately moving “Sex Weekend,” to a behind-the-scenes moment of KITH friendship in “Forty-One Steps”? Not only do we get to see McCulloch experience “flop sweat” in front of his daughter’s elementary school class, but we are also treated to a poem he wrote to torture his agent, titled “Angie, The HIV Unicorn,” and his not-to-be-missed life lessons in the “Brucie-Derata.”

This unforgettable collection, peppered with moments of surprising poignancy, proves that although this infamous Kid may be all grown up, his singular brand of humour and signature wit remain firmly intact.