{"product_id":"running-the-light-9780593978870","title":"Running the Light","description":"\u003cb\u003eA bona fide \"instant classic\" (Doug Stanhope) novel that tells the story of a road comic crashing and burning by acclaimed comedian Sam Tallent\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eBilly Ray Schafer stepped off the plane in Amarillo, Texas, with twenty-six hundred dollars tucked down the leg of his black ostrich-skin cowboy boot. He walked to baggage claim slowly, jelly-legged and nearing lucidity, coming out from under the Xanax he snorted before the flight.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDebauched, divorced, and courting death, Billy Ray Schafer is a comedian who has forgotten how to laugh. Over the course of seven spun-out days across the American Southwest, he travels from hell gig to hell gig in search of a reason to keep living in this bleak and violent glimpse into the psyche of a thoroughly ruined man. Ex-inmate, ex-husband, ex-father--comedian is the only title Schafer has left. Trapped in the wreckage of his wasted career, Billy Ray knows the answer to the question: What happens when opportunity doesn't come--or worse--it comes and goes? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"In vivid, electric sentences that read like cinematic tracking shots,\" (\u003ci\u003eDenver Post\u003c\/i\u003e) Tallent hurls you into an absolute mess of a man's life as we search for the mercy he does not want.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSam Tallent\u003c\/b\u003e is a comedian, novelist, and host of the \u003ci\u003eChubby Behemoth\u003c\/i\u003e podcast. For the last decade, he has performed more than forty-five weekends per year in North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. Sam has two comedy specials: \u003ci\u003eWaiting For Death to Claim Us\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Toad's Morale. \u003c\/i\u003eHe also has a travel show, \u003ci\u003eWide World\u003c\/i\u003e, on YouTube. He lives in Detroit and cooks dinner for his wife every night.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51184813572370,"sku":"9780593978870","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_2526f479-27ea-4fb5-8689-41674ff75f7a.jpg?v=1744577107","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/running-the-light-9780593978870","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}