The Ding-Dong Dorm


Jeff Hiller's self-conscious and self-effacing and pure true gem of a meta-memoir is so flat out necessary and beautiful I didn't want it to end for me. It kind of did today. Finished on Juneteenth and really don't know what that means or if it means anything but there you go: it was incredibly stupid bliss.

ACTRESS OF A CERTAIN AGE gives you the inside scoop on what it takes to be an under-the-radar actor/celebrity without any self pity or aggrandizement. Jeff just moves through his gay Christian empathetic sarcastic soul-scorching life-narrative with both a Paul Lynde sense of abandonment and a Oprah sweep of sweetness. Bitterness is caught and shown for what it is: disappointment. Bravery mingles with desperation. If you read this book and don't like it you're nothing to me. That's kind of what it feels like. 

Please read the whole thing but the last 25 pages are the shit. Jeff narrates what it was like participating in the making of SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, the great HBO show that centers on the great Bridget Everett, but expands to include him and a whole crew of other gorgeous freaks. 

The Ding-Dong Dorm is where Jeff and Bridget and Murray lived while they were making the first season of SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE. It was a rented McMansion they occupied and got to know each other in. They would rehearse scenes and celebrate the creation of their tribe. Truly magical to witness through Jeff's eyebrow-less eyes. The section about Bridget's Pomeranian puppy Poppy having to be put down will kill you in the most glorious way possible. 

Both Jeff's sweet book and that incredible show make a better world. Something to cling to right now. The Ding-Dong Brigade I guess. 




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