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Running the Light cover art

Running the Light

Written by: Sam Tallent, Kyle Kinane - foreword
Narrated by: Greg Chaille, Tracy Chaille, Trae Crowder, Tim Dillon, David Gborie, Chris Gethard, Adam Cayton Holland, Jackie Kashian, Rick Kerns, Kyle Kinane, Bert Kreischer, Kristine Levine, Nathan Lund, Nora Lynch, full cast
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Publisher's Summary

Debauched, 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 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 the opportunity doesn't come - or worse - it comes and goes?

©2018, 2019, 2020 Sam Tallent (P)2021 Tantor

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What listeners say about Running the Light

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story, poor performance

Who knew comics like Bert Kreischer, Ari Shaffir, and Rosanne couldn't read? A great story ruined by a rotating roster of readers who can hardly get through a sentence. Pacing is all over the place, stuttering is rampant, and overall the poor performances draw the reader out of the story, which is phenomenal.

Do yourself a favour and read this one. It's an awesome story, but the readers are all amateurs at this particular practice, and that is plainly obvious.

1/5 for the performance.
4/5 for the story.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A good idea in theory, but not in practise.

I have been a fan of Sam’s stand up for a year now, and after finishing this book I am in awe of his writing ability. It’s vivid detail draws the listener in immediately and keeps it up the entire time.
The story is rough, dirty, and desperate. I picked up a lot of nods to the writing style of Charles Bukowski, Billy Ray may very well be who Henry Chinaski would become as a stand up comic...

That being said I came into this book feeling sceptical of having the narration done by a number of Sam’s comic buddies, a hunch that ended up being confirmed for me almost immediately. The constantly changing voices and audio quality really threw me out of the experience, especially after getting really into the narration of somebody in particular just to have somebody like Ari Shaffir stutter through an hour of unedited, uncomfortable dialogue. This happens a lot throughout the book. On the one hand I can see why this happened as it is clearly a comedy novel for comics, but on the other hand it does a great disservice to the story in my opinion.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I like

Sounds good in mine ears, if I could read I bet it would be as good

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story very entertaining

Sam is a great writer, looking forward to the next book. Very descriptive and enjoyable, the different readers were hilarious on a meta level.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • acr
  • 2023-11-25

Great story. Gritty, real, and funny.

It’s a concept book where different comedians all read a chapter. It’s a little disjointed and I wish a couple of the comedians practiced first, but it’s a really good book. Good story, really funny. Watch for a scene with a duck.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Beauty in the imperfection.

This is a raw experience of a book and I found it unapologetically wonderful to listen to. Each chapter is narrated by a different real comedian of differing narration ability / experience / microphone / location etc. For me, there is a lived authenticity in each of their performances that shines through and gives the story an amazingly organic feel.

I have over 18 months of listening to audiobooks and I have a low tolerance for poorly narrated or produced books. This is the one exception for me where the eclectic narration performances enhance the experience. If the synopsis is at all intriguing - imho - the performances won't let you down. Enjoy

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

incredibly good

Loved this book, amazing writing that's sharp, darkly funny and tragic in so many ways. The ending was perfect. Only knocking a few points off the poor audio quality with some readers. Dan Soder knocks his section out of the park, they should rerecord the whole thing with him.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

how was this title "included" with audible!?


exceptional. Someone needs to send Sam's email address so I can e-transfer him direct the $25 for this book, what an exceptional listen.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Attempted Hunter S Thompson

It was just okay. Half the narrations were done extremely poorly, with bad audio and bad editing. The story was okay, but seemed like it was trying to be written like a Hunter S Thompson story - which it definitely wasn’t. If you’re interested in this, go with any HST book instead.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

couldn't wait to listen more

loved it, listening to the different comedians each chapter was great even though they're clearly not professional narrators. But since the story was so well written, it only took a minute to settle back into a different voice.

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