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.

BRUCE McCULLOCH is a Canadian actor, writer, comedian and film director. He is best known for his work as a member of the Kids in the Hall, the popular comedy troupe, and as a writer for Saturday Night Live. He directed the films Dog Park, Stealing Harvard and Superstar, and has made two acclaimed comedy/music albums, Shame-based Man and Drunk Baby Project. McCulloch has also recently acted in episodes of Workaholics and the new season of Arrested Development. McCulloch recently returned to TV with the series Death Comes to Town. He currently lives in the Hollywood Hills with his family and tours solo and with KITH for sold-out shows.

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PRAISE FOR LET’S START A RIOT

“I LOVED this book. I really did not want it to end. I laughed. I cried. Bruce McCulloch’s giant heart explodes all over the pages of this dazzling, heartfelt, hilarious memoir.” —MOLLY SHANNON

“Having known Bruce thirty years, I knew he was a brilliantly funny comedian, but I didn’t anticipate he was a story writer on par with my heroes Woody, PJ and Sedaris. It caught me completely by surprise, as if he slyly decided to reveal he was a clarinet virtuoso. This book is a fantastic, achingly funny read.” —MARK MCKINNEY

“The guy can write. Like really write. He’s silly and smart and, of course, funny. Like Mark Leyner mixed with Woody Allen. But with heart.” —SHARP MAGAZINE

“McCulloch’s comic gift lies in this inversion of altitudes: in making the lofty seem trivial, in investing the quotidian with mock-heroic consequence. . . . Funny, sad, and weird . . . McCulloch’s sensibility’s as irrepressible as that know-it-all smirk.” —THE GLOBE AND MAIL

“I couldn’t put this down. I mean, I couldn’t put this down. Seriously funny and poetic and tender and elegant and beautiful and entirely loveable . . . and funny.” —GORD DOWNIE