Christopher Buckley is a writer who resists the label of “humorist,” but is, all the same, funny as hell. The well-spoken and self-deprecating Reaganaut scion has written many books (including Little Green Men and Supreme Courtship), and made waves in the 2008 election when he publicly supported then-Senator Obama and incurred the wrath of rabid right-wing “kooks” everywhere. Last night he was a bit (and just a bit) more somber than usual when he sat down with Tina Brown of The Daily Beast to talk about his latest book, Losing Mum and Pup, a memoir of dealing with the recent passing of his famous parents.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the median age of the 92nd Street Y crowd last night was about 76 years on the earth. I mean, there was some real experience in that room. Brown came out first, and was fairly British and charming as she introduced Buckley. Throughout the evening, she had to do little more than prompt him (and, in fact, at times had to cut him off), as the man seems to have a million and one stories and isn’t shy about telling them.
The best anecdotes were the ones that involved former Presidents, like the time he and his father went to visit a certain Hollywood actor turned governor of California. No, not Arnold, dummies. Reagan. And Christopher, then around 14, went out back to sit by himself as the power brokers broked power inside. All of a sudden, the boy senses someone behind him, and it is, of course, Reagan, who noticed the lonely child and came over to check on him. It might as well be a moment straight out of a Lifetime movie starring Kevin Kline or perhaps Val Kilmer. Buckley also talked about the time he wrote a speech for then–Vice President George H.W. Bush, who couldn’t pronounce “Thucydides,” whom Buckley had quoted in the speech. Classic Bush.
Other highlights of the evening included Buckley referring to himself as “the turd in the Republican punch bowl,” and doing a pretty spot-on Kissinger impression. I had seen Buckley before, but once again I was struck by how at ease the guy is with himself. His parents must’ve done something right.
