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Home - Books
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Funny Hungry
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Campbell musings roam from Jonestown to
The Ding-Ding Man
by Jesse D. Stanek
Most Omahans know Michael Campbell as the tall, good-looking nice guy who used to run Mick’s Music and Bar in Benson, and some know Campbell is an established songwriter. Those of you lucky enough to jaw with him as he tended bar, or to be on the old Mick’s email list, also know he can tell a good story. Turns out he also writes a good story — his voice comfortable and unpretentious, his observations hilarious and intelligent.
Campbell has compiled a book of his ramblings, Are You Going to Eat That?, a clever collection of ultra-short essays, most of which he included at the beginning of his Mick’s mass emails. The essays touch many topics, from childhood memories and lessons, phantom cell phone vibrations (I didn’t realize this happened to anyone else), Valentine’s Day shopping pitfalls, sailing, smoking and even some delightful musings on the whole Pluto being demoted from planet status brouhaha.
“You know, this sounds really dumb, but people kept asking me to put them all together,” Campbell said. “I just wanted people to read the weekly listings of who was playing at the bar. Dry information is just no fun to read. One lady mentioned to me that she was saving all these writings and I realized I wasn’t. So after I started saving them I would go back and read through them. I always saw myself primarily as a songwriter but I had people tell me that they were only on the list to get these stories, they didn’t care who was playing at the bar.”
Campbell writes in the introduction about 15 years experience as an editor and writer at a newsletter publishing company, and how he hated to send an art file without a bit of personal talk at the beginning, and thus the Michael Campbell musings were born.
“So I got in the habit of including a short personal message with each upload,” he writes, “something like that pre-business chat we would have had in real life. It wasn’t much, just a paragraph or two, some observations from Nebraska, which can be an unusual viewpoint … Customers responded generously. Letters came back thanking me for putting a human touch on an otherwise impersonal subscription service.”
The essays are all brief, usually three or four pages. In one piece, “Smoke Signals,” Campbell writes that cigarette smoke smells better to him when it is outside. He tells how the smell always reminds him of his father getting the family sailboat ready for an afternoon of boating. His train of thought turns to onions for a brief moment, then returns to his father and sailing. And while smoking basically killed his father, the essay never comes across as a condemnation of an otherwise utterly condemnable act. In just two pages Campbell manages to offer a thoughtful childhood memory, a funny bit about using an onion to cover up smoker’s breath, and some touching thoughts about his father and the nature of the father-son relationship.
In “The Ding-Ding Man” Campbell eloquently writes about the ice cream truck man, “Thine Holy Ding” and the things it compels us to do. Everybody knows about the Ding-Ding Man, but Campbell is able to seamlessly wander from street-side sweets to Jonestown, Guyana to Roy Orbison and somehow back again. At one point, he finds himself elbowing his daughter out of the way to get to the ice cream treats. It ends with him apologizing to his daughter years later and her casually replying, “It’s okay, I tried to trip you from behind, but I missed.”
“She emailed me that after reading that,” he said. “It was originally much shorter but I had to add that. It was a funny moment, no words were said. The stories are all like that, they’re almost all real. In that [piece] there is nothing made up.”
Such endearing moments make Campbell’s book a delight. Having spent his whole life in Nebraska, the state has a strong sense of place throughout his stories. It’s an especially great read for anyone familiar with any aspect of the state. It’s also getting valuable national exposure because The Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop at The University of Dayton recently selected Campbell as Humor Writer of the Month — proving it’s also a great read for anyone, from anywhere, who enjoys thoughtfully crafted humor. ,
Campbell’s release party for Are You Going to Eat That? is Thursday, Sept. 10, from 7:30-9:30 p.m. at The Healing Arts Center, 1216 Howard St. in the Old Market. The party is free to the public and will feature original art, book readings, live music and poetry. Enjoy more of his stories at mcwriting.com.
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