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Sixty seconds with Jeff Cohen...
Jeff Cohen is the author of the Aaron Tucker series. His latest book, SOME LIKE IT HOT-BUTTERED, introduces a new hero, Elliot Freed, who is the owner of a struggling movie theatre.
RTE: Describe yourself in a sentence?
Cohen: I'm relatively short and dumpy, but I've got a great personality, if you're interested in dating, and I can bring my wife along.
RTE: What's the one record you'd take to a desert island?
Cohen: I'm on a desert island and there's a stereo? I don't suppose there's a record called How To Get Off A Desert Island? It's a tough choice. Either Rubber Soul by the Beatles or Wonderfulness by Bill Cosby. Susan Werner's new Gospel Truth, a collection of gospel songs for agnostics, is great, too. But probably one of those other two.
RTE: What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Cohen: Taller. It didn't work out.
RTE: Who's your oldest friend?
Cohen: I'm guessing you don't mean "your friend who is oldest," but "the one you've known longest." That would probably be my pal Jeff Pollitzer, who was unfortunate enough to go to the same high school as I did. I still can't go too long without talking to him.
RTE: If I ruled the world...
Cohen: There'd be less fighting over whose religion is right and more respect for mystery books with jokes.
RTE: Which book do you wish you'd written?
Cohen: The next one on my contract. That would be a relief! The one I COULD have written is an amazing biography of my heroes, called Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Sometimes Zeppo: A Celebration of the Marx Brothers, and A Satire on the Rest of the World, by Joe Adamson. Bugs me that he wrote it and I didn't, but he did a terrific job.
RTE: What makes you angry?
Cohen: Hypocrisy, pretty much all politicians ... or is that redundant? People who decide someone is good because they read the same version of the Bible, or bad because they don't. Deciding a person is without worth because they refuse to be who you are.
RTE: Name your five dream dinner party guests.
Cohen: If it's at my house, I don't have to include my wife and kids, because they'd already be there, right? So: Groucho and Harpo, for sure. Paul Simon, because he always writes the lyrics I wish I could, and he could show me how to play some of his songs. New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, because he's always so calm and sure, and I wish I knew how to do that. Mel Brooks, because he's Mel Brooks. Billy Crystal. Jon Stewart. John Lennon. Blythe Danner. Larry Gelbart. Aaron Sorkin. And for sure, my father. I wish I could see him again. That's more than five, isn't it?
RTE: Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with?
Cohen: A man who just ate a lot of beans, or Dick Cheney.
RTE: What inspired you to start writing?
Cohen: Wow. I've been doing it such a long time, I'm not sure when I started. I guess it was that I wanted to tell stories the way I'd read stories, but different. I wanted to cut out all the stuff I didn't like and add stuff I wasn't getting. And more than anything else, because I would have made a really bad mechanic.
RTE: Where would you most like to live?
Cohen: Rome, San Francisco, or New Jersey.
RTE: Sum up your latest book in no more than 12 words.
Cohen: A funny mystery about a guy who owns a comedy movie theatre.
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