Trillin Funny On Audio, Too

Sun., April 7, 1996

Sandy Bauers Philadelphia Inquirer

If one of the lovably curmudgeonly characters that Walter Matthau portrays had taken pen to paper, he probably would have sounded a whole lot like Calvin Trillin.

For that matter, Calvin Trillin, performing some of his finer pieces on a new audio release, sounds a bit like Walter Matthau.

“Piece by Piece” (3 hours, $16.95, from HighBridge) is a collection of 34 of Trillin’s poems and essays, all unabridged and each more delightful than the one before. Trillin made the selections himself, and the recording was produced especially for audio. So if you’re looking for this in print, it doesn’t exist unless you can round up a stack of New Yorker magazines, books, newspapers and other publications where these pieces originally appeared.

Trillin writes about amortizing the cost of his tuxedo, why he likes New York (no chiggers), what kind of shoes go best with a guru outfit, and how much he hates a particular family in Canada that recycles or composts everything.

He speculates about what word today’s teenagers would use to describe a “weenie” or a “nerd.” He bemoans the call from his dentist saying his teeth need attention, which really just means the dentist’s bank account needs priming.

He manages to come across as both sweet and cranky at the same time; I guess it has something to do with the way he makes his point without taking any cheap shots or resorting to ridicule.

Listening to these pieces is sort of like sitting down to a huge smorgasbord and getting to sample one of everything without ever getting too full to continue or having to worry about calories.

Best of all is the treat of having Trillin read these inimitable pieces out loud. He’s low-key, droll and utterly engaging.

The only problem is that each selection is linked to the next by some of the corniest piano licks imaginable, a sort of audible slapstick.

But take heart, dear listener. Each piano break is only a few seconds long, and once it’s over you get to keep company with Calvin Trillin for five or 10 minutes at a time. It’s worth it.

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