Eddie Krumble Is the Clapper

Book excerpt: Meet Eddie Krumble. He's a relatively happy guy. Content-ish. Fresh to Los Angeles, Eddie and his friend Chris Plork land their first gig: clapping as paid audience members for infomercials and sitcoms so heinous that tourists won't even attend. Eddie spends long days clapping, laughing, and hissing — on cue, of course — and his life slowly begins to take shape as a relationship with Judy, a gas station attendant, begins to brew. Suddenly his life is turned on its head. In one of his nightly rants, Jay Leno scrutinizes the state of late night TV and ends up unveiling two stills of Eddie as audience members for two different infomercials. Eddie is singled out as clapper-for-hire, Eddie's career comes to a halt, and Leno turns his discovery into a segment on his show: "Who is THE CLAPPER?" takes the public by storm, and Eddie's face appears on TVs and billboards throughout the nation. A clever satire about fame, consumerism, and reality TV, Dito Montiel's Eddie Krumble is The Clapper is the first work of fiction from the acclaimed author of A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.