You Better Watch Out
“It is, I contend, no small achievement to survive the perfect family.” So Greg Malone says at the beginning of his delightful memoir, You Better Watch Out (Random House Canada). Malone will discuss how he accomplished such feats, along with his years as a founding member of the seminal Newfoundland comedy troupe CODCO and his recent work as a AIDS activist, with veteran broadcaster Ralph Benmergui of JAZZ FM.
“It is, I contend, no small achievement to survive the perfect family.” So Greg Malone says at the beginning of You Better Watch Out, a graceful, generous and sometimes hilarious memoir of his childhood in the St. John’s of the 1950s and 60s.
A memoir from one of Canada’s comic geniuses that is as moving as it is funny, about a young boy who survives, among other things, a school run by the Christian Brothers, encounters with the bullies of New Gower Street and the perfect family.
We first meet Greg harnessed to a bush at a picnic wearing underpants on his head – a small boy squalling because he can’t take part in the goings-on. From here, Greg takes us on a wild ride through the streets of old St. John’s. We meet luminaries along the way, even Danny Williams, the future premier, sourly playing St. Bernadette in the all-boys’ play, with Greg hardly concealing his joy in performing as her “chatty sister.”
Humble, poignant, funny and authentic – You Better Watch Out is a delightful first book from a natural storyteller.
Greg Malone is an actor who was a cofounder of the Newfoundland satirical comedy troupe, CODCO. When one of his CODCO partners, Tommy Sexton, died of HIV/AIDS in the early nineties, Greg campaigned for AIDS awareness. He is also an environmental activist and remains involved in theatre. He lives in St. John’s.
Ralph Benmergui, host of Benmergui in the Morning on JAZZ.FM91, has a long and varied broadcasting background. Over the last two decades, Canadians have come to know him as a television host and journalist who has appeared on both CBC radio and television, Current Affairs and Variety. He has won a prestigious Japan Prize for Best International Youth Programming.
