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NEW COMIC NOVEL SET IN HUNTINGTON BEACH LAUGHS AT SO-CAL TEENAGE DATING AND SUBURBAN PREJUDICES
HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA, August 23, 2023 – The must-read comedy of the year, Cash and Carrey by Bob Madison, has been released today by the Vulpine Press. The novel is a wickedly funny look at teenage dating in contemporary Southern California.
Huntington Beach high school jock Cash Hamilton has everything: he’s tall, handsome, star football player and beloved by all the girls. The one thing Cash hasn’t got is his namesake – coming from a poor family, he seldom has any money. His other problem is his rival, the school’s “rich kid,” the moody loner Stu Carrey.
Cash takes a job at the factory manufacturing gags and novelties run by Carrey’s father, who calls him into the office with a remarkable offer: convinced that his son is gay and lonely, Carrey Sr. promises to pay the full four-year college tuition at the college of Cash’s choice if he would date his son throughout senior year. The one stipulation is that Cash tell no one the truth. He doesn’t want to hurt his son’s feelings, just help him to blossom. That means, for all the world – friends and family – Cash has to pretend to be gay for one year.
After “coming out” to his dad, Cash contends with an amorous snake, a New Age swami, an angry not-so-ex girlfriend, a college DEI guru named Nola Contendere and a room of wombats – all of whom show up at an unforgettable party in a Huntington Beach mansion.
“Everyone thinks Southern California is this sun-kissed paradise, and it is,” said Huntington Beach resident Bob Madison. “But it’s also such an absurd place that everything about it is funny. I wanted Cash and Carrey to reflect how everything looks normal, but is really totally crazy underneath.”
Advance Reviews:
Christopher Miller, award-winning author of The Cardboard Universe, Sudden Noises from Inanimate Objects, and, American Cornball, said of Cash and Carrey: “Cash Hamilton, the hero of Bob Madison’s new novel, is a 21st-century South-California Bertie Wooster. His special friend, Stu Carrey, is the son of a tycoon who manufactures gags and novelties–joy buzzers, whoopee cushions, wind-up plastic penises, and such. Cash isn’t as genteel as Bertie, or as gentle, but he still gains entrée into some of the stately homes of Orange County. He’s a witty and surprisingly likeable narrator, and his prose is as well-stocked with laugh-getters as Mr. Carrey’s warehouse. Cash and Carrey is outrageous and extremely silly. It’s also as sweet as it is funny.”
Actor/comedian Nick Santa Maria said of Cash and Carrey: “If Dobie Gillis and Groucho Marx had a son it would be Bob Madison. Funny, silly, and funny.”