Product Description

Spoof letter writing has a long history from Lazlo Toth to Henry Root but nothing can prepare for the uniquely surreal and endearing world of Ted L Nancy. A kind of Trigger Happy correspondence, his innocent requests, queries, complaints, demands and suggestions to hotels, airlines, multi-national corporations, local government and department stores are so absurd it is amazing they fool anyone - but often the deadpan responses are even more hilarious. Ted wants to know if he can graft his big toe onto his nose, why his wife left him while he was in a coma for another man in a coma, and if he can consummate his marrieage in the administrative office of the chapel. He writes to hotels telling him that he eats his mattress. He writes to casinos to ask if his band the 'Fat Beatles' can perform and he can stay in their hotel dressed as a bladder. This work is utterly addictive and wet-yourself-in-a-public-place funny.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82750 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
'A collection of crazed correspondence by Ted L. Nancy. The name is a pseudonym, perhaps for Jerry Seinfeld, who wrote the introduction. Seinfeld never comes clean, but the letters have his prints all over them' Amazon.com

About the Author
Jerry Seinfeld is the multi Emmy Award-winning US comedian and star of Seinfeld - America's most popular TV show for a decade which gained regular 30-million plus viewing figures. Nobody, not even Jerry, knows who Ted L Nancy is.

Excerpted from Letters from a Nut by Ted L. Nancy, Jerry INT>Seinfeld. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction

My first contact with Mr. Ted Nancy was the night of August 30, 1995. I went to a friend's house to watch the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon, which I watch every year. There were a few other people there, and as we were enjoying the program, I noticed a handful of letters sitting on the coffee table. I read one, and then another, and then another. I began to laugh out loud at the letters, and just as much at the responses from the various businesses and corporations that followed each one. Then I started reading the letters to my friends, and the next thing I know, the whole room was laughing and having a wonderful time. I stopped reading only when Jerry Lewis sang "When You Walk Through a Storm." I never miss that part every year. It's one of my favorite things.

Anyway, one thing I know as a comedian is that it's very rare for people to laugh out loud at television or the printed word even though they may be enjoying it very much. But the people in that den were really laughing. Believe me, I know laughs, and these were real big show business laughs. I thought, I don't know what this is, but it's some pretty powerful stuff.

There was just one strange thing. There was this one fellow in the room who just kind of nodded approvingly as each letter was read. He didn't seem irritated, nor did he seem particularly impressed. He was just sort of sitting back, taking the whole thing in.

I have learned over the years how when funny people see their work appreciated, it's something like when parents watch their children playing. They may not be involved, but there's this detached pride in the joy that they feel indirectly responsible for. That was the look on that man's face that night. I guess I didn't realize it at the time, but I am convinced to this day that that man was the real Ted L. Nancy.

When I left, I asked the host if I could borrow the letters. I didn't know what I was going to do with them. I think I really just wanted to read them again. So I took them home, and over the next couple of weeks, read them again to various people I know whose senses of humor have been rigorously developed to professional strength.

I must, by the way, mention if you should find yourself in possession of this book, one of the great joys of it is definitely reading the letters out loud. And always be careful to point out when something is in parentheses. The careful use of the parenthetical phrase is my favorite aspect of the Ted Nancy writing style.

Anyway, everyone's reaction was the same as the night of the telethon. You cannot not laugh at these letters. So I called my friend, whose house it was, and asked him if he could get any more of the letters. He said, "Sure, there's lots more." Then I called my literary agent, Dan Strone of the William Morris Agency, an extremely charming and well dressed man and, more importantly, one of the smartest guys in show business. I said, "Dan, I have a bunch of letters here that I think could be some kind of book if you could get enough of them." So Dan got an outfit together and a lunch was arranged.

I had now taken on the role of a Clark Kent figure. I may not have been Superman himself, but it became known that I was able to contact him. There wasn't much else I had to do after that. When you give something good to Dan Strone, it's like handling the ball off to Gale Sayers. You just know it's going places.

As far as Ted L. Nancy himself goes, I'm really still pretty much in the dark about him. From his Vegas shrimp costume to his dog play, "Cinnamon, A Life in Progress," to his lost bag of otter hair, it's hard to figure out what's driving this guy. I will say that Ted L. Nancy definitely possesses many of the qualities I consider essential for a good life. He enjoys the simple things, like fine busboy service, Bon Ami cleanser, and steamboats. He is extremely courteous and complimentary to his correspondents and will go to any length to find a kind word to say. "You make great horseradish sauce," he writes the Excalibur hotel.

On the other hand, he does not travel well or easily. Always requiring special arrangements or permission to be made in advance for his various costumes, furniture, draperies, and vending machines. Mr. Nancy is also apparently a gifted and versatile live performer, offering many types of freak and celebrity impersonations. Unfortunately, the shows are inevitably derailed by poor advance booking commitments.

I guess I would like to say that in many ways Ted Nancy is a lot like you and me. We all have peculiar problems and often have to deal with faceless strangers to resolve them. But it's just not true. Ted Nancy is not like you and me. Nobody has problems like this guy. Nobody travels with a Prussian military sword and then loses it. Nobody is writing fan letters to Max Schmeling. Nobody is going to hotels asking if they can wet the bed and bring their own ice machines. And nobody, but nobody, is in contact with a real African king trying to locate his girlfriend's lost mail.

But this guy is. And I knew from the beginning that I had to do everything I could to let as many people as possible read the hilarious truth about what has been going on inside the mailbox of Ted L. Nancy, whoever he may be.

Jerry Seinfeld

Customer Reviews

Beware!!!
I got this book as a birthday present on a Monday evening, started reading it on Tuesday morning and had finished it by the Wednesday. I read it on the train on my way to work (not the best idea when this book can make you laugh out loud page after page), you end up looking like a 'nut' yourself!

Ted L. Nancy is either a comic genius or a deranged psychopath! Even funnier than his letters, are some of the replies that large companies have made; especially when they have really tried to accomodate some of Mr Nancy's strange requests.

Top marks for this book. A great one to read to friends.

Didn't live up to the excpectations
I got this as a christmas present and was told that it was hilarious, read the reviews here saying the same. I just finished it on the train this morning and can honestly say that I didn't particularly enjoy it. There was one letter which nearly had me biting my tongue to supress the laughter but that was it. I think it was just stupid. Just a different sense of humour I guess. I gave it the second start for the ONE letter that cracked me up.

Funny!
Got this from Amazon the other day having read a review in the Guardian. Laughed out loud a lot. The sort of book you can open at any page, read a bit have a laugh for 5 minutes or an hour.

Ted is a poor traveller with numerous problems, strange pets and unusal requests. Particularly funny are his requests for work with various organisations - the letter about being siamese twin wanting to work in a photocopying shop was especially amusing.