Pigeon in a Crosswalk by Jack Gray

Pigeon in a Crosswalk by Jack Gray
Published by Simon & Schuster ISBN 978-1-4516-4134-9
Hardcover, $22, 205 pages

Jack Gray is a producer on Anderson Cooper's AC 360 show on CNN, but many people know him from his humorous Twitter account. He has over one million followers, most of whom he says are "scammers or from Malaysia. I'm big in Malaysia."

He also writes the 360 blog online and his boss Anderson Cooper and others convinced him that he should write a book. So he did, and the result is the charming, sweet and hilarious Pigeon in a Crosswalk: Tales of Anxiety and Accidental Glamour.

Gray calls the book a collection of essays rather than a memoir, and I agree with that characterization. He starts the book describing his start in the news business as a ten-year-old- running BNN, a fake news network out of his grandparents' home. He had serious labor issues with his eight-year-old sister, but his experience there started his love of TV news which exist to this day.

He writes lovingly and humorously of his family, especially both sets of his grandparents, with whom he spent a lot of time. He has Greek grandparents on one side, so his descriptions of holiday dinners will ring familiar to anyone who has seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

On the other side were his WASPy grandparents, who loved him just as much, but were a little less ebullient about it. I adore that he writes of his family with such warmth.

Gray worked his way up the ladder, working at a cable news station in Boston, where he wrangled Benazir Bhutto into a live interview. He then worked with Boston TV news legend Chet Curtis, where he managed to get an at-home interview with Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer. Gray succeeded because he was not afraid to try.

He is naturally funny, and just about every page has something you will laugh out loud at. When he got a job at CNN after he wisely turned down an interview for a job with Glenn Beck (yikes!), he has a few great stories about skulking around trying to meet famous people in the green room.

Gray is obsessed by The Golden Girls, and when Betty White was doing The Joy Behar Show, he knew this might be his only chance. He ratchets up the tension as he hides in the hall, planning his moment, dodging security and hoping to get a photo with his idol. You'll have to read the book to find out if he succeeded.

(People who were nice to him- Maria Shriver, Elizabeth Edwards, Robert Redford. People who were not so nice-Barney Frank and Johnny Weir.)

Through his work with Anderson Cooper, Gray became friends with actress/comedienne Kathy Griffin. The chapter on his adventures with Griffin, trying to prevent her from swearing and/or stripping during CNN's New Year's Eve show with Cooper, wandering NYC in the wee hours of the morning looking for doughnuts, staying with Griffin in her fancy LA home and hanging with Maggie, Griffin's mother are laugh-out-loud funny.

This book is for people who liked Justin Halpern's S#*t My Dad Says and Andy Cohen's Most Talkative.  It brings the funny, like those books do, and yet is grounded in a sweetness. If you are offended by cursing though, this book is not for you. But if you are looking for a good laugh, buy this book now.

rating 4 of 5

I saw Anderson Cooper interviewing Jack Gray about the book and my post on that is here.

Introducing the Comedy Team of Jack Gray & Anderson Cooper

Jack Gray & Anderson Cooper at Barnes & Noble

Last night I attended a book talk and signing for Jack Gray's collection of humorous essays Pigeon in a Crosswalk: Tales of Anxiety and Accidental Glamour at the Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side.

Gray is a producer of CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 and he was lucky enough to have his boss, Anderson Cooper, interview him about his book. These two men are hilarious together as they joked about Gray's huge Twitter following (over one million!); he claims that he is "huge in Malaysia. Most of my followers are spammers."

Cooper joked that he was glad Gray wrote a book because "I didn't know who you were. Now I know your last name", and Gray retorted by stating that while working for Cooper one rule is that "eye contact is a privilege, not a right." Much of the interview was that back-and-forth joking, and had the standing-room-only audience laughing at many points.

Gray said that one of the rejected titles of the book was "Openly Gray", a word play on the fact that Gray is gay, but he thought it sounded like the memoir of "Evelyn Gray, a 6'5" lesbian basketball coach."

Cooper stated that he learned that Gray was a good writer when Gray started writing on CNN's 360 blog, and the book deal came from there. Cooper sarcastically noted that his own book was "A New York Times bestseller for several weeks, but this is not about me", which drew guffaws.

There was a lot of name dropping- Gray told a hilarious story about giving Cher a Twitter lesson over the phone (complete with a Cher accent), spending the weekend at Cooper's summer home with Kathy Griffin (they expected a Downton Abbey estate, it is more of a cottage), a Twitter feud with Star Jones (she is not a popular person), and he told of a party at Larry King's Beverly Hills mansion where the Kings' forgot to get a caterer (what Gray referred to as a "first world" problem).

Speaking of parties, Gray talked about what it's like to go a party at Nervous Nellie Anderson Cooper's home. Cooper spends the entire party in monitor mode, fearing that "someone will fall and I'll get sued." He even has his assistant videotape the entire party in case there is an incident.  Cooper says two hours later after a work party, he'll "find the makeup department in an upstairs bedroom applying makeup to each other."

I read about half of Gray's book while waiting and it so funny and sweet; it reminds me of Andy Cohen's memoir Most Talkative: they both came up in news organizations, love pop culture and are so entertaining. Gray's personality pops off the page and I honestly laughed out loud many times while sitting there; this is a book I will give to many people. I'll post a full review soon.

Jack Gray talks about  Pigeon in a Crosswalk CBS This Morning's Gayle King (his new best friend)


You can buy it here
My review of Andy Cohen's Most Talkative is here