What sets him apart from other quadruple threats is the subject matter. His stories are raw, in your face, no holds barred, sex, drinking and extreme living – all of it lifted directly from his own life, or so he says. We can’t reference his material here because this is a family column, but his website www.tuckermax.com lays it out. We can’t quote him exactly as he drops the F bomb every few words. Max’s book I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell has been called by the New York Times, on whose bestseller’s list he’s a fixture, “highly entertaining, and thoroughly reprehensible.”
Max skilfully pushes hot topic buttons for bragging rights and to remind us how puritanical we are. Understandably, he’s not too popular in some circles, where his deeply graphic sex stories and anti-female rants cause consternation and protest. His book and the forthcoming movie based on his book have received slash and burn reviews and tales of shouting matches with journalists are nearing legend status.
TM - I just don’t pay attention to fuelling those stories. Sure I drink and hook up but I don’t call it names. Americans are puritans, the PC police. I don’t do drugs, never have and I’m not an alcoholic. I don’t have a drinking problem, I like to drink socially but I don’t keep it in the house and I limit it.
AB - You’re like a dirty F Scott Fitzgerald chronicling a certain time and place.
TM - That’s the best comparison yet. People tell me I’m just like Hunter S. Thompson but I’m not! The man was a raging alcoholic and he wrote about politics. I just don’t drink that much and I don’t care about politics. To me drinking is social, if you’re drinking to bury a feeling or dull pain, that’s’ when there’s a problem.
AB – It’s not often we see a gross out sex comedy romp that uses terms like Gordian knot or Elysian Fields. Your script has some high-toned moments amidst the depravity.
TM - I love a movie that can be smart and stupid at the same time. South Park is smart and stupid. Culture’s been like that for all time. You can be both but the media doesn’t know how to handle it. I’m educated and I keep learning. I read Aristophanes, Euripides, I just re-read The Clouds recently. There is a quote over my bed that reads “Excellence is not an act but a habit.”
AB - A lot of people have great stories but you did something with yours, you actually conceived ways of getting them out there and making a LOT of money for yourself.
TM - That’s right, I’ve sold a million books. Four years my book’s been on the New York Times bestsellers list. I made my own way; my daddy didn’t pave the way for me. 90% of people have great stories. People’s stories are amazing, a cab driver I met recently who was a longshoreman, and he had amazing stories. He didn’t even realise how great they were. My friends have great stories. I was never the one with the best stories, and I was never best with women. But I took a chance and wrote my stories. I had the courage to do it.
Tucker Max will be infamous once his film opens; it is simultaneously hateful and enlightened, rank and witty. It’s an odd crossover that would spell box office poison to most studios. So ever the self starter, Max raised $7M himself to get the film made. And now he’s sitting back waiting for the millions to roll in. He says it himself - "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell will be bigger than ANYONE (except me) is predicting."
