Nathan Weathington, Author
1. If money were no object, how would you spend your time?
When the weather is nice and the sun is up, I’d fly fish until my arm fell off. But in the winter, bad weather days, and after the sun goes down, I’d try to make people laugh. I would continue to write comic memoirs, but I’d also like to try fiction, screenplays, and doing a little more standup and acting.
2. What book impacted your life the most and how?
Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea. When I first read this book, I knew I was reading perfection. Like a lot of us, I fantasized about being an expat in a cafe in Paris writing prose that would inspire millions. But I knew I would never write at this level, so I never even attempted to write anything until I was 34. When I finally started writing, it was the complete opposite of the fantasy — I was writing smart-ass horoscopes for a local paper (and loving it even more).
3. Tell us something about you that would surprise most of the people who think they know you.
As part of my MBA, our class did a consulting project in Seoul, South Korea. At 2:00 a.m., and after a few too many bottles of rice wine, I was shoved on the karaoke stage and told to sing. I refused, the DJ silenced the music, and I was told to do something funny. I did my first standup bit, and closed with a horribly inappropriate joke about the most moral girl in our class who happened to be sitting in the front row. This left the crowd slack jawed and laughing hysterically, and I was I hooked on comedy. My future publisher was also in the audience, and several years later I landed a book deal based on my grandpa’s old ‘Chestnut’ joke.