This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast. More of what you
hear weekday afternoons on the Drive. Do You Know? Dave Barry as an
author and humorist, Bulletzer Prize winner, also the inspiration for the TV show
Dave's World. He's written many books, including Lessons from Lucy, The Simple
Joys of an Old Happy Dog, The Starcatcher series for young adults, and
his newest swamp story, Dave It sounds so ominous it is as it takes
place. The swamp in question is the Everglades, which is right next to
Miami, which is where I live. I live in Miami, moved there
in nineteen eighty six from the United States, and it's a strange place.
Miami strange, and the Everglades are strange, and in this book they sort
of come together with I hope comic effect. But anyway, if you've always
looked at Miami as kind of a crazy, dangerous place, this book will
not change your mind. I was driving on the Miami Turnpike doing I guess
a casual lazy eighty eighty five miles an hour and still had people honking at
me. Dave so yes, I'm aware of how strange at least the turnpike
is. Yeah, well, my, my, my theory. When I
first got to Miami, I moved I moved there a long time ago,
in the eighties, And when I first got there, I thought, nobody
here knows the law to drop for driving. Nobody knows. And now now
I know better. Everybody in Miami is driving according to the law of his
or her individual country of origin. Yes, so many many interpretations of what
lane you should be in, how fast you should be going, what a
stop sign might mean, and in Miami that that doesn't mean stop necessarily,
and a yellow light really means you still have a couple of minutes. I
felt like I was driving in Vana circa nineteen fifty nine. Yeah, when
my kids, both my kids, I had to teach them how to drive
in Miami, and in both cases I had to say, there is okay,
there's the laws which you have read about in the book, you know,
for the driver's manual everything, and then there's the way we actually drive.
You really need to be aware that it's not the same thing. Like
sometimes I got a four way stop, you don't necessarily you yield to the
person with the Gun. Dave Barry joining us now. His book is Swamp
Story, and it's about a woman who is trapped deep in the Everglades.
Well, yeah, this it opens with this. There's a woman. She's
out there living with these two guys u one of whom she is the father
of her child, and she wants to get out of there. She's she
got sort of trapped there by these guys. They're trying to make a reality
TV show and and she just wants to no part of them. She's like
one around the every day stumbles across a very valuable thing which a lot of
people are trying to get. And so the story revolves around her efforts to
figure out how to get out of there with that. These guys are trying
to breus. Guys are trying to make their reality TV show by inventing a
monster. And meanwhile there's this thing going on called the Python Challenge, which
is a real thing which the state of Florida. Are you familiar with?
I am, yes, it's horrifying if you ask me. Like these giant
Burmese pythons all over the place in South Florida, and they're not supposed to
be They're supposed to be in Burma wherever that is. But there, you
know, they got. What happened is people had these things as pets and
then they ran out of crack and realized they were living with the Burmese python.
Let them go and they love it. Oh Miami, They're like New
York. They thrived. So anyway, all of these things come together,
the Woman, the Treasure, the reality TV show, the Python Challenge,
a bunch of other things, and it's sort of a mad cap are of
a book. Um, but entertaining, I hope, oh, very entertaining.
It sounds as though ended up you're not You're no stranger to entertainment.
I'm wondering what took you so long to come up with a story like this.
Well, it's one of these percolated in my brain for a while.
There's this, Uh, there's this place out in the middle of the Everglades
called the skunk Ape Research Headquarters, which is like it's really just a sketchy
roadside tourist attraction, like there used to be lots more of in Florida,
And basically the skunk Ape is this imaginary well not they found a maginary.
It's like big Foot. Yeah, it's alaim to have seen it, and
and there are pictures of it, but they're never they're always out of focus.
Yeah, I don't know. And and anyway, so it's like the
skunk ape is this thing that people, these guys are selling t shirts for
the skunk and so anyway, that gave me an idea, like I'd like
to have, you know, some guys try to create one of those.
And so the reality TV guys came up with the idea, We're going to
invent our own version of the skunk ape and big on on TikTok, and
it gets it gets completely out of control. TikTok has plays a big role
in the book, TikTok being this uh app invented by the Chinese to keep
everybody in America from ever doing anything productive. Ever. Again, no kidding's
over there. They're making things, you know, and we're over You're going,
hey, look at this picture lad in this video of this cat.
Look at hey whoa, look at people doing this dance. Look at this
person making a tennis racket out of mayonnaise. You never know where you're going
to find on on on TikTok, but you start looking at it and the
next thing, you know, it's the following day and you're still you know,
swiping through it. Amen. Brother, Speaking of a reality television Dave
berries with us, and the name of the book is Swamp Story. Reality
television seems to have been, at least and as far as the television executives
are concerned, the best thing to ever happened to them. They have all
this content, nobody has to write anything. Yeah. And the other thing
about reality television is just the most unreal television. Yeah, you know,
you watch it, you know that isn't really that didn't really happen that way,
you know, you know that they my my daughter's favorite show is The
House Real Housewives of whatever, which she likes to hate watch. But I
don't know if you've ever watched that show. But it's just like not through,
not through and through. No, well it's hard on hard on the
eyes. But anyway, you know, they just non these non real situations
after non real situation and contrived drama after contrived drama, and that's you know,
that's reality television. Well, no wonder the writers are striking. Hey,
wait a minute, we're supposed to be writing that stuff, not you
Yeah, isn't that though? How reality television sort of got started though,
there was a writer strike I think back in two thousand and seven something like
that, and they said, Okay, we don't need writers. We can
just get people to come here and be stupid without you be idiotic, without
anybody writing it for them. They you know, and it seems to have
worked pretty well. Swamp Story is the name of the new book that was
written by Dave Barry, and it's available everywhere you get books. Do you
painstakingly outline your novels or you just kind of let them collide with your life.
It's sort of a combination. I do like to have an idea how
it's supposed to end, because otherwise you end up just sort of forever trapped
in it. But so there's a little bit outlining, but not too much.
I think it's kind of part of the fun or writing a book is
figuring out, you know, as it's happening, what are they going to
do next? And sometimes the characters sort of take over on their own and
do things you're not really sure that you would have thought of on your own.
Yet you're the one writing it, so clearly you did. But yeah,
some outlining, but mostly trying to just let it happen. And in
the mind of Dave Barry, I imagine taking on their life of their own
is a is a wonderful romp Swamp story is the name of the book.
Dave Barry is the writer and he's joined us. Thank you so much for
the story and for joining us today. Thanks for having me on, appreciate
it. Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,
and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven
and iHeart Media Presentation