The Legend Of Wild Man Fischer
by Dennis P Eichhorn & JR Williams

Mentally ill-arious?

Recently, Larry ‘Wild Man’ Fischer, the central figure of Josh Rubin’s Derailroaded documentary, has become almost as much of a cult celebrity as when he first surfaced on Laugh-In and as a Frank Zappa protégé in 1968. This authorised, but very short, tie-in consists of cartoons and, to a lesser degree, chatty and overtly subjective text. There are also essays by Rubin, James Pierron (operator of Fischer’s web-site) and Irwin Chusid, author of Songs In The Key Of Z: The Curious Universe Of Outsider Music, in which the Wild Man warrants an entire chapter to himself.

If Chusid’s book is a more straightforward, fact-based account, those who prefer looking at pictures to reading words will find The Legend Of Wild Man Fischer far more soothing. There does, however, seem to be an element of morbid inquisitiveness, even voyeurism, in studying the paranoid schizophrenic. In struggling to scale the heights of his aspirations, Fischer entertains the majority of his consumers through glimpses of unconscious comedy.

3 stars 3 stars 3 stars

ISBN 1891830619

Reviewed by Alan Clayson
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