DC Pierson - The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To

I take pride in the fact that I was the first of my friends to find out about Derrick Comedy. Bro Rape, Keyboard Kid, Opposite Day…these were all hits, and we’d play them every week as I made the trip from the South Loop where my dorm was to Lincoln Park to drink wine and play Wii with them nearly every weekend. We anticipated new shorts and would see who could post them to the others’ Facebook walls first. Since that semester, we’ve see the guys develop an enormous fanbase, culminating in a feature film that we all watched at the Music Box Theater (the first and only time I’ve been to that theater). Donald Glover has gone on to achieve eternal relevancy, first through his hip-hop outlet Childish Gambino, then writing for 30 Rock, starring in Community and the ultimate form of immortality: being “criticized” on Hipster Runoff.

The other two guys have managed to keep a lower key. I often see tweets of theirs plugging comedy shows at UCB theaters and various other places around New York and LA. Whereas Glover’s success may appear to be the endgame for anyone who starts an independent web series, Dominic Dierkes and DC Pierson have gone the more typical route, and having remained out of the spotlight, can latch on to more experimental paths. To start a rap career, Donald rapped over a bunch of Sufjan Stevens jams, which expanded to other indie bands and eventually original material. The impetus may have been a three AM falling asleep half-thought or originally just a joke. But it developed. Conversely, Pierson lets us know why he wrote this book: Eliza Skinner told him to on the N train one day.

Knowing Pierson’s background in absurdist and intelligent comedy, it was hard to exactly know what to expect from this novel (his first) that on the back cover announces its describing the ‘typical high school experience.’ The title was sort of dumb and the writing started off supporting that assessment. High school kid hates popular kids in high school and feeling underappreciated for the phenomenal human being that they are. Yes, I guess that is the ‘typical high school experience,’ something that anybody who would even know who DC Pierson is already went through. Why do we want to go through it again?

As it turns out, it gets much, much better from there. The main character, Darren, soon meets our title character, Eric, who as we start to gather, never sleeps. Ever. And he never feels tired. He reveals his secret to Darren who is in disbelief, wondering how why how? He asks the same questions you would be asking: how does he not get tired? Doesn’t he have a subconscious? Naturally, this is a fiction novel, not science fiction, and Pierson isn’t concerned about scientific accuracy as much as simply suspending your belief in objective reality enough to enjoy the story. It starts out simple enough, they hangout, realize they have a lot in common, create an entire cultural empire surrounding a science fiction movie plot (drawings included)…until a girl gets involved (oh shit!). Yes, soon Darren, the more ‘normal’ of the two is getting it on semi-regularly and starts to ignore Eric. And when Darren’s inevitable awkwardness fucks things up with her (Christine), she runs to Eric and the two of them (you guessed it) eventually get together. It was a bit predictable, but Pierson runs with it in a great way. Darren gets so frustratingly heartbroken and even Eric warps out of character, threatening violence and sending Darren pics of himself and Christine. What a dick, right? Really does make you glad you’re not in high school anymore.

And yet, I feel like that is the primary targeted readership: high schoolers. Not to slight the book. On the contrary. For the kids that need something more contemporary than Catcher in the Rye or feel The Perks of Being a Wallflower too ‘emo,’ Pierson offers a voice that deals with the issues that he himself is not too removed from (popularity, puberty, social media, overactive imagination) without being condescending. Naturally, the Internet plays a big role, from email to porn to Namespot (why reference Garageband and not Facebook?). The book was a breeze too; easily manageable to finish in one day if you have the time. It’s engaging albeit with simple language, but hey, it’s supposed to be from the point of view of a sixteen year old. Oh yeah, plus Eric goes on these wild hallucinations and eventually manifests his thoughts into existence. And did I mention he never sleeps? Yeah, some cool shit happens.