"Comedy is the rock and roll of the Eighties!" proclaims Rolling Stone, and right away Rex Black-who owns New York's hottest comedy club, the Gag Reflex-realizes the zeitgeist is going to make him rich: Records! TV! Movies! A national chain! Selling stock!

And indeed it rockets Rex on a wonderful trip, along with his wife Perri, A&R Joey, club booker Ashley, club manager Conor and, as his own assistant, Conor's partner Frank. Wall Street titan Siggy Brewster will handle the IPO. Circling them all, desperate for her break, her fin hardly breaking the water, is comedian Rosetta Stone.

Fast, funny and heartfelt, Good People draws on the author's 1980s experience working for the original Catch a Rising Star at its peak to sum up an era of triumphs and trainwrecks.