Interview with Tucker Max

Girls want to sleep with him and guys want to be him: Tucker Max.

Sitting at an empty bar at 7 p.m. on Wednesday proved a stark contrast to what awaited next door at the Tattered Cover, where a plethora of over-eager fans awaited to meet the man himself. Upon entering the bookstore one immediately noticed the walls covered in Max’s two books (“I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell” and “Assholes Finish First”), along with signs directing fans to the second floor where the book signing was to take place. Those who may have gotten lost along the way only had to look for the line leading up to the signing table, which stretched for over 100 feet.

After releasing his new book “Assholes Finish First,” fans responded enthusiastically. Waiting in line for mere minutes—before meeting Max at a next-door bar—the chatter hummed about how “Tucker Max is the fucking man,” and “do you think my boyfriend cares if I sleep with him?” Such was the general consensus among college and high school students alike.

“[The] second book is basically the same,” Max said. “I’m not going to fix something that’s not broken.”

Altogether, “Assholes Finish First” has a similar format to the first book, new levels of (drunken) debauchery and as an added bonus: additional perspectives of several stories from people who were there.

“The Tuckerfest stories are pretty funny,” Max said in response to what his favorite story or experience was. “When I think about that, I’m like ‘Dude, how did we not die?’ Nils, I and Soylent will sit down and be like ‘What were we thinking?’”

One of the messages Max explicitly states is that his stories are a form of entertainment, not meant to brag or create hero worship, according to quotes in his book. To solidify this point, Max dedicates a whole section titled “Everybody Fails” to illustrate his most memorable failures.

“The first thing you should take away [from my stories] is that they’re funny, they’re entertaining,” Max said. “You should close the book having laughed a lot and having a great read. There are other things about following the path you want—not the one you’re supposed to follow—and living your life for yourself; that’s all there but I’m not really hammering that home. It’s who I am and you can see it if you want to see it.”

After turning his first book, “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell,” into a movie, Max said it brought to his attention that there were different perspectives to be noticed, not only his.

“The big thing it made me realize was how people saw my book,” Max said. “I saw my book the way I saw it. The movie is everything around me, and so after the movie came out, a lot of people didn’t like it because the movie wasn’t the same as the book.”

Max continued by explaining the experience associated with making a movie would deter him from doing so again.

“I hate Hollywood,” Max said. “Someone asked me the other day ‘Would you do it again?’ and I looked at them sincerely and said ‘If you gave me an option of: deal with Hollywood again for a year, or spend a year in prison, I would take a year in prison.’  Because when they come to rape you in prison, you have a fighting chance. And in Hollywood you don’t. The two years I was doing the movie I hated it so much—I’m so happy it’s over.”

In the midst of a national book tour, Max is traveling from coast to coast meeting fans, signing books and making more stories to add to his collection (which will be presented in his next book).

“My next book is called, “Hilarity Ensues,” and it’ll come out this time next year,” Max said. “It will be basically the same stuff. I might have enough material for a fourth book, but we’ll see.”

Contact CU Independent Managing Editor Adrian Kun at Adrian.kun@colorado.edu.