whoopee

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is listening to Louis Armstrong singing “Makin’ Whoopee” on her phone as I slide into a booth at a Telluride hotel restaurant.

Longley says that when he finishes a poem he celebrates with a dance - "whoopee, whoopee" - before calling his wife Edna to cast her critical gaze over his work for a bit of constructive feedback, adding: "Nine times out of 10 they're good suggestions."

It's a cringe-comedy cornucopia, overflowing with whoopee cushions, ghost tours gone wrong, sloppy steaks and Little Buff Boys.

“The Immaculate Reception? Tasteless? I pondered the matter for 15 seconds and cried out ‘Whoopee!’

Hardly any of the characters — including, most inexcusably, the Devil herself — feel fleshed out, and the conflicts tend to sputter out with all the drama of a sat-upon whoopee cushion.