Comedy Bang Bang: Bonus Bang – "This Book Changed My Life" Ep 21

Guests: Lily Sullivan (host), Andy Daly (as Dean Firehouse), Ben Rodgers (as Augie Silverado)
Original Release: August 21, 2025
Book Discussed: Perseverance by Preston Luke Wheeler

Episode Overview

In this special re-release, Comedy Bang Bang presents an episode from Lily Sullivan’s spin-off series, This Book Changed My Life. The show adopts a “book club with comedians” format, wherein Lily and her guests (often playing eccentric characters) dissect a life-changing book—this week, the absurdist “adventure” epic Perseverance by Preston Luke Wheeler.

Lily is joined by returning guests:

• Dean Firehouse (Andy Daly), an obsessive cleaner and furniture-phobe with a past as an "auditor" and shady government agent
• Augie Silverado (Ben Rodgers), a recently exonerated former prisoner and pickleball enthusiast

Together, they lampoon literary conventions, weave in-site backstory, and spiral into wild comedic tangents—all filtered through their characters’ bizarre perspectives.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introducing the Panel & Their Backstories

[03:17–12:00]

• Lily’s Vegas Monologue: The episode opens with Lily reading a satirical, noirish monologue about a tumultuous trip to Vegas, which sets the irreverent tone.
• Dean’s Furniture-Free Lifestyle: The story of Dean and Lily meeting at a Best Buy, and Dean’s three-week odyssey “testing” vacuums before buying a refurbished Hoover online.
  • “I advertise my house that way. I give tours… an empty house with no furniture.” – Dean [08:21]
  • He issues Yelp reviews for visitors, at times “holding them in the basement” until they post.
• Augie’s Prison and Pickleball Background:
  • Augie describes his pickleball dominance over the elderly, his transition from “state prison,” and a longstanding friendship (and window-peeping ritual) with Dean.
  • “I'm a bit of a packrat now that I'm outside. I get jealous at the sparseness of [Dean’s] house.” – Augie [27:15]
• Absurd Careers:
  • Dean’s failed career as an IRS “auditor,” an agent charged with “cruelty to animals,” and dog treat-maker.
  • Augie eating Dean’s human-grade (but not really) dog treats in prison.

2. Deep Dive: Perseverance, Quasi-Adventure Epic

[12:52–62:00]

• Premise: The group dissects the “true story” of Byron Will Drown’s doomed 1920s expedition on the ship Perseverance, which could magically transform from ship to submarine to land rover to airplane.

  • “He had developed it for the British military… the prophetically named Byron Will Drown.” – Dean [16:08]
  • Spoiler: Byron Will Drown, in fact, drowns (but not until later—and not at sea).

• Adventure Book Tropes and Satire:

  • Lily admits she’s never read an “adventure” book before.
  • “I am at the point now where I wouldn't mind reading an adventure book where we set sail and accomplished what we set out to accomplish, and everyone came back alive.” – Dean [13:44]
  • They riff on the machismo and relentless tragedy of the genre, wishing for a boring, triumphant expedition.

• Absurd Plot Elements:

  • The Perseverance’s journey encompasses the deep sea, Antarctica, and a pivot into the desert, ultimately leading to a crash landing at Dulles airport in the 1960s.
  • “They just managed to, you know, essentially build shelter out of just sand. And that's how adobe was invented.” – Lily [46:28–46:44]
  • Group muses on crew members being mostly journalists, inventors of the coloring book (proto-Fox News), and a half-mad comic book artist.

3. Comic Recaps of Absurd Book Scenes

[22:36–47:38]

• Billionaire Retreat & Kumbaya Moment:

  • Byron attends a billionaire’s 1920s retreat—“communal living, way ahead of its time”—where “millionaires and billionaires play guitars and bongos.” [23:04]

• Greenland Expedition:

  • Byron’s ill-fated detour to Greenland is derided in the press as “Will Drown’s Folly,” pushing him into ill-advised stunts.

• Descent into Madness:

  • Favorite episode moments include the crew playing “solitaire with their own frozen fingers as cards.” [43:45]
  • “How do you play solitaire with three fingers worth of cards? I don't know. And these are some of the mysteries that haunt us about the perseverance.” – Augie [44:00]

• Desert Engineering & “Inventions”:

  • They riff on the ship transforming into a land vehicle and take credit for inventing adobe and multi-story sandcastles with elevators.
  • “Elevators, which I wasn’t even sure,” Augie marvels. [47:06]

4. Tangents, Satire, and Running Gags

Throughout

• Dog Treats and Prison Cuisine:

  • Dean’s “dog treats” made from odds-and-ends, sometimes including “pieces of cloth” as “good luck charms,” delighted (and confused) prisoners.

• Conspiracy Theories:

  • Paranoia about Roombas and government spying.
    • “It’s a goddamn robot that learns your house!” – Dean [48:32]
  • Connections to historical events: “They landed at Dulles Airport, 1962, the whole world is getting ready for the assassination of John F. Kennedy…” – Dean [53:57]

• Absurd Family & Character Histories:

  • Augie and Dean trade stories about scandalous family pasts, “cruelty to animals” government offices, and attempts at 23andMe reunions (with existing family).

• Book Reviews and Spin-offs:

  • Fox News, originally a 1920s coloring book, dislikes the book because it “traces back to some of their lineage.”
  • “I thought they would have loved this book because it traces back to some of their lineage, their roots." – Lily [66:35]

5. Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Byron’s Fate:

  • “The irony that Byron Will Drown didn’t drown on the ship, but instead drowned in a toilet in the Dulles airport.” – Lily [63:50]
  • “Q Alanis Morissette, right?” – Augie [64:00]

• On the Book’s Effect:

  • “This book… saved my life. You know, I'm inside and I'm getting depressed… the books they got inside are wizard books.” – Augie [44:21]

• On Coloring Books in Prison:

  • “You'll meet some really scary fellows inside who will demand that you color coloring book one specific way… you color a doctor’s coat purple, you’re losing an eyeball, my friend.” – Augie [30:47]

• On Hosting Empty House Tours:

  • “Half of my Yelp reviews are this was not a firehouse. The other half are: ‘Why the hell did I do this?’” – Dean [08:43]

• On Adventure Book Clichés:

  • “Sometimes you’re rooting for somebody to die in one of these books, you know?” – Dean [33:27]

6. Spoiler Section & Book Reception

[51:13–67:14]

• Spoiler Recap:
  • Perseverance’s crew survives desert life, transforms their vehicle into an airplane, and crash-lands in Dallas/Fort Worth.
  • Due to their hairlessness and powdered appearance (“smooth like Powder [the movie]” [56:58]), they're mistaken for aliens.
  • Byron Will Drown is accidentally drowned during an attempted baptism (or possible alien exorcism) in an airport toilet.
• Book's Public Reception:
  • Praised on Goodreads, but loathed by Fox News due to "revealing" their dubious origins.
  • Augie: “And, you know, you think of your own family… I'm not too proud of some of my ancestors.” [66:44]

7. What Are You Reading Next?

[69:05–72:47]

• Augie: “A very interesting detective book… about this guy. He’s a dog… He was too ruff.” [69:31–70:11]
• Dean: “A what-if book about what if the Hindenburg had blown up on departure… instead of, ‘Oh, the humanity,’ it’s exclamations in German.” [70:38–71:13]
• Lily: “A really great book… about phone chargers and the history… What came first, the phone or the phone charger? That’s what’s so interesting: the phone charger.” [72:02–72:16]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:17] – Lily’s Vegas monologue and introduction to “Perseverance”
• [06:09–08:55] – Dean’s furniture aversion and house tours
• [12:52] – The book's premise and genre satire
• [18:11] – Augie joins; pickleball and prison reminiscence
• [22:36] – Favorite book moments: Kumbaya billionaires, Greenland expedition
• [43:23] – Playing “solitaire” with frozen fingers
• [46:28–47:34] – Desert phase; accidental invention of adobe
• [51:13] – Spoiler section: Dulles airport, mistaken aliens, and Byron’s (toilet) drowning
• [66:02] – Book’s public reception and Fox News’s history
• [69:18] – What are you reading next?

Tone and Style

The episode’s tone is anarchic, playful, and rich with improv character work. The guests riff on each other’s stories, expand on ridiculous premises (from “auditing” a podcast class, to involuntary empty house tours, to inventing adobe in the desert), and maintain a deadpan seriousness that heightens the absurdity.

Quips like “You audit a college class by just going in for free and sitting there and not getting a grade” (Dean, [35:15]) or “It just gets in the way of straightening up” (Dean, [08:08]) capture the show’s surreal, character-driven humor.

Summary

This episode delivers a perfect distillation of “This Book Changed My Life’s” winning formula: the collision of improv comedy, literary parody, and plausible-sounding nonsense. The guests, through their characters, create a shade-mocking pastiche of book club earnestness, satirical backstories, and impossible tales of adventure. If you missed the original paywalled release, this reissued “Bonus Bang” proves a comic highlight for fans of both hilarious literature and increasingly unhinged character banter.

Memorable Closing:
“I hope you go to the bottom of the sea and to the desert and up into the mountains, and I hope you find the book that changes your life.”
– Lily Sullivan [74:16]

More:

• Hear more "This Book Changed My Life" at CBBWorld.com
• Lily Sullivan: @LILYLY
• Action Boys (Ben Rodgers), Andy Daly on Patreon