Comedian Ritch Shydner is one of America's funniest and most enduring stand-up comics, a wry observer of life around him and a survivor of the 1980s comedy boom.

Besides becoming a comic's comic over the decades, he has starred on television's "Married With Children" and won awards for his writing as a member of the "Roseanne" staff.

The book's introduction is by Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

Dozens of photos and index

In "Kicking Through the Ashes," Shydner collects all of his 1980s life experiences -- the good, the bad, and El Brookman's --...