Canucks book Yuk Yuks deal

Volumes to publish jokes, focus on specific topics

By JOHN DEMPSEY

NEW YORK -- The Yuk Yuks chain of comedy clubs in Canada -- which helped launch the careers of Jim Carrey and Howie Mandel -- is plastering its jokes between the covers of three paperback books.

Sanjay Burman, head of Burman Films, who engineered the publishing deal, said one of the goals of the joke books is to help promote the brand of Yuk Yuks.

"Each of the three books will focus on a specific topic, like mothers-in-law, relationships, bad drivers, or dogs," said Jack David, president of ECW Press, the Toronto-based publisher of the three volumes, which plans to distribute them throughout the U.S. and Canada.

David said the file drawers of the Yuk Yuks clubs are groaning under the weight of thousands of jokes accumulated since the first club opened 25 years ago.

Editors are now plowing through the cache of jokes to separate them into categories. David said the earliest of the books will hit the stores is fall of 2003. ECW will publish all three at the same time, at a retail price of $13.95 apiece.

To avoid the monotony of page after page of black-lettered text, he said that ECW plans to hire an illustrator to lighten the burden.

Mark Breslin, who founded Yuk Yuks and still runs the operation, will be listed as editor of the books.