Jack Handey - Recent Life

Recent Life

Jack Handey currently lives with his wife, Marta Chavez Handey, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Previously, the Handeys had lived in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.

Several short humor pieces of his have appeared in The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs" section: "What I'd Say to the Martians," in the issue of August 8 & 15, 2005; "This Is No Game," in the issue of January 9, 2006; "Ideas for Paintings," in the issue of March 20, 2006; "My First Day In Hell", in the issue of October 30, 2006; "My Nature Documentary", in the issue of July 2, 2007; "How Things Even Out", in the issue of March 3, 2008, "How I Want To Be Remembered," in the issue of March 31, 2008, "The Symbols on My Flag (And What They Mean)" in the issue of May 19, 2008 and "The Plan" in the issue of November 24, 2008. Handey has written and performed segments on the radio program Studio 360.

In early April, 2008, Handey published his first collection of magazine humor pieces, What I'd Say to the Martians and Other Veiled Threats. An example of a "deep thought" contained therein is: "I'd like to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather....not screaming in terror like the passengers on his bus" (attributed elsewhere to British comedian Bob Monkhouse). The Associated Press critic Jake Coyle wrote, "With absurdist musings such as these, Handey has established himself as the strangest of birds: a famous comedian whose platform is not the stage or screen, but the page."

After four quiet years, Handey's piece "Alexander the Great" appeared in the March 12, 2012 issue of the New Yorker.