The Perfect Fool
by Martin Perlich

The Perfect Fool is the second of the four novels comprising The Adequacy Quartet. A work of "auto-fiction" that continues the “Gonzo spiritual quest, à la Henry Miller…” of free-floating creative person Mitchell Hertz, wandering/seeking/stumbling into the Reaganized LA world of film, TV and radical politics of the 1980s.

The first novel, The Wild Times (Empty Press 2006, called “The best book about cocaine since Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by famous NY critic SPARROW) ends in 1980 with the murder of Mitch’s young protégé. In The Perfect Fool Mitch tries to become a father to his young actor son Bruno, coordinate his own needs as a writer, single-parent and championship consumer of Industry Drugs.

“Hypomanic, erudite, hedonistic, hilarious, compassionate and warped, innocent sophisticate counter-hero”  — Marvin Treiger, PhD Antioch College

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE PERFECT FOOL

READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH MARTIN PERLICH

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About the author

Martin Perlich: Author – Producer - Broadcaster

The author of the classic work The Art of the Interview (Silman-James Press (2007), writer, producer and distinguished broadcaster Martin Perlich has written screenplays and novels, poetry and documentary films. The Wild Times, the first novel of his Adequacy Quartet, was published by Empty Press in 2006.He has broadcast classical music, jazz and rock and roll, and amassed an unique archive of interviews: from Gore Vidal to John Adams, to Bill Evans. This website offers Podcasts of these archives plus brand new Podcast interviews with international leaders in the arts.  

His historic interview show Martin Perlich Interviews featuring Leonard Bernstein, Frank Zappa, R. Crumb, Pierre Boulez, Tom Waits and hundreds more, was syndicated nationally by WCLV/Seaway productions. The program won the New York International Radio Festival for two consecutive years. A copy of public TV documentary Citizen Artist is in the Smithsonian permanent collection.  

Until leaving innovative LA public radio station KCSN, Martin was Program Director, responsible for all KCSN programming, which was named “Best of LA” by Los Angeles Magazine in 2006. In addition Perlich hosted an acclaimed daily classical and New Music show. He hosted and produced ARF!! (ARTS & ROOTS FORUM) the unique daily live interview series featuring major cultural figures, form Stacy Keach to Terry Riley to Sandra Tzing Loh to avant-garde playwright Murray Mednick, as well as dozens of arts figures: writers, directors, choreographers, and musical figures from Jazz, World music, and of course classical music, with many 21st-century composers – known and unknown.  

Perhaps the most salient aspect in Perlich as interviewer is dimension: his great range, without the usual loss of depth. A man who has followed his heart rather than any career-path as such, he has worked with Leonard Bernstein, Whoopi Goldberg and Ravi Shankar and been honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As an actor he has worked with legendary director Norman Corwin and with Jeff von der Schmidt and Southwest Chamber Music in Samuel Beckett’s Cascando.

Perlich’s early work was in musicology. After studying with distinguished American composer Douglas Moore at Columbia University, he became, at 24, the first Intermission Host of the internationally syndicated Cleveland Orchestra radio broadcasts. Perlich worked closely with Musical Director George Szell as well as providing insightful interviews with Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Isaac Stern and hundreds of others in his seven year stint.  

As the 1960s became a cultural hurricane, Perlich was a pioneer in “experimental radio,” continuing through the '60s into the '70s with interviews for WMMS in Cleveland and KMET in Los Angeles, featuring luminaries of that turbulent period: Jane Fonda, Black members of Panther Party and American Indian Movement, Dick Gregory, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Isaac Asimov, Attica prisoners and eight memorable encounters with Frank Zappa and hundreds of other rock and experimental musicians.  

In 1970, after Martin’s second interview with Leonard Bernstein, the Maestro asked him to head a new production division he was proposing to Columbia Records, which Bernstein invited Perlich to head, overseeing the production of film and video of Bernstein’s conducting projects. In addition Martin would be tasked with finding or writing “a second West Side Story” as well as text for the new Mass that he was composing for the opening of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. When Columbia balked at funding the Leonard Bernstein Division, the Maestro left the label for Deutsche Grammophon for whom he produced a legendary recorded legacy. As Leonard Bernstein left for Vienna, Martin came to L.A.  

In a rare display of versatility Perlich joined the staff of leading West Coast “Progressive Rock” station KMET, where he hosted Electric Tongue, a weekly interview show featuring major rock and arts figures. In 1975 Perlich became Creative Consultant of NBC-TV’s weekly 90-minute “The Midnight Special,” responsible for the acclaimed “Salute” segment, a regular documentary featuring major pop and rock music figures: Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Loretta Lynne and others, in addition to writing, rehearsing and helping edit the history-making network show itself. In 1998 he was honored by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his pioneering contribution to experimental “progressive” radio.  

At PBS’s KCET in Los Angeles and WNET in New York, Perlich developed and produced dramatic, music and documentary programming including: “Citizen Artist,” “Hollywood 90” (live drama), “Singer/Songwriter” (which he hosted) and “Informance,” among other projects. In 1985 he produced the seminar “Shooting for Change,” focusing on socially responsible feature films, with panelists drawn from major studios and leading independent filmmakers. Then he founded Wilton Place Films, and developed (writing and producing) “The Trial of Ramona Africa” with Whoopi Goldberg under the aegis of American Playhouse and Channel 4 in London.  

The father of three, (including the brilliant character actor Max Perlich) Martin has written, produced and directed interactive video with Warner New Media (CD-ROMs: Brahms’ “A German Requiem”; Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana”; and the vast interactive educational project “The Orchestra”); as well as “Taj Mahal: Like Never Before” for Private Music.