Otherwise known as Merle Kessler, Ian is a member of
Ducks Breath Mystery Theater. He is also a humor columnist and commentator with appearances on
NPR,
PBS,
ABC,
Salon.com, The Nose (now defunct), among others. He has written three books and appears on many of the Duck's Breath CDs. Known for a dry wit and making bizarre connections as well as for his rapid delivery, Ian does social commentary up in style with just enough truth involved to make it stick.
His articles cover everything from spam (the lunch meat) to ACLU fund raising letters to censorship. Imagine Dave Barry but much more acerbic and faster.
An example of his style would be "Ad Hoc: Committee which issues a report repressing the truth it was assembled to reveal" or "when the previews for Starship Troopers began showing in theaters last summer, I felt vague stirrings of that most dread of emotions -- nostalgia."
His first book was called I Gotta Go, which was his sign off line as well. It was a collection of his articles. This was followed by the truly bizarre and wonderful novel Ian Shoales' Perfect World which takes you "from the new age party scene to a North Dakota theme park". His most recent is another collection of essays interspersed with odd bits called Not Wet Yet.