please welcome dave barry and alan zweibel. [applause] >> thank you. >> thank you for the fairly lengthy introduction. those are going to go first. i am dave. first of all, we're thrilled to be here at the commonwealth club. i want to tell you a little bit about myself. i live in miami. i moved there in 1986 from the united states. [laughter] one of the things i always feel like i should do is to defend my city because it had a bad reputation, a bad image. the zogby does this organization -- and does this poll were they asked people about different cities. many respondents thought miami was a dangerous and violent place. that hurts. when we see that, we want to attract those people down and kill them. [laughter] it is a wonderful city, it really is. it is a question of learning to adapt to the local culture. for example, you would never say out loud in miami, i do not know, i think you have to admit that castro has done some good for cuba. [laughter] anyway, what ever you have heard, disregard. it is a great town. we have a new

when i was in high school, my cousin gave me one of your books, "dave barry talks back." i have not read anything like it before. i was on my couch laughing out loud. i went to college couple of years later and said i wanted to try this. i was at usc. i wrote a weekly humor column in a similar style to yours. i ended up writing 100 of these every week, every night. >> and you are homeless now. >> sincerely, it was one of the most rewarding experiences i had done, so thank you for that. >> is that the statement or the question? >> the statement. >> he is so much more a fan of mine and yours. if anybody has any questions about deli, i am here for you. sliced meat? i am here for you. hitler, bin laden, and this kid. i hate him. >> you're right about that head comment. >> and you are standing pretty far away. [laughter] >> in transitioning from writing your short for humor to yearlong for narrative, what was the biggest challenge? >> being brave enough to try it. i was in my 40 pause before i even tried to write a novel. i said i did not know how to do it. if you read a lot,

dave i want to start with you, this issing if to set the sports world on its ear or not? >> no, it will. pieces of think people are starting to publish now about how the sports world is preparing itself for something like this happening. there are rumors that they're a team of athletes that are going to announce at the same time. so no one would be the jackie robinson, that didn't really happen. we have, we have somebody who is going to literally the face of this. with this interview. who also has at least one political connection. he credits congressman joe kennedy iii who went to stanford with him as one of the reasons he came out. he said kennedy marched in the gay pride parade. he saw that, heard about that and he wondered why he wasn't making this own choice in his life. >> he's got good political connections, the president clinton came out with his own statement because of the fact that chelsea was a classmate and friend from stanford. chelsea clinton has come out saying that i am very proud of my friend, jason collins for having the strength and courage to become t