Random

By: Penn Jillette

Narrated by: Penn Jillette

Two weeks before his twenty-first birthday, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out he’s inherited a crushing gambling debt from his scumbag father. The debt is owed to an even scummier bag named Fraser Ruphart who oversees his bottom-rung criminal empire from the classy-adjacent Trump International Hotel. Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which comes due the day he turns twenty-one, are about as dim as the sign on the tower’s façade.

The two weeks pass in the blink of a (snake) eye, but before Bobby’s luck runs out, he stumbles upon enough cash to pay Ruphart off and change his family’s fortune. More importantly, he finds himself with a new, for lack of a better word, faith.

Bobby does not consign his big break to a “higher power"—what Penn Jillette hero ever could? Instead, he devises and devotes himself to Random, a philosophy where his life choices are based entirely on the roll of his “lucky” dice. What follows is a hilarious exploration into not so much what defines us as what divines us when we give over every decision—from what to eat to whom to marry to how or when to die—to the random fall of two numbered cubes.

Combining the intellectual curiosity of Richard Dawkins with the humor and grit of an Elmore Leonard antihero, Jillette’s up-on-his-luck Ingersoll is the character we need to help us navigate the chaos of the post-truth era.

Well, unless his roll runs cold.

©2022 Penn Jillette (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

I rolled a seven so now I’m writing this

Penn is most like himself and I’d like to be more like that. Robert Ingersoll is a incredible combination of the most incredible people. The story is fun fast and wild I love it. I’ll continue to relisten to this often.

Great story, Fun ride!

I’m a big fan of Penn and I love his story telling and wit. Can’t wait until the next form of entertainment. Thanks Penn

Teens will like this story. Rest of you Mmmm

Penn has always been entertaining. Even on the radio with Alex Bennett hilarious. Not so much this story. It has a good premise and enough of crazy. No body except maybe the kiddies would be entertained by the stupid sex talk. Maybe he's frustrated having to be Mr Clean in his shows. If he finally gets on with the story about half way through trying to prove Las Vegas is crazy the concept of random is a good premise and could have been a lot of fun. He needed the guy from two and a half men to read the story and it would have been a great series. Oh well nice start. Loved his bringing his Vegas buddies into the story. He needed a bottle of Mazola in the group grope scene.

Penn is insane & wonderful

My feelings on this book are almost as random as the story. I don’t want to spoil anything, so instead I’ll just list things I liked. The only thing I wish is that it was longer, but a side result of its length is that it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

I liked:

1. If you read or watch a lot of Penn’s material, this book is a clever distillation of a lot of his philosophical ideas from over the years. Not the plot itself, but the sidebars and tangents. In those tangents are real wisdom and they don’t even try to act like fiction.
2. The plot itself is incredibly unique. Let’s be real, Penn could write his grocery list and I’d buy it and read it, because I’m a huge fan of his work, but… when I read the summary, I had no idea how he would pull it off. Somehow he did. It’s cohesive and makes sense.
3. Penn’s narration is wonderful. Dude has made a living being loud and obnoxious for almost 50 years, of course his reading of his book will be top notch.
4. The book is… really, really uncensored and sexy and weird. I wonder how many of the anecdotes in the book come from Penn’s personal life. There’s even some gross out stuff, which is cool.
5. Lastly, the book is funny. Laugh out loud funny. Often in unexpected places. It’s just an extension of how weird the premise is.

I loved it. I don’t know if you’ll love it, because we’re all different and that’s ok, but speaking for myself I thought it was killer.

Great Fun!

If I had to give some constructive criticism for this book I would say it was too damn short. I hope Penn jillette lives a long time and writes many more books.