The jokes are easy. This party—a book launch held in a funeral home—had people dying to get in. It was a real killer. It brought guests to death's door.
It was also pretty fun, and the venue was an apt choice to launch a book called The Joy of Funerals, a "darkly comic novel about funerals, sex, and loss," according to a jacket blurb. In many ways the party felt like a memorial service: a harpist played and four people read selections from the book from behind a casket. But most funerals don't have guests nibbling on hors d'oeuvres and sipping Taittinger champagne.
The venue also had a pedigree: The Frank E. Campbell funeral home is an Upper East Side institution that has handled services for everyone from Jacqueline Onassis and Judy Garland to Aaliyah and the Notorious B.I.G.
While LaForce & Stevens handled the PR, author Alix Strauss did much of the event planning work herself. She called to ask companies like Calvin Klein and Rimmel to donate products for the gift bag, and stuffed the sacks in her apartment the week before the party. Billed as a "funeral survival kit," the bag contained an assortment of mourning-appropriate gear: sunglasses, tissues, eyedrops, waterproof mascara, a scented candle, and even a piece of marble from a headstone company. A small bottle of Turi vodka came with a drink recipe from B. R. Guest restaurants for the "ObiTURIary," with ingredients like "cran-bury" juice and "com-passion" fruit puree.
—Chad Kaydo
It was also pretty fun, and the venue was an apt choice to launch a book called The Joy of Funerals, a "darkly comic novel about funerals, sex, and loss," according to a jacket blurb. In many ways the party felt like a memorial service: a harpist played and four people read selections from the book from behind a casket. But most funerals don't have guests nibbling on hors d'oeuvres and sipping Taittinger champagne.
The venue also had a pedigree: The Frank E. Campbell funeral home is an Upper East Side institution that has handled services for everyone from Jacqueline Onassis and Judy Garland to Aaliyah and the Notorious B.I.G.
While LaForce & Stevens handled the PR, author Alix Strauss did much of the event planning work herself. She called to ask companies like Calvin Klein and Rimmel to donate products for the gift bag, and stuffed the sacks in her apartment the week before the party. Billed as a "funeral survival kit," the bag contained an assortment of mourning-appropriate gear: sunglasses, tissues, eyedrops, waterproof mascara, a scented candle, and even a piece of marble from a headstone company. A small bottle of Turi vodka came with a drink recipe from B. R. Guest restaurants for the "ObiTURIary," with ingredients like "cran-bury" juice and "com-passion" fruit puree.
—Chad Kaydo